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Trans-Texas Corridor

Highway corridor finds hearing road bumpyBy Anita Miller
News Editor

Lockhart — More than 200 people showed up for the public hearing on the Trans-Texas Corridor Monday night.

The overwhelming majority of them were opposed to Governor Rick Perry’s proposal for the more than 600-mile corridor of tolled car and truck lanes, freight and commuter rail and utility transmission.

Bill and Doris Steubing of Maxwell found the 10-mile “Preferred Corridor Alternative” swath on the Texas Department of Transportation maps included both of their parcels of land which total around 500 acres and include a 100-year-old Texas Heritage Farm.

Dollie Cole of Mendoza was in the same boat when it came to her working ranch. A veteran of holding onto her land, she reminded the crowd during the public comment portion of the meeting that she was “one of about 25 people who stopped the bullet train” when that project was proposed in the 1990s.

Many others didn’t speak publicly or to the press, instead using their fingers to locate their property inside the blue zone, which stretches from just east of Hwy. 21 near the Hays/Caldwell county line to just west of Lockhart, and includes the already-designated route of SH 130, a toll road project proceeding independently of the TTC.

The majority, though, seemed to feel as DeDe Frets of Seguin did.

“I don’t want people to get caught up in one route or another,” she said. “I’m completely opposed to the whole concept.”

Concerns included the prime farm land that would be lost to the project as well as the state’s deal with Cintra-Zachary to design, build and operate the tollway for the next 50 years. While much of that deal has been made public, Perry and TxDOT have filed suit to keep certain “proprietary information” secret, speaker after speaker alleged.

Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, who is running for governor as an Independent, again blasted the TTC as “Rick Perry’s $184 billion boondoggle” and “the greatest land grab in Texas history,” drawing applause with each gibe.

“Say no to double taxation, say no to replacing our freeways with tollways,” Strayhorn told the crowd. “Texas once had a freeway system that was the envy of the nation and it can be again.”

She and others, including Caldwell County Judge H.T. Wright, also blasted the TxDOT public hearing process. After a “meet and greet” period, TxDOT showed a Power Point presentation about the TTC and then accepted public comments. Speakers at the microphone were able to ask questions, but TxDOT staff could not answer them.

Among questions that went unanswered was whether, if the TTC-35 portion of the project included part of the route of SH 130, it would be split into “rubber tire” and rail corridors and if that happened, how long residents would have to wait for the second alignment.

“I’ve been 10 years dealing with TxDOT over SH 130 and went to many public hearings,” Wright said. “They take your testimony and check it for spelling and file it.” Now, he said, the TTC has brought another round of hearings. “TTC will be another 8 to 10 years suspense. The engineers know where it’s going to go. Why all this turmoil to build a highway?”

In all, almost 20 people spoke publicly and others left comments in a drop box. TxDOT will accept postal mail and e-mail comments through Aug. 21.

The agency plans to submit comments along with other documentation from its Draft Environmental Impact Statement Tier 1 round of hearings by the end of the year after which the Federal Highway Administration will accept or refuse them.

If accepted, that would invoke another round of public hearings concerning a narrowed route. TxDOT has repeatedly said that the current round of 54 public hearings does not lay out a final alignment, authorize right-of-way acquisition or construction.

Fred Head, candidate for comptroller, also recalled the failed bullet train project as well as the superconducting supercollider in North Texas as proposals that have gone down in the face of public opposition.

“The land of the brave and home of the free is where you live,” he said. “You can do something about this injustice.”

Head and other speakers called directly for voters to remove Perry from office on Nov. 7, and many pointed out that TTC could be only the start of a NAFTA-serving highway to points much farther north.

“We’re the gateway to Mexico, we have to stop it here,” said Susan Cook. “It’s a NAFTA highway from the deep ports of Mexico,” said Bill Robinson.

The sole voice in support of the TTC came from Tom Griebel. He recalled opposition to the interstate highway system when it was first proposed 50 years ago.

“You are planning and I applaud that,” Griebel said, though with a caution. “Protect the environment and minimize the acreage you’ll have to take but I appeal to you to build it.”