We wouldn't want to forget that burgeoning technology now would we?
Posted on 03/23/2005 3:52:35 AM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
HOUSTON – For four generations, Clarence Friedrich's family has farmed the land in Fayette County, Texas. Like many Germans who settled the area in the 1800s, the family has an attachment to the land that runs deeper than corn or cattle.
It's part of Mr. Friedrich's heritage, his story. But Texas is looking to the future, not the past, in developing a new transportation system that could slice up his 350 acres and countless farms like it.
The colossal $184-billion project would interlace the state with 4,000 miles of tolls roads - up to a quarter mile wide in some places - a Trans-Texas Corridor built entirely with private money.
Planners of the Texas-size project cite a booming state population, bustling border business, and the promise of several million new jobs. But while many praise the project as a farsighted use of public-private partnership, others criticize it as a possible boondoggle that will steal revenue from small communities and affect landowners along three corridors crisscrossing the state.
"We don't have no say-so if the state wants to take our land," says Friedrich, fresh off the tractor after a day of planting corn.
Gov. Rick Perry, who unveiled the plan in 2002, calls the Trans-Texas Corridor the most ambitious transportation plan since the creation of the interstate highway system in 1956. He says it will bring the state billions of dollars in revenue and much needed relief for overcrowded freeways - all with no taxpayer money.
In December, the Spanish firm Cintra was selected to build the first segment, a 316-mile, $7.2 billion road east of Interstate 35 from San Antonio to Dallas. The firm will charge tolls for 50 years while renting the right-of-way from the state.
Such public/private partnerships are the way of the future, says John Horsley, executive director of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. Already, dozens of projects are in the works in states across the nation, with the miles of toll roads expected to double to about 10,000 in the next 10 years. Projects include:
"There are many other toll projects under way in the United States, but nothing rivals the scale of what Texas is engaged in," says Mr. Horsley.
One of the most important things Texas is doing is identifying and preserving corridors to serve its transportation needs for several generations, he says. "Very few states are thinking that far out."
But identifying and preserving those corridors is making many counties nervous. Though the routes are not yet finalized, a dozen counties have already publicly opposed the corridor because it diverts revenue from their communities. The Trans-Texas Corridor has no provisions for off-ramps, and it gives developers exclusive rights to build gas stations, restaurants, and hotels to service the toll roads. Communities worry that a significant source of their revenue will dry up.
David Stall, who founded Corridor Watch to monitor the project, began questioning the project when he was city manager of Columbus, Texas. Through traffic on Interstate 10 accounted for 80 percent of the city's sales tax, he says, twice what property taxes pulled in. "Yes, we need roads. Yes, we need rail," says Mr. Stall. "But don't go out and take thousands and thousands of acres of private land to generate revenue for a foreign corporation just because the state can ride along and take a piece of the profit."
Texas economist Ray Perryman says the plan would generate more than $13 billion per year in state revenue upon completion and create some 2.6 million permanent jobs. In addition, he says, the state will be able to lure industry by offering more efficient shipping routes.
The plan calls for 10 lanes for cars and trucks, six rail tracks, and pipelines for oil, natural gas, water, electricity, and telecommunications. The price of the tolls is undetermined, but the speed limit would be 85 miles per hour.
Several legislators believe the plan is too big, too secretive, and too costly, and three bills have been introduced this session in an effort to scale it down. Environmentalists and landowners are also lining up to label the project as overkill.
Joe Maley of the Texas Farm Bureau says the 146 acres per mile allotted for the corridor is excessive. He warns about farms and ranches being split by a road with few ways across.
But for many, the protest is about more than business. Letting his mind wander back to his childhood when he would play dominoes on the porch, fish in the creeks, and hunt in the woods, Friedrich gets emotional about his family's land and the possibility of a river of asphalt running through it. "They say you can't stop progress," he says, "but this progress is going to hurt a lot of people."
I have read that roads fill to capacity no matter how many lanes you build. Seems true here in NJ.
The Time Has Come: ACT NOW (03.20.05)
THE TIME TO ACT IS NOW!
Margaret Mead said, "A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."
NOW is the time for OUR small group to change the world.
We have been given an opportunity to postpone the otherwise certain development of the Trans-Texas Corridor and the statewide proliferation of state toll roads.
Each of us has a solemn responsibility to do whatever it takes to protect our rights and those of our fellow Texans. As citizens, we have every right to demand that our state government listen to the people it represents. The only means we have to protect our rights is to exercise them.
WE MUST CALL ON THOSE ELECTED TO REPRESENT US TO DO JUST THAT – REPRESENT US AND OUR CONCERNS.
Call and write your State Representative.
Call and write your State Senator.
Call your County Judge and Commissioner.
Ask for their support of the provisions found in HB-3363. Demand that the state slow down the rush for toll roads and allow voters, taxpayers, and citizens the opportunity to understand and evaluate the unavoidable impact that the Trans-Texas Corridor and toll roads will have on Texas.
Call your neighbors, friends, and family throughout the state. Ask them to do as you have and give us all the opportunity to look before TxDOT leaps.
IF WE DO NOT ACT ON THIS OPPORTUNITY OUR CAUSE MAY BE LOST.
Generations of Texans, our children and grandchildren, will bear the costs and burdens of bad decisions motivated by greed and made in haste. It is one thing to study an issue and despite everyone’s best efforts make a bad decision, but to rush forward with reckless abandon is unforgivable.
David & Linda Stall
CorridorWatch.org
Fayetteville, Texas
1/4 mile wide? Is this a 250 lane road???
Nope. There'll be ten lanes (six for cars, four for trucks), six rail lines, and a utilities zone.
Trans-Texas Corridor PING!
85 mph? Most excellent.
BTTT!!!!!!
Lets see. 85 MPH speed limit and you can usually drive 7-8 miles above the limit with impunity. 92-93 MPH legally is almost like a Texan autobahn. I could have the same fun I did several years ago racing across the wide open spaces of Montana but alot closer to home in Louisiana.
We'll really move those mexicans through now.
Is it the reponsibility of government to meet the demands of the public, or is it the responsibility of the public to meet the demands of government?
Will it include a special lane for vans carring twenty or more passengers?
For sure we will need "Wecome Stations" for those people entering the country and needing information on finding work, free health care, public schools where one does not have to speak english, etc.
Because of gasoline prices the speed limit will be reduced to 45 mph
I can support most of this but without the access ramps being specified this will NOT get my support at the polls.
hahahahahahahahahah. You think you're going to have an opportunity to vote on it? Hahahahahahahahahahhahaha. The state of Texas doesn't care one wit what you want. Perry is going to get this thing started, and will retire (along with many of his cronys) to a generous job with Cintas.
This is corrupt Texas politics at its worse.
Yes and No
the problem is that by the time these things get passed and actual construction begins they are already outdated. ie if studies show that a 3 lane highway is needed to compensate for growth in 3 years by the time it works its way through the legislature, gets underway then completed it could take over 10 years etc. by that time capacity has exceeded to 4 lanes.
We wouldn't want to forget that burgeoning technology now would we?
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