Posted on 06/30/2007 2:19:13 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Texas needs the Trans-Texas Corridor because of its surging population, a representative for Gov. Rick Perry said Tuesday while speaking in Cleburne.
Plans are to build the multi-lane highway and rail system parallel to Interstate 35, north-south through the center of the state. Kris Heckmann, deputy director of Perry’s Legislative Division spoke at the Cleburne Civic Center at the invitation of the Johnson County Republican Women for their monthly meeting.
Every decade since World War II, Texas’ population has increased by at least 20 percent, Heckmann said. In 1990, the state’s population was 16.5 million, and today the population is 23 million. More than half of Texas’ population lives within 20 to 30 miles of I-35, he said.
The growth means Texas needs a better roadway from San Antonio to the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, Heckmann said.
“The state does not have billions of dollars to spend on I-35,” he said. “We would have to stop work on the other highways to cover the costs.”
Inflation would also increase costs, and that would extend the time needed to revamp I-35, Heckmann said. Perry is concerned the state would never catch up on the expansion because it would not be able to fund it, he said.
To save time and money, Perry believes the Trans-Texas Corridor, or TTC-35, would be a better option.
Building it a few miles east or west of I-35 would be cheaper because the land it would use is not as heavily developed as along I-35, Heckmann said. If the new corridor is a toll road, it can be built for few or no tax dollars, he said. Only the people who use the road would pay for it, he said.
“When I-35 was built, they did not buy enough land, so there is no room to add lanes without tearing down existing development,” he said. “We will buy enough land [for TTC-35] to expand when the population grows. We have to plan ahead.”
TTC-35 would also be built quicker because it would not be traveled on during construction, he said. When adding to an existing highway, the state has to close lanes and build a few miles of road at a time, he said.
The state signed an agreement with Cintra Zachary, a partnership of several businesses that has offered to pay $10 billion for the construction, maintenance and operation of TTC-35 because the state cannot fund such an extensive project without accruing a large amount of debt and increasing taxes to cover costs.
The state would receive 5 percent of the money for every car on the road for 50 years, and Cintra Zachary would receive 95 percent, Heckmann said. As the number of people who use the road increases, the percentage of money the state receives would increase, he said. The state plans to put the money back into Texas roads.
“This sounded good to me until I found out that a company from Spain was doing this,” said Gayle Ledbetter, Johnson County Democratic Party chairwoman. “They are picking foreign companies to handle this when Texans should do the job quite well.”
Ledbetter said Perry was wrong not to make the public aware of the deal with Cintra Zachary before it was complete.
Some landowners are unhappy about relinquishing land that will be used for TTC-35. It would take up some of the best farmland in Texas, Ledbetter said.
The state will own the land and the roads, Heckmann said, and the private businesses involved have no eminent domain authority to confiscate land.
“I’m all for a good transportation system, but landowners are very upset,” Ledbetter said.
Henry Teich of Cleburne, a Republican who attended the meeting, said the state needs to put another road next to I-35 instead of using farmers’ land for a new road.
People need to consider the effect TTC-35 will have on agriculture, he said.
“Right now more people seem to be worried about the transportation problem than the food supply,” Heckmann said.
Several people who attended the meeting were also concerned that TTC-35 will develop into a superhighway extending from Canada to Mexico for the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Heckmann said the Trans-Texas Corridor would not be built from San Antonio to Mexico because there is not enough traffic to support the funding of the highway.
“This is not about trade with Mexico,” Heckmann said. “We don’t need a parallel toll road that goes to Mexico because we’ve had I-35 for years.”
He also said no other states are planning to build a road parallel to I-35 because they do not have the population to support the cost. More people live in the Metroplex than in any state along I-35, he said.
“We can’t stick our head in the sand and pretend like I-35 isn’t a problem,” he said.
Toll revenue from a proposed road project will stay in Texas, state officials said Thursday.
The North Texas Tollway Authority bid $3.3 billion to edge out Spanish toll operator Cintra for the rights to build a 26-mile portion of the Texas State Highway 121 toll road in Denton and Collin counties in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
The Texas Transportation Commission voted 4-1 Thursday, June 28, to accept a recommendation by the Dallas-area Regional Transportation Council that the project remain in local hands.
Commissioners had released a statement in February saying they favored Cintra – the Spanish toll operator that has a 50-percent stake in the Indiana Toll Road lease – which made a cash offer of $2.8 billion at the time for the Texas project.
But the North Texas Tollway Authority stepped up late in the process and offered to pay the Texas Department of Transportation $2.5 billion upfront and another $833 million in future payments – for a total of $3.3 billion – to finance, design, construct, operate and maintain the road.
The toll authority’s bid ensures that toll revenues remain in North Texas.
Transportation commissioners stated in a press release they believe the toll authority’s proposal meets the state’s goals to “reduce congestion, enhance safety, expand economic opportunity, improve air quality and increase the value of transportation assets.”
The authority has a 50-year history of constructing and operating toll roads in the Dallas region.
The authority must meet several DOT benchmarks to proceed with the project. The two parties must also agree on a length of contract.
As it stands, the tollway authority plans to open the first segment in the summer of 2008 and complete three remaining segments from 2010 through 2012.
Cintra remains a powerhouse in the Lone Star State. In December 2004, the Spanish company partnered with Austin-based Zachry Construction Corp. to commit to $6 billion in private dollars to build the proposed TTC-35 phase of the Trans-Texas Corridor between Dallas and San Antonio.
The first portion of the TTC-35 is a proposed $1.3 billion toll road from Austin to Seguin, TX.
What about simply widening I-35 instead of wasting all that money on stealing thousands, if not millions, of acres of land on a 1/2 mile wide land barrier? Also if the demand is that great, a commuter or freight rail system would likely be successful as well...
Maybe it will be part of the North American Union....
>> Texas needs the Trans-Texas Corridor because of its surging population
Horse crap.
The purpose of the Corridor is to get Mexican goods (and Mexicans) THROUGH Texas. It’s got not one darn thing to do with Texas “surging population”. And Perry knows it.
Cheaper solutions lessen campaign contributions.
“Maybe it will be part of the North American Union....”
Well, I think you’re being sarcastic. But, of course, I think it will. Have you read “The Late Great USA (The Coming Merger with Mexico and Canada)” by Jerome Corsi? Corsi also wrote the book “Unfit for Command” related to the Swift Boat Vets and John Kerry.
You probably already know this, but Corsi says that Mexico has a customs facility staffed by Mexican government officials in Kansas City named “Kansas City Customs Port”. According to Corsi, “ ... the ultimate goal is to bring containers from the Far East and China into Mexican ports, such as Lazaro Cardenas, by-passing the Longshoremen’s union in the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Mexican trucks and Mexican railroads can then transport the containers into the United States over the NAFTA super-highways, bypassing the United Transportation Union and the Teamsters, as well as independent truckers ... From there ...up through Texas, where they terminate in Kansas City.”
However, I bet that if this globalist horror is built, other states (like Oklahoma and Kansas) will suddenly come to see the “wisdom” of it.
Incrementally they will give away our country.
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