http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Texas_Corridor
The Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC) was a transportation network that was discontinued in the planning and early construction stages in the U.S. State of Texas. The network, as originally envisioned, would be composed of a 4,000-mile (6,400 km) network of supercorridors up to 1,200 feet (370 m) wide to carry parallel links of tollways, rails, and utility lines.[1] It is intended to route long-distance traffic around population centers
This is the sort of thing that has been necessary and done multiple times in US history. I wouldn't brand him liberal for suggesting it. He's not taking land to protect the three-toed salamander. There are pros and cons to that proposal.
Clearly, the cons out-weighed the pros. He angered a lot of people who had previously supported him. [Wikipedia is not reliable as a source of information for serious discussion. Its accuracy varies according to the author’s political slant and interest in the topic.]