This is a pro Trans-Texas Corridor ping list.
Please let me know by Freepmail if you want on or off the list.
Posted on 08/26/2005 3:22:30 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
A company was selected Thursday to develop a system so that motorists can pay their way on Trans-Texas Corridor toll roads without stopping at a booth.
Meeting in Austin, the Texas Transportation Commission selected Raytheon Co. as the prime contractor for the system. The first leg of Trans-Texas is a planned toll road that would be an alternative to Interstate 35 from Dallas-Fort Worth to San Antonio. Construction is expected to be under way by 2007 and be completed by 2015.
Eventually, toll roads, rail lines and utilities would crisscross the state, according to Gov. Rick Perry's vision of Trans-Texas. The type of toll collection system is still on the drawing board. But in general, state officials envision a system that gives motorists choices to pay their tolls. Motorists who have TollTags, which are commonly used on Dallas-area toll roads, might still be able to use their windshield-mounted transponders on Trans-Texas.
Drivers without TollTags or similar devices might be mailed a bill after their vehicle is identified by its license plate. Raytheon has built electronic toll collection systems around the world, including the all-electronic 407-ETR highway in Toronto.
I-69 appears tied to U.S. 59 route
By BRENDA ALLUMS
news1@kilgorenewsherald.com
TYLER -- The exact location of I-69 will ultimately be decided by local citizens.
Judge Robert Eckels, a member of the I-69 Coalition, was one of the panelists during a transportation summit sponsored by East Texas Council of Governments (ETCOG) and the East Texas Rural Transit District recently.
“We are currently held hostage by the west coast ports,” Eckels said. “We need access from the port of Houston to supply the central U.S. and Canada.”
Eckels said it makes sense that the most cost-effective sections that will allow early implementation of I-69 be constructed first.
This is where the Right Corner I-69 Alliance comes in .
“This is a collaborative effort of representatives of the governing bodies of East Texas through which the west leg of I-69 will pass,” Eckels said.
The proposed 1-69 corridor includes five East Texas counties including Panola, Harrison, Jefferson, Cass and Bowie. If built along the current corridor, it will essentially follow US 59 to from Houston to Texarkana.
A rumor has been circulating that the I-69 corridor in these five counties would be moved further west to encompass parts of Gregg and posibly Smith counties.
“This is a rumor,” County Judge Bill Stoudt said. “All of us on the I-69 Alliance are committed to the program and to the original site.”
“Representatives of these counties recognize that it will be advantageous to their communities to have this major transportation artery pass through or very near their communities,” he said.
Eckels said representatives of these communities also “believe that expedient and cost-effective implementation of this trade route will be advantageous to the region, the nation and the three countries that are partners in NAFTA. -- the U.S., Mexico and Canada.”
Eckels explained I-69 is a 1,600-mile national highways connecting Mexico, the U.S. and Canada. Eight states including Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas are involved in the project.
Three national studies conducted between 1995 and 2000 confirmed the feasibility of the project and laid the groundwork for planning efforts at state and regional levels.
“Once completed, I-69 will extend from Port Huron, Mich., to the Texas/Mexico border,” Eckels said. “Each state will oversee development of its specific section while ensuring coordination at the national level”
In Texas, I-69 is being developed as part of the Trans-Texas Corridor, a proposed multi-use, statewide network for transportation routes that will incorporate existing and new highways, rails and utility rights-of-ways.
“This section is currently referred to as the Northeast Texas to Mexico element, or I-69/TTC,” Eckels said. “The majority of I-69 has not been constructed, and most of the states, including Texas, are currently undergoing detailed environmental and engineering studies to identify the preferred location of the future interstate.”
Eckels noted that the program is part of a national project. The I-69/TTC will be developed in Texas under the TTC Master Plan.
Legislation that provided for the construction of I-69 established that the highway will be split in the eastern part of Texas with the western leg of the split staying in Texas and tying into I-30 in Texarkana.
The eastern leg of the split is planned to follow a new route to Shreveport and on to Memphis where it will tie into I-40.
“I-69 will become the transportation artery that provides primary link between the three nationas,” Eckels said. “All parts of I-69 need to be built ultimately, but it makes sense that the most cost-effective sections, that will allow early implementation of the highway, be constructed first.”
Eckels said the most cost-effective construction method is to build the west leg first.
“Traffic and trade will be able to flow freely on an unimpeded route while the environmental studies are completed, rights-of ways acquired and construction is completed on the eastern leg,” Eckels said.
He said the purpose of I-69 will be “accomplished much sooner with construction of the western leg and later enhanced after the eastern leg is finally completed.”
This is a pro Trans-Texas Corridor ping list.
Please let me know by Freepmail if you want on or off the list.
A map of possible alternatives for TTC-35.
Free Republic search on keyword "TTC"
Interview (Audio) NPR | February 8, 2005 A Superhighway for Texas?
Here's the website with more info and explanation:
http://www.keeptexasmoving.org/
Here's a list of meetings where you can ask questions(and I encourage everyone who can to attend and ask questions)
http://www.keeptexasmoving.org/pdfs/TTC-35_Public_Meetings.pdf
Here's a link to the map of the TTC-35 corridor alternatives, which are approximately 10 miles wide study areas (the actual selected single corridor will be at most 1/4 mile wide):
http://www.keeptexasmoving.org/pdfs/TTC-35_Alternatives_Map.pdf
1990-2000 Population Growth of Border Metro Areas
Port of Houston teams up with Panama to draw a piece of Asia's massive trade away from West Coast
Trans-Texas Corridor PING!
Meeting in Austin, the Texas Transportation Commission selected Raytheon Co.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I seem to recall reading that Raytheon is the company which manufacturers the implantable Verichip.
This toll road is becoming more ominous every day.
The average Texan and average traveler will take a screwing on this Spanish owned toll road. Which is being built mainly to facilitate movement of goods from Mexico to the US with a smaller volume going the other direction. If you don't count illegal aliens headed north
Notice how nearly all those damnable corridors are North-South roads. My presumption is to unite via trade and immigration the USA, Messico and the frozen north-Canada.
You are just noticing that? That's why they call them NAFTA highways. The TransTexas project is a plan to get the Mexican trucks through Texas without letting them on local roads.
Thanks. I've never seen before a map of the other proposed corridors.
There are some projects piggybacked on. For example, the route across Georgia and Alabama from the port of Savannah to I-59 which runs down to the port of New Orleans to provide some additional pork, and note the concentration of port in North Alabama-North Mississippi, but the backbone are Mexico-Canada routes. (Also note the plan for developing a Pacific port for Texas so the west coast can be written off to disaster, natural or otherwise, while maintaining a transportation corridor to the heartland.)
Thanks for the ping!
Yup. And we won't get a say in this at all. Ultimately, this Perrydoggle will be paid for my the Citizens of Texas, and possibly the rest of you suckers throughout the U.S. as well.
BTTT!!!!!!
You're welcome. :-)
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