Posted on 04/08/2006 5:05:31 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
An environmental impact study released Tuesday indicates the most likely route of the Trans-Texas Corridor will travel east of Dallas, but a new rail proposition could bring TTC-35 infrastructure to East Parker County as well.
According to the Texas Department of Transportation, the narrowed eastern study area was identified as the preferred corridor alternative because it best supports the purpose and need for TTC-35.
“The ultimate goal of TTC-35 is to relieve traffic congestion on Interstate 35,” said Gabriela Garcia, TxDOT public affairs specialist.
The east corridor alternative also incorporates the most miles of existing highways and rail – 195 and 214 miles respectively.
Cintra Zachry, the firm hired to plan the TTC-35, announced a proposal last month to add a rail line around southwest Fort Worth. The rail line would divert heavy rail traffic at Tower 55, the Downtown switch yard visible form Interstate 30, and could eventually be accompanied by a toll road looping the southwestern edge of the city.
The proposed rail line would connect to the Trans-Texas Corridor, a $6 billion commuter, freight and utility line mega-project running the length of Texas, beginning at the Mexican border in Laredo and extending to Oklahoma.
In a February 24 Weatherford Democrat article, TxDOT regional engineer Jimmey Bodiford said freight and rail segments of the TTC-35 could affect residents of Parker and Palo Pinto Counties sooner than areas chosen for new passenger traffic infrastructure.
Bodiford may not have been too far off the mark.
Malcolm Louden, president of Walsh Holdings, said he didn’t know anything about the new rail line until Wednesday.
Louden’s group recently announced plans to build 14,000 homes on a 72-acre development, the majority of which is located in East Parker County. He agreed the rail line could intersect the billion dollar planned community.
A meeting took place Friday morning in which Louden said he met with Secretary of State Roger Williams and Burlington Northern Santa Fe CEO Matthew Rose.
“Our development is zoned limited purpose annex,” he said. “I just can’t believe nobody told us about this.”
Louden said he plans to meet with former Fort Worth Mayor Kenneth Barr who was appointed to the Trans-Texas Corridor Advisory Committee by Perry last year.
The city of Aledo, in East Parker County, already has as many as 30 trains a day thundering through its limits. An additional rail line in the area could function as a nexus between a large system of freight lines in Palo Pinto County and the Metroplex.
“But the new rail line is subject to the same environmental draft statements that affect the TTC-35 project,” said Garcia, who is handling media inquiries for TxDOT.
She explained the new rail line was a very conceptual proposal, but admitted it is a viable option. She added population density was considered at every step in the planning process.
“But of [Lowden] hasn’t been part of the process by now, he now needs to jump in the process and make his points,” Garcia said.
In addition to the newly proposed rail line, the TTC-35 amounts to what Parker County Precinct 4 Commissioner Jim Webster called the largest single engineering contract in the United States today.
The Corridor’s western reasonable alternative would devour approximately one-third of East Parker County, Webster’s precinct, and extend about 15 miles into West Tarrant County.
From a business standpoint, the corridor promises the kind of large-scale economic vitality pulled along by interstate commerce. Large sums of private money, along with toll fees, are expected to function as part of the funding scheme associated with the project.
Gov. Rick Perry, who is facing criticism from the state’s business sector due to a proposed tax increase to help fund public schools, is supporting the project.
“The Trans-Texas Corridor will provide unprecedented trade opportunities, a faster transportation system that moves freight and hazardous materials out of city centers, and thousands of new jobs,” Gov. Rick Perry said in a news release.
According to an April 4 article in the Fort Worth Star Telegram, Cintra Zachry, the private firm hired to plan the Corridor, along with state and federal leaders, “declined to follow the recommendations of the Metroplex’s Regional Transportation Council, which proposed building the project through the heart of Dallas-Fort Worth — to complement, not replace, the existing transportation grid.”
But debate about the final route is far from over.
Garcia emphasized the difference between study areas, depicted on TTC-35 maps, and actual lines depicting a route.
“Putting lines on a map is still years away,” she said.
The latest environmental study tentatively identifies a 10-mile stripe across Texas. Opposition from organizations like Corridor Watch, a group devoted to challenging the wisdom of TTC-35, could affect further refinement of the route.
TTC developers are also facing criticism from environmental groups and private landowners. According to the latest environmental study, the corridor could impact the habitat of more than 46 threatened or endangered species and 2,400 square miles of prime farm land potentially lie in the project’s course.
Webster said he was thrilled TTC-35 appeared to be going east of the Metroplex instead of west, where he thinks it was originally planned to go.
“It was going to take up about 5,000 acres of Parker County land,” he said. “In my opinion, it’s a bad thing when they use government to take that much private property.”
Webster said the alternate western route would be bad for Parker County businesses because it does not include plans for easy on-off access and would function mostly as NAFTA trade route for semi trucks.
“It’s just a north-south road for trucks coming from the Mexican border,” he said.
TxDOT is planning more that 50 public hearings along the proposed corridor route this summer, in addition to hundreds of public hearings that have already taken place.
Garcia said there were TTC-35 public hearings held in and around Parker County during previous years, and TxDOT would likely be in Parker County again.
“It takes a long time to get there, but think about the scope of the process,” she said.
Trans-Texas Corridor PING!
I know people here support this thing but it has TxDOT boondoggle written all over it.
Boy, what a behind the times opinion that is.
The way I see it, we can either decide that we've built all the roads we'll ever need, or we can just continue to expand without a plan always in a reactive mode.
The third choice is to make a strategic plan for what the world will look like in 40 years and design a transportation system that improves commerce in a way that minimizes the impact and directs it in the direction we'd like it to look like.
A Texas sized "Big Dig".
Perry's road is a strategic plan? It does look like a plan to me. It looks like Perry's retirement plan. I bet one way or another when Perry leaves office he makes some major bank off his little road.
I know people here support this thing but it has TxDOT boondoggle written all over it.
It's obviously a plan. It wasn't random words thrown out there that happened to fall into sentences and create maps.
Your statement doesn't even begin to make sense.
Further, what's your theory about how this makes Perry money?
If it's not any more logical than your first assertion about it not being a plan, don't even bother.
Maybe I should not have said that about Perry and money. I'm sure he has some talent he can bring in to play after he leaves public office. I've only made the same kind of prediction once before when I thought someone in a high office in Texas was up to maing things better for himself after public life. The fellows name was Dan Morales.
Thanks for the ping!
Either the numbers are wrong, or they are scamming some NYC bankers. That's almost 200 houses per acre.
The only way you could do that is with an urban high rise. And Parker County sure isn't urban.
BTTT
You'll have to explain to me how any new roads are built without the use of private property.
I'll put you firmly in the camp of those who believe no new roads should ever be built.
Roads are bad.
Who said anything about unjust compensation?
I did. Do you personally know numerous people that are directly in or adjacent to proposed roads and that because of that they can't sell their homes because nobody will buy them? Where whole subdivisions lose large valuations just because TxDOT has mapped out proposed roads? Roads that may or may not be built depending on where the politics turns? I do. I know some of those people.
The process that is involved with building something like the TTC is not a new one. The same process occurs in cities and towns all over the state all the time. After seeing such a process close up and seeing how the process affects some folks I'd say that it's not the norm that the people that are displaced get what their property is actually worth. They are caught in a trap. And besides the lower values accessed there is a lot more than just money lost many times when these takings occur.
And things happen way "before the fact" of the road being built where people lose significant amounts of money. Imagine you have a house or property that's in or near one of these proposed roads and you have to sell for some reason. You take a huge loss or as some of these people have to do you just default on the mortgage because you are suddenly and very dramatically "upside down".
Some of the property where these roads are built becomes very valuable after the road is built. The people that own that property before it's taken are usually not paid what the property would be worth after it's improved. One could argue that they shold not be because they do not contribute to the improvements. That's subject to discussion in my view.
Excuse me for not beeing to keen on this taking of property for roads subject but I've seen how this works up close. And I don't like all that I have seen.
I would agree that there are problems in determining just compensation. It appears that you would solve that problem by building no more new roads ever.
If that's not your position, then you might agree that a plan to intelligently design future traffic patterns in a concentrated area is a good one, with the caveat that care must be taken to minimize the impact on private property owners and ensure that they are fairly compensated.
You have yet to do that.
I read on down, and saw that the reporter either had an agenda or was really weak in critical thinking skills.
The Corridor’s western reasonable alternative would devour approximately one-third of East Parker County ... "
Say the county is about 30 miles wide. The east half would be about 15 miles, and a third of that would be a strip 5 miles wide.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.