Posted on 08/17/2006 3:49:52 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
A plan to bring the proposed Trans-Texas Corridor project closer to the heart of North Texas is getting a boost from Gov. Rick Perry.
Since April, North Texas leaders have prodded state officials to alter their study maps to include a highway route that circles Dallas and Fort Worth. Until now, the state's preferred study area has prominently featured a route that only clips southeast Dallas County.
The local lobbying efforts may have paid off.
Mr. Perry has asked the Texas Department of Transportation to take into consideration North Texas' wishes, department officials said late Tuesday. In a letter to be formally delivered to the Transportation Department today, the governor has asked that area leaders' concerns be reflected in an ongoing study to determine the path for the corridor's new toll roads, rail lines and utility lines.
"That is a victory," said Dallas City Council member Bill Blaydes, who joined many other elected leaders in pushing for the closer route. "It's the right thing to do. When North Texas leaders step up as one body, you've got to sit up and take notice."
The closer route, Mr. Blaydes said, would help spur economic development in more urban areas, including South Dallas.
State leaders want to build the corridor – complete with new toll roads, rail lines and utility lines – to ease congestion on Interstate 35. The road could run from the Red River to the Rio Grande.
With months or years of federal reviews still to come, it's difficult to say whether Mr. Perry's request will change the final decision. A final route could be decided next year. That route would then be subject to lengthy environmental studies.
But getting the route on the board now means less worry later for local leaders.
(Excerpt) Read more at dallasnews.com ...
She sees no need to expand corridor from South Texas to San Antonio
By CLAY ROBISON
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau
AUSTIN — U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, apparently trying to distance herself from Gov. Rick Perry on the controversial toll road issue, said Wednesday she was "very concerned" about how Perry's proposed Trans-Texas Corridor would route new highways across the state.
She said bypasses to major, congested freeways, including Interstate 35, are needed, but she said it was unnecessary to build a toll road connecting South Texas to San Antonio.
"I just don't see the need for that, and I think the taking of property for that is a very serious matter that needs to be studied carefully," she said after addressing the Texas Association of Counties.
Preferred route
The stretch of Interstate 35 between San Antonio and Laredo is designated as the preferred route for that section of the proposed Trans Texas Corridor. No decision has been made on whether tolls would be imposed on that section of highway, but Perry spokeswoman Kathy Walt didn't rule out the possibility.
As outlined by the Texas Department of Transportation, toll roads would play an important role in the development of the overall corridor, a cross-state transportation network proposed by Perry to relieve congestion on existing highways.
A transportation corridor a quarter-mile wide, which also would include rail and utility lines, is envisioned.
"Under the governor's leadership, we have a solid solution to the long-term, transportation infrastructure needs of this state," Walt said. "We look forward to hearing ideas the senator or anyone else might want to propose in meeting those transportation needs."
A route that would parallel Interstate 35 from north to south across Texas is now the subject of a series of public hearings.
'Land grabbing' plan
Hutchison's Democratic challenger, Houston attorney Barbara Ann Radnofsky, also has attacked the plan. Calling it a "land grabbing, triple taxing, community ruining" idea, Radnofsky planned to testify against it at a public hearing in North Texas tonight.
Most of the opposition is from rural Texans, who don't want to give up their land for right-of-way or fear their farms and ranches will be harmed by new highways and related development along the route.
"I'm very concerned about the Trans-Texas Corridor," Hutchison said.
She said parts are "very necessary" but questioned whether there has been enough public input, despite the hearings.
She called for a "whole lot more study of the routes," and said the state needed to make sure it was adequately using existing right of way.
"I'm not saying I'm against another route for bypassing the major, clogged freeways that we have. Interstate 35 is a parking lot," she said. "But I think that going too far outside of the major metropolitan areas is an issue that should be resolved."
$10M from Perry's elite (Dallas Morning News, 08/17/2006, Excerpt)
Corridor Players
Three highway contractors benefiting from the Trans-Texas Corridor have been major Perry contributors since the late 1990s.
H.B. Zachry, whose San Antonio construction company is a partner in the project, began giving annual contributions of $10,000 after Mr. Perry was elected lieutenant governor in 1998. After Mr. Perry succeeded Mr. Bush as governor, the contributions grew to at least $25,000 a year.
Two other construction executives whose companies have state contracts as part of Mr. Perry's toll-road initiative – James Dannenbaum and James Pitcock, both of Houston – first gave $25,000 contributions to Mr. Perry when he was lieutenant governor.
The Texas Department of Transportation, which is overseen by Perry appointees, chooses the contractors. And some Perry contributors were unsuccessful bidders on the project.
A review of campaign records indicates that Fluor Enterprises Inc., which headed one consortium whose bid to develop the project was not selected by the state, gave $12,500 to Mr. Perry in 2002. Another unsuccessful consortium included the Houston law firm of Vinson & Elkins, which is among Mr. Perry's $25,000-a-year givers.
It's not time for anyone to claim victory, but those fighting for a North Texas-friendly design of the futuristic Trans-Texas Corridor just got some powerful backup.
Gov. Rick Perry sent an important, common-sense message to state planners by directing them to take a closer look at a map favored by Dallas-Fort Worth.
While picking the road-rail-utility tollway's final route still must rely on objective measures, the governor's order has big symbolic value. And it shouldn't be lost on anyone that the picking will be done by the governor-appointed transportation commission.
The process is far from over, but here's where things stand:
State planners are about to wrap up a series of 55 hearings on a tentative map for the giant, privately financed transportation swath, designed to relieve Interstate 35 from Mexico to Oklahoma. That original configuration hugs the interstate as it approaches from the south, then makes a wide swing to the east and bypasses most of Dallas-Fort Worth.
Local planners and elected officials have been promoting a better option: Meet local transportation needs for a super-outer loop while also reaching the state's overall goal of ensuring movement of people and goods for decades to come.
The local option, resembling a big doughnut on the map, gives the entire metro area vital access to the north-south transit pathway.
The governor's order touched on one important point for this region: the success of local leaders in making a unified pitch to Austin.
Crucial to that effort has been the work of local leaders including Dallas City Council member Bill Blaydes; Wendy Davis, Regional Transportation Council chairwoman and Fort Worth City Council member; and Michael Morris, director of transportation for the North Central Texas Council of Governments.
Bell calls on Strayhorn to return $29,500 (08/09/2006, Excerpt)
Associated Press
SAN ANTONIO — Democratic gubernatorial nominee Chris Bell on Wednesday challenged Carole Keeton Strayhorn, comptroller and independent candidate for governor, to return nearly $30,000 she received from a family that's now involved in a partnership to develop the first phase of the Trans-Texas Corridor.
Bell said the contributions to Strayhorn from members of the Zachry family, which owns Zachry Construction Corp., show "we can't believe a word she says about stopping toll roads until she returns every cent she's taken from the company that's building the toll roads."
Strayhorn spokesman Mark Sanders noted that the money came in before a deal on the project was reached and that Strayhorn has no intention of returning it.
"It's a nonissue," he said. "This is just a bogus political charge by a professional politician."
Strayhorn and Bell have spoken out against the corridor, which calls for 4,000-plus miles of tollways and railways across the state that would incorporate oil and gas pipelines, utility and water lines and even broadband.
The contributions Bell cited total $29,500 between November 2000 and June 2004. Strayhorn has been Texas comptroller since 1998.
Vicky Waddy, a spokeswoman for Zachry Construction, said the family would never ask for the money back. She said the company's ownership is supporting Gov. Rick Perry in the November election.
Zachry Construction has partnered with Madrid, Spain-based Cintra, one of the world's largest private transportation developers, to develop a traffic route running roughly parallel to Interstate 35. Cintra-Zachry proposes paying $7.2 billion to build the first segments. For that, it would get to operate the road and collect tolls for years to come.
Trans-Texas Corridor PING!
HB Zachery is a big contributer to Perry's campaign. Follow the money.
Well if we are going to do that kind of analysis, since in your posts you have endorsed several candidates, none of them Republican, and trashed several Republican candidates, we can assume that you are actively working against the GOP and conservatism in Texas.
Halliburton is a big GOP contributor. Are you alleging that the Iraq war was really about rewarding contributors with fat reconstruction and military contracts? Same line of reasoning.
"HB Zachery is a big contributer to Perry's campaign. Follow the money"
What's the news. We all know Perry is no less corrupt than Gray Davis was (in California). It's time to move on, we've elected a crook, now let's just accept it.
I am actively working against rino governors in TX and his cronies.
BTTT
bump.
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