Posted on 07/31/2006 7:38:35 AM PDT by Marius3188
What do the federal interstate highway system, the Golden Gate Bridge and Dallas-Fort Worth Airport have in common? All are indispensable projects involved in safely transporting millions of families and tons of products every year. All three were also bitterly attacked and criticized during their planning and construction phases.
Americans have a love-hate relationship with roads, rail and air infrastructure. We demand safe, reliable transportation and depend upon it for quality of life, jobs and commerce. But nearly every major transportation improvement generates early controversy.
Today, our state transportation system is at a crossroads. Texas is the leading exporting state and the second-biggest manufacturing state; it added more than 600,000 jobs in the past 34 months. Our state is growing fast, and transportation taxes and funding sources are not keeping pace.
Annually, Americans spend 3.7 billion hours sitting in traffic. Unless we change, it will only get worse. During the next 25 years, Texas road usage is projected to increase 214 percent as our state population and economy grow rapidly. Yet road capacity will increase only 6 percent.
It is imperative that Texas expedite transportation improvements in the interest of public safety, job creation and overall quality of life. That's why state and local leaders and transportation experts are supporting the Trans-Texas Corridor project, being developed to relieve traffic on our aged, crowded and downright scary Interstate 35.
The Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC-35) uses many new financing and construction tools to get needed roadways built years sooner, without increasing state gasoline or sales taxes. By harnessing private-sector investment and charging motorists a fee, Texas can build a necessary road much faster, relieving traffic far more quickly.
The Trans-Texas Corridor and other new transportation projects will improve Texas disaster and hurricane response dramatically. Katrina and Rita proved that hurricanes are not just coastal events -- they can threaten an entire region. Better, safer infrastructure means faster evacuations and fewer lives lost to hurricanes or other natural or man-made disasters.
Thousands of new Texas jobs, higher property values and resulting economic development will follow the corridor route. Employers tend to migrate to places where it's easier to transport workers, raw materials and products. The Trans-Texas Corridor will help the state add jobs and stay competitive in the world economy.
Modern technology means no more required stopping at toll booths. Toll-tag technology allows for convenient and high-speed collection.
And TTC-35 even benefits those who don't want to pay the toll. Every car or truck using TTC-35 will be one less vehicle on I-35, thereby increasing that highway's safety and convenience. In addition, free roads, parallel to most toll roads, will remain a viable option for those who choose not to pay.
The state will own these new roads, but private companies and investors will pay to construct and operate them. New state laws enhance private property protections and allow local communities and landowners to share in the benefits. As a result, billions in new, largely untapped private investment will pour into Texas to improve our transportation infrastructure, easing congestion, increasing commuter choice and improving highway safety.
The debate continues. The democratic process is working. But don't let anyone tell you that business as usual can improve Texas transportation. People and jobs are migrating to Texas. We must have the roads and infrastructure to carry them safely and efficiently.
Every major transportation project in modern history has been criticized. But when it's all over, virtually every major project has been embraced by the public, making our communities better, safer, and wealthier. The Trans-Texas Corridor can be a quick and efficient answer to our state's transportation, economic and public safety needs for many years to come.
Donna Williams is a Dallas-based aviation engineer and a board member of Texans for Safe Reliable Transportation, a coalition of Texas commuters, civic leaders and businesses. www.bettertexasroads.org
TTC Ping
The Golden Gate Bridge and the Interstate System were about moving Americans. This is about moving non-American goods into America and Canada. So, given the cost and the amount of land wanted, it deserves a tremendous amount of scrutiny to see if the benefit to AMERICANS is worth the cost to Texas landowners.
The "Trash Texas Corridor"....nothing but a land grab
Don't but it.
The backers are using "transportation" arguments for a project that is simply an infrastructure component of the open borders agenda.
First illegal immigration is good for the economy (whose economy, whose economic benefit, then with industries fed by cheap imported labor, they need highways to get the cheap labor and cheap goods here quicker. Its a circle-jerk. One economic addiction is used to feed and justify the next.
Really? Then why will the first section built be only San Antonio-DFW, while the extensions to Laredo and the Oklahoma border not built for another 10 years?
The area from DFW to San Antonio is growing by more than 250,000 per year. In 10 years when this road opens that will be 2.5 million more people, the equivalent of adding another 2 Austin metro's, or a Denver or a Pittsburgh. Are you saying we can add that many more people in just 10 years and not need another major highway?
This road is about meeting future traffic demand, some of which is international (and plenty of that is export traffic), and most of it generated locally within Texas.
If this was about moving Americans, it would be built as a triangle between Houston, DFW, and Austin/San Antonio to relieve congestion between those three metro areas.
Instead it is part of a larger corridor to go from Laredo to Duluth. I don't think too many Americans make that particular drive.
First of all, we have a massive trade imbalance with China, so any exporting would typically be to other countries.
If you want exports FROM Texas, a triangle would mean goods can move from DFW and San Antonio/Austin to Houston for export. The layout of this highway shows the purpose is to get goods from China to Mexico and up to Kansas City as a port of entry.
All those lanes and railroad tracks and they only run one-way? LOL
Yeah, don't let facts get in the way of your tinfoil theories.
Austin/San Antonio-Houston isn't overloaded yet, since there are 2 highways to separate the traffic. When traffic grows enough there will be a TTC project for that corridor, too. Similar for DFW-Houston, since Marlin-Hearne will be upgraded soon, for a 4-lane route without signals via Waco and College Station (and tie into the TTC.)
Again, if this is about driving from Laredo to Duluth instead of responding to traffic demand that is primarily Texas generated, why is the first portion only from San Antonio to DFW, with the extension to the border not planned to be built for another 10 years after that opens?
True enough, Canada will be able to send goods to Mexico as well. However, Texas already has a good port - Houston. Why doesn't the corridor connect DFW to Houston if this is about Texas trade?
The point is, this highway is less about moving people and more about international trade - and trade more for the benefit of foreign interests than American ones. And for that, Texas is going to take hundreds of square miles of private land. Which means there should be a lot of scrutiny as opposed to the scrutnity for the interstate system.
You cannot claim that the TTC will make it easier to bring Chinese goods into the U.S. without claiming that it will make it easier to ship U.S. goods to China.
So you are unaware that highways serve multiple users with an unlimited number of origins/destinations? Are you unaware that there is already a freeway running from Laredo to Duluth (I-35)?
Using your logic, since there are Democrats in Pennsylvania and some Democrats post to the internet, we should assume that you are actually a Democrat?
So then make a similar expansion of I-35. After all, a new highway is already being built around the Austin metro area, and the right-of-way for I-35 up to the DFW split is wide enough for a wider highway - make I-35 eight lanes from Georgetown northwards. Hell of a lto cheaper if we simply seek to alleviate current congestion.
You make my point nicely for me. This isn't about relieving congestion on the corridor in question - it is about something far larger.
Now, what is the trade balance with China? So who would benefit most from the corridor - China or the U.S.?
And how much traffic is on the stretch of I-35 north of Kansas City?
Once again, the corridor is about international trade - it's being sold to relieve congestion when there are cheaper methods available that do not require eminent domain of hundreds of square miles of private Texas farmland.
Texas export growth gathered steam in first quarter 2006. Real Texas exports rose 5.3 percent during the quarter and were up 11 percent from a year ago.Cool graphs at my link, if anyone can post them here. Note the growth in Texas' exports to China.The first quarter increase in exports was relatively broad-based across Texas’ leading trade partners. Exports to Texas’ largest trading partner, Mexico, rose 5 percent, while exports to Asia (excluding China) grew by 5.2 percent. Exports to China and Latin America (excluding Mexico), which had registered declines in the fourth quarter, rose strongly by 14.9 percent and 18.5 percent, respectively. Only exports to the European Union and Canada edged down 0.1 percent and 0.5 percent, respectively, during the quarter. Still, exports to both countries are above year-earlier levels.
Source:Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas
I must admit, opposing the construction of a road on the basis of our country's trade deficit is a unique way of conducting trade policy.
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.