Legislator works to postpone Trans-Texas Corridor

The state representative of a district where support for the Trans-Texas Corridor is hard to find filed legislation this week in hope additional time would allow for a better plan.

Rep. Rick Hardcastle, R-Vernon, filed House Bill 3831 in the Texas House of Representatives, which aims to halt the transportation project until improvements have been made on Interstate Highway 35 in Cooke County through the cities of Valley View and Gainesville just south of the Red River.

The improvements include widening of the current lanes on I-35 and the construction of additional lanes, which are currently under review by regional Texas Department of Transportation engineers.

The Trans-Texas Corridor is a proposed network of privately funded, limited access toll roads, spanning from various points across Texas. The main route expected to pass through Cooke County is TTC-35, which would run from Laredo to the Red River if built. Other routes from El Paso to the Cooke-Montague county line and from Texarkana to just east of Gainesville are in the plans.

Rep. Kip Averitt, R-Crane, filed Senate Bill 1785 in the Texas Senate which is similar to HB 3831.

Hardcastle also is a co-author to House Bill 2772, the statewide two-year moratorium on toll road development — a move that intends to stop all toll projects while legislators and government officials revisit contracts and plans, a press release from Hardcastle’s Austin office said.

“It is important to take the time to stop and re-examine how we are improving transportation in Texas,” Hardcastle said in the release. “The critical point for me is when the state disregards the personal property rights of hard-working Texans.”

Amy Klein, a Gainesville obstetrician and anti-Trans-Texas Corridor activist said the filing of the bill is an example of representation in action.

“I think that these legislators are finally listening to their constituents across the state of Texas,” Klein said. “They are realizing the problem that has been created with the previous legislation passed considering the construction and pitfalls of toll roads. I appreciate that our state Sen. Craig Estes and our state Rep. Rick Hardcastle support these bills in the Senate and the House.

Klein added to a proverb frequently quoted by CorridorWatch founder David Stall: “You eat an elephant one bite at a time.”

Bumps in the road

Area lawmakers don't like where Perry plan headed

By Carroll Wilson/Times Record News
March 15, 2007

Gov. Rick Perry's plan to let private companies lay concrete and steel on as much as 4,000 miles of Texas soil has lost traction with Wichita Falls area legislators.

Sen. Craig Estes of Wichita Falls and Rep. David Farabee are co-sponsoring bills that would stop the Trans-Texas Corridor plan dead in its tracks for two years.

Estes, who along with Perry is a Republican, said he supports the governor's plan in principle, but not the direction in which it's headed.

Farabee, a Democrat, said he originally liked the TTC idea, but he, too, now has problems with it, particularly the way the plan is being managed by leaders at the Texas Department of Transportation.

Far more than a mere handful of Texas' 31 senators have signed on to a bill that would stop the process of contracting for construction of privately funded toll roads for two years.

So far only a few members of the House are co-sponsors of the companion measure, one of whom is Farabee.

Estes wants the contracting process stopped because, "There are too many unanswered questions, and recent revelations of poor accountability require the Legislature to step in."

The Texas Auditor's Office recently concluded that even though TxDoT was moving quickly to sign contracts with developers, "There is a lack of reliable information regarding projected toll-road construction costs, operating expenses, revenue and developer income."

The contracts are to be for 50 years for each segment, and a master plan states that the total cost could be more than $105 billion, one of the numbers the auditor said can't be determined.

Farabee said he has a problem not just with the cost uncertainty but also with how the state's power of eminent domain should be used.

Sen. Robert Nichols, a former state transportation commissioner and author of the bill, put his own case this way:

"Imagine if you could make a deal with the state to build a store in your hometown, use the state's power of eminent domain to take the land needed for your store and then get the state to agree to refrain from building another store in your hometown for 50 years," he said in a Web posting. "Now, imagine your hometown was projected to have double-digit population growth. While it may be hard to fault any business for pursuing such a deal, the taxpayers would hold elected officials accountable."

Right now, Texas has few toll roads. Today's interstate system was started in the mid-1950s with mainly federal dollars.

The state's population is expected to double in the next 20 years, Estes said, so "to say we need no more infrastructure would be disastrous. But we've got to get it right.

"I'm a strong proponent of toll roads," Estes said, "but the devil is in the details."

For example, he said, "if you're going somewhere on the ocean, and you're off one or two degrees you can miss an entire continent. So you have got to get it started right."

Besides the length of contracts and the lack of risk analyses, the senator said he is also concerned that foreign investors will gain more than they should.

Farabee indicated that the fact that Nichols, who once was a strong supporter of the toll-road and TTC ideas, is now pushing for a moratorium signals that problems are more than merely superficial.

The Trans-Texas Corridor would not take a route through the Wichita Falls area, but would be built through parts of Wise County near the Montague County line.

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