http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/texas130/ en-us Tue, 13 Jan 2009 00:28:45 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2163467/posts Two years ago, lawmakers went to war with Gov. Rick Perry over his push to privatize Texas toll roads, but their efforts to stop the idea largely failed. As they return Tuesday to launch the 2009 legislative session, lawmakers will be faced with a choice of either raising taxes – which both Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst have called a bad idea – or giving private companies a greater role in paying for, and operating, a fast-expanding network of toll roads. The two-year moratorium on private road deals that passed in 2007 slowed but didn't kill Perry's plan to... WFAA http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2163467/posts#comment Tue, 13 Jan 2009 00:28:45 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2049920/posts Taylor used to be a player in Williamson County, with it and Georgetown vying for funds and the attention of passers-through. But no more, and despite what many city officials will tell you, it will not be a player unless something is done to counteract the rapid growth of surrounding communities. What needs to be done is, Taylor needs to forget its past and embrace something residents see as so vile, that when I first arrived here I thought its mere mention was a dirty word. I am speaking of Rick Perry’s Trans-Texas Corridor. The Texas Department of Transportation (another... The Taylor Daily Press http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2049920/posts#comment Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:54:30 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2032734/posts A retreat from the Texas Department of Transportation's plan to build a new multi-lane toll road through East Texas is a clear victory for Angelina County and Diboll, local officials said last week. "I'm glad they went back to the original plan," Diboll Mayor Bill Brown said. Instead of a new Trans-Texas Corridor toll road paralleling U.S. 59, Tx- DOT now plans to widen 59 with a new bypass around Diboll and Lufkin. The planned 59 bypass, needed to avoid the signalized intersections in Diboll and Lufkin, provides in the original plan four exits for Diboll. That will be good... The Diboll Free Press http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2032734/posts#comment Wed, 18 Jun 2008 12:15:43 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2022920/posts Non-compete clauses for tollways would be a non-starter under a policy the Texas Transportation Commission will consider Thursday. Such language in toll road contracts, which generally prohibit a toll road owner (such as the Texas Department of Transportation) from building or expanding a nearby free road, or require compensation for doing so, have been controversial in Texas and elsewhere. TxDOT’s contract with Cintra-Zachry, a Spanish and American consortium that will build and operate a southern section of Texas 130, requires TxDOT to pay up if it makes certain highway improvements within 10 miles of the road. The commission Thursday will... Short Cuts http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2022920/posts#comment Thu, 29 May 2008 13:10:34 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2017476/posts Earth Tech Inc. has been awarded a multi-million dollar contract to provide environmental services to Central Texas Highway Constructors, LLC (CTxHC). Earth Tech, the lead planning and engineering firm for Cintra Zachry, LP on the Trans-Texas Corridor 35 (TTC-35) project, was approved by CTxHC for environmental work on Segments 5 and 6 of the SH 130 highway project. The SH 130 project is the first facility to be developed under the TTC-35 Comprehensive Development Agreement. An integral part of the preparation for highway construction, the project includes site assessments, hazardous materials clean-ups, remediation, and other environmental services. A private-public partnership,... Construction and Maintenance News (Belarus) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2017476/posts#comment Sat, 17 May 2008 22:46:06 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1988516/posts SH 130 Concession Company LLC finalized the legal details of a financial close with Texas DOT on a $1,360m toll concession to build SH130 segments 5&6 Thursday and Friday last week in bankers' offices in New York City - at Orrick, 666 Fifth Avenue. The actual money flows should occur on Thursday or Friday (Mar 13 or 14) this week, Jose Maria Lopez de Fuentes, president of Cintra North America, told us this morning. Hundreds of documents and over 20 lawyers were involved last week representing TxDOT, private equity people, banks, mostly European, the TIFIA loan group from FHWA, and... TOLLROADSnews http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1988516/posts#comment Thu, 20 Mar 2008 01:20:26 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1985893/posts Officials with the Spanish toll road operator Cintra have announced that the company has secured $430 million in loans from the U.S. government to build and operate two segments of a toll road in central Texas. Cintra officials announced the company’s financial plan for the $1.36 billion Highway 130 segments on Monday, March 10. OOIDA Senior Government Affairs Representative Mike Joyce told Land Line that the Association does raise red flags when federal dollars are used to subsidize private investors. Officials with the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association are not, however, categorically opposed to a state using future toll revenue to... Land Line Magazine http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1985893/posts#comment Fri, 14 Mar 2008 23:23:23 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1980376/posts REFUGIO, Texas - With an abandoned Wild West-vintage town of storefronts slumbering just a block from old US 77, tiny Refugio is a place where myth and reality coexist in a ghostly silence. more stories like this Obama faces heat over aide's NAFTA remarks to Canadians Texas, Ohio could decide Dem nomination Canada says didn't misrepresent Obama over NAFTA McCain tags Dems on trade treaty NAFTA seen differently in Ohio, Texas And now this South Texas outpost is swept up in one of the more intriguing tests of myth vs. reality in today's political life: the battle over the so-called... The Boston Globe http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1980376/posts#comment Tue, 4 Mar 2008 21:28:23 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1921857/posts Ever wish you weren't right? In 1997, the notion of selling off publicly owned infrastructure to private sector operators was coming into its own. After the city hired a consultant to determine the value of the publicly owned CPS Energy, it raised red flags. CPS consistently charges some of Texas' lowest utility rates while providing a significant chunk of the city's revenue, I argued. Profit motives can produce wondrous results. But uncontrolled, they can also produce costly disasters. Some things — especially those that efficiently deliver services that are essential — are best kept in the public sector to assure... San Antonio Express-News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1921857/posts#comment Tue, 6 Nov 2007 21:10:00 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1921772/posts STAPLES — Dennis Elam knew he wasn’t cut out to be a city dweller during the one month he lived in San Marcos with his new wife, Brenda, after they were married in 1963. “I’ve got to have my horse. They won’t let me keep him in an apartment,” Elam said. The problem for Elam and his family is that the State Highway 130 construction contractor and the property acquisition firm has tapped the 57 acres they live and work cattle on and it is smack in the middle of the path of the highway where it will connect with... Seguin Gazette-Enterprise http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1921772/posts#comment Tue, 6 Nov 2007 18:17:04 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1916457/posts Three private groups are now in the hunt to build U.S. 281 toll lanes, but two big foreign companies competing just a short while ago to build and lease a larger toll network here have dropped out. The Alamo Regional Mobility Authority board voted Wednesday to let all three teams submit plans to rebuild U.S. 281 north of Loop 1604 into a tollway with free access roads by 2012. It's the fledging agency's first project. "Goodness knows we have been two and a half years getting here," board member Bob Thompson said. "Maybe it's even more important to see the... San Antonio Express-News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1916457/posts#comment Thu, 25 Oct 2007 21:47:09 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1914031/posts Toll road contract in Texas allows state to lower speed limits on nearby interstate freeway to avoid paying penalties to a private company. The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) has agreed to consider lowering the maximum speed limit on a stretch of interstate highway that competes with a planned toll road. Cintra-Zachary, a joint Spanish-US venture, paid TxDOT $1.3 billion for the right to collect tolls on 40-miles of State Highway 130 set for construction beginning in 2009. Although TxDOT suggested that free market competition was part of the goal of using a public-private partnerships to construct and operate roads,... theNewspaper.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1914031/posts#comment Sat, 20 Oct 2007 22:23:51 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1910058/posts Cameras tucked into orange barrels videotaped the license plates of thousands of drivers on Interstate 35 as part of a Texas Department of Transportation study of the busy highway, officials said. The 21 camera points scattered along the I-35 corridor between Dallas and Mexico included two in Central Texas, one north of Round Rock and the other in Kyle. The cameras caught both north- and southbound cars, agency spokeswoman Gaby Garcia said. Critics of last month's study questioned whether it invaded motorists' privacy. But Garcia said the study and others planned for the future are vital to transportation planning and... Austin American-Statesman http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1910058/posts#comment Fri, 12 Oct 2007 01:44:57 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1903817/posts The Texas Department of Transportation is installing traffic signals designed to increase congestion and drive toll road traffic. The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is using traffic signals to create the level of frustration to a point where the public is forced to accept toll roads. Earlier this month in Austin, TxDOT added an extra traffic signal on State Highway 71 to coincide with the opening of the third segment of the State Highway 130 toll road. Residents interviewed by News 8 Austin complained that the change made already bad traffic much worse on nearby free roads. "At its worst... The Newspaper (the Newspaper.com) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1903817/posts#comment Sat, 29 Sep 2007 00:05:19 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1901347/posts ...[The building of the Trans-Texas Corridor] is all too sinister for Jerome Corsi, the Vietnam War veteran who helped lead the Swift Boat charge against John Kerry. Corsi has knitted disparate strands of each of these separate road projects to help convince fellow xenophobes such as Pat Buchanan, Phyllis Schlafly, Lou Dobbs and the John Birch Society that the corridor is the first leg of a secret federal project called the NAFTA Superhighway, a four-football-field wide monstrosity that would run from Mexico's Yucatan to Canada's Yukon... Yet even Texas Rep. Ron Paul, a libertarian Republican candidate for president, has fallen... Reason Magazine ("libertarians") http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1901347/posts#comment Mon, 24 Sep 2007 14:30:30 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1858927/posts 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... Cleburne Times-Review http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1858927/posts#comment Sat, 30 Jun 2007 21:19:13 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1839928/posts House, Senate passage seem likely The careening vehicle that has been this legislative session's toll road overhaul appeared to pull into the garage about 4:35 p.m. Thursday. At that moment, Republican state Sen. Robert Nichols of Jacksonville, after spending several moments huddling on the floor with Sen. Tommy Williams, sponsor of Senate Bill 792, affixed his signature to a compromise version of the bill, and the two shook hands. "We've got a deal now," Williams, R-The Woodlands, said about an hour later. "This is really going to move transportation issues forward, particularly in large metropolitan areas." The deal was among... Austin American-Statesman http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1839928/posts#comment Fri, 25 May 2007 23:01:11 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1831067/posts AUSTIN — Gov. Rick Perry doesn't like a transportation bill Texas lawmakers sent him and threatened Wednesday to call them back to address the issue if no solution is reached before the legislative session ends May 28. "The good news is, there's still time to fix it .... if not, I have no other option as the leader of this state than to bring the Legislature back until we address these issues and we get Texas back to where it can have a vibrant transportation infrastructure," Perry said. Though a two-year moratorium on private toll road contracts is a major... Houston Chronicle http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1831067/posts#comment Thu, 10 May 2007 01:19:56 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1825256/posts AUSTIN -- The Texas Senate passed its second bill this session creating a two-year moratorium on privately funded toll roads Friday, a sharp rebuke of Gov. Rick Perry's plan to solve the state's transportation problems. Senators voted 27-4 to approve the bill, which would prevent the creation of toll roads made by public entities contracting with private companies. The Senate passed a similar bill earlier, but that version appears dead in the House. The version approved Friday easily passed the House this month by a vote of 137-2. The bill's Senate sponsor, Republican Tommy Williams of The Woodlands, said he... Fort Worth Star-Telegram http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1825256/posts#comment Sat, 28 Apr 2007 20:54:03 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1821676/posts Wonder why there is all the fuss over toll roads? Well, we're not talking about traditional toll projects. Gov. Rick Perry and his Transportation Commission are pushing private toll road deals that limit free routes and allow the private operator to charge high tolls. As ex-Transportation Commissioner Sen. Robert Nichols, a stickler for details and the author of a bill to halt comprehensive development agreements, or CDAs, has noted, the devil is in the details. These private toll contracts include noncompete agreements like Cintra's. There will be no improvements made to existing roads or new free routes built within a... San Antonio Express-News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1821676/posts#comment Sun, 22 Apr 2007 19:14:18 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1807703/posts Texas’ largest farm organization is once again describing the Trans Texas Corridor (TTC) as a disaster for farming and ranching operations that lie in the potential path of the TTC and a major mistake for Texas itself. The Texas Farm Bureau is also discovering that there are many allies in opposing the massive highway project, some of them members of the Texas Legislature. “Our members are overwhelmingly opposed to the Trans Texas Corridor,” says TFB President Kenneth Dierschke, a grain and cotton farmer from San Angelo. “There’s never been any doubt that the impact on agriculture would be negative, but... Southwest Farm Press http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1807703/posts#comment Tue, 27 Mar 2007 21:32:15 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1806633/posts ? 2007 WorldNetDaily.com Texas farmers are stepping up their opposition to the Trans-Texas Corridor, a massive highway project that ultimately could take about half a million acres of the state out of agricultural production ? and according to opponents possibly hasten the advent of a North American Union. "Our members are overwhelmingly opposed to the Trans-Texas Corridor," said Farm Bureau President Kenneth Dierschke, a grain and cotton farmer from San Angelo. "There's never been any doubt that the impact on agriculture would be negative, but now we see a growing number of people who believe the TTC would be bad... WorldNetDaily http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1806633/posts#comment Sun, 25 Mar 2007 22:19:59 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1803958/posts Mike Krusee looked tired. The Republican state representative from Williamson County, interviewed at his Capitol office last week, for 10 days or so had been fighting what some people call the creeping crud, a debilitating mixture of cold, flu and allergy symptoms hitting many Central Texans this spring. But Krusee, for much longer than 10 days, has also been fighting the creeping realization among legislators that over the past two sessions, they might have granted Gov. Rick Perry and the Texas Department of Transportation too much power to create toll roads. For the first time in his three sessions as... Austin American-Statesman http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1803958/posts#comment Tue, 20 Mar 2007 21:26:22 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1799679/posts The conventional wisdom among conservatives about the benefits of privatizing government programs is being severely tested in a heretofore largely obscure controversy that is now blossoming in America’s heartland. When up to several thousand people gathered in vigorous protest March 2 at the majestic state capitol in Austin, there were echoes of the formative beginnings of similar grassroots protest movements of other eras, in which the organizers were not professional political activists, but rather genuinely fed-up ordinary citizens motivated by a combination of self-interest and patriotism to seek a legitimate redress of grievances. Almost 30 years ago, a similar citizen... Human Events http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1799679/posts#comment Mon, 12 Mar 2007 20:48:51 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1782964/posts With a major interstate running right through our area traffic is a common topic for Central Texans. How do we solve the problem of more traffic on i-35? Is the Trans Texas Corridor a realistic solution and do we even need it? In part two of our Trans Texas Corridor series we look at the project from a needs angle. There are basically two sides to the Trans Texas Corridor project, those for it and those against. One thing both sides gree on is that something needs to be done. There are twenty one million Texas residents. 45 percent of... KCEN-TV http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1782964/posts#comment Sun, 11 Feb 2007 17:29:17 GMT