Posted on 02/25/2006 11:43:31 AM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Public hearings could begin as early as May around the state on plans for the controversial Trans Texas Corridor project.
Work is underway on a 4,000-page draft environmental impact statement that will identify a 10-mile-wide route for the superhighway.
Once the draft is completed, hearings will be scheduled.
“We want to do this right. It takes time to conduct a thorough analysis,” said Michael Behrens, executive director of the Texas Department of Transportation.
“It’s hard to predict the timing of things but we hope to have the draft statement available for public review within the next 3 to 6 weeks.”
The principal study area is mainly along Interstate 35 from the Mexican border through Central Texas to the Oklahoma border, but alternative routes are also being considered that would shift the superhighway into East Texas.
More than 50 public hearings will be held once the draft report is finished.
The process of identifying what TXDOT calls “a narrowed study area” began in February 2004 and has involved more than 100 public meetings.
The Texas Department of Transportation signed a contract in April 2005 with the Cintra-Zachry consortium for planning on the controversial project, the most ambitious highway construction effort since the Eisenhower administration launched the effort to build an interstate highway system.
The $184 billion plan calls for a 4,000-mile network of transportation corridors that would crisscross the state with separate highway lanes for passenger vehicles and trucks, passenger rail, freight rain, commuter rail and dedicated utility zones.
Designers envision a corridor with six separate passenger vehicle lanes and four commercial truck lanes; two high speed passenger rail lines, two freight rain lines and two commuter rail lines and a utility zone that will accommodate water, electric, natural gas, petroleum, fiber optic and telecommunications lines.
Under the agreement, Cintra-Zachry began work on a master development plan for the first segment of the corridor, which will likely parallel Interstate 35 from San Antonio to Oklahoma.
Cintra, which is an international engineering and construction firm, and the San Antonio-based Zachry Construction Corporation, have agreed to provide $7.2 billion for construction of the first six segments of the project, the governor’s office said.
Cintra will spend $6 billion to build a four-lane toll road on the corridor and will pay the state $1.2 billion in return for the exclusive rights to operate the toll road for 50 years.
Cintra would also operate businesses along the route.
Officials in Interstate 35 corridor cities such as Waco and Dallas are concerned about the commercial impact of the project.
McLennan County Commissioners approved a resolution in February 2005 opposing the corridor.
The Waco-based Texas Farm Bureau also opposes the project because of concerns about the loss of farm and ranchland and the impact of the construction on the tax base of Texas counties and communities.
Click Here For Interactive Map Of Proposed Corridor Route
Click Here For Trans-Texas Corridor Web Site
Click Here For Background Information On The Trans-Texas Corridor
Click Here For An Opposing Point Of View From Corridor Watch
Krusee, Fleece know how to lead
Private funding may be sought for I-69 (down toward bottom of "In Brief for Thursday"
Coupland Residents May Get Information On TTC Route They Requested
Trans-Texas Corridor PING!
Designers envision a corridor with six separate passenger vehicle lanes and four commercial truck lanes; two high speed passenger rail lines, two freight rain lines and two commuter rail lines and a utility zone that will accommodate water, electric, natural gas, petroleum, fiber optic and telecommunications lines.
BTTT
I don't live in Texas; I'm just fascinated with this issue, and with road stuff in general. Call me a road geek...
Check this out.
Mexicans need unlimited access to the USA. Help them please.</sarcasm>
Of course, it was staffed by a dozen or so high-priced "expert consultants" (AKA"pitchmen") -- most of whom could not answer any of my questions. (Wonder how much $$$$ those propaganda con-men's salaries and expenses for that traveling sideshow cost us Texans!!!)
The local TXDOT staff were conspicuously absent. TXDOT obviously didn't want anyone there who might say somthing that wasn't part of Big-hair Perry's "Trash-Texas Con-Job" party line...
They asked participants to provide questions in writing -- which I did. And I never got answers -- even though they promised them!
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