Commission favors loop around D-FW

AUSTIN - A proposed toll road that would encircle Dallas-Fort Worth has a new nickname: the Doughnut.

Texas Transportation Commission members passed out Krispy Kreme doughnuts Thursday to symbolize their support for the outer loop, which would be built in segments from 2011 to 2030 as part of the Trans-Texas Corridor.

They also celebrated the commission's approval Thursday of a new road-building partnership among Metroplex cities and counties, the North Texas Tollway Authority and the state. The partnership would also work with any companies wishing to build private toll roads in the area.

"We are committed to the Doughnut," commission Chairman Ric Williamson declared, raising a pastry to about 30 visiting North Texans.

Dozens of boxes of doughnuts were brought into the meeting and passed to speakers and the audience. They were courtesy of Gov. Rick Perry, Williamson said.

Perry came out in support of the Metroplex's outer loop plan earlier this month. Several people referred to its doughnut shape, and the nickname stuck like wet sugar.

Metroplex leaders asked that Trans-Texas be built close to Metroplex roads, rather than going east of Dallas and bypassing the metro area.

Part of the loop would fit snugly around Tarrant County, following Johnson County's Farm Road 917 to the south and the Parker County line to the west.

The federal environmental review on the proposed route is expected to be completed in the next few years.

North Texas' support for Trans-Texas stood out during 54 hearings statewide this summer. Most of the nearly 3,000 Texans who spoke or submitted comments about the project were against it.

Planning for the 210-mile loop must start now, said Michael Morris, transportation director for the North Central Texas Council of Governments. "We think this right of way must be acquired as soon as possible," Morris said, adding that the longer the wait, the more expensive and developed the land will be.

To show support for local control of roads, commissioners stepped down from their dais and held Thursday's meeting at a conference table, sitting with Regional Transportation Council members.

Commissioners approved a plan that allows Metroplex leaders to solve road problems with a consensus of agencies -- including the RTC, the tollway authority and state officials.

As part of the new power-sharing deal, the Plano-based tollway authority has agreed to build several projects, including Southwest Parkway in Fort Worth, and an extension of Texas 121 to Cleburne.

Meanwhile, the Texas Department of Transportation has agreed to seek private-sector development agreements on projects such as Grapevine Funnel toll lanes, Texas 161 in Grand Prairie and Texas 121 in Collin County.

Future work will be decided by the RTC, whose members include the Transportation Department and the tollway authority.

One interesting example may be Texas 121 south of Fort Worth, which state officials say could generate $625 million for future road projects if built as a private toll road.

The tollway authority has dibs on that project, but under the new deal, it must specify how much excess revenue will be paid to the RTC.

Spanish firm to build and run new PFI toll road in Texas

Grupo Ferrovial, Spain’s construction, infrastructure and services giant, had a busy summer acquiring airports in the UK and Peru. Now it has a concession to build and operate a Texas superhighway.

Construction of the new toll road project, designed to develop an alternative route to Interstate 35 as part of the planned Trans-Texas Corridor is due to start early next year.

This is has been agreed by the Texas Department of Transport under a comprehensive development deal with the Spanish company Cintra - Concesiones de Infrastructuras de Transporte, a member of the Ferrovial group.

Cintra’s partner for the five-year road building programme is the San Antonio-based contractor Zachry Construction Corp, but Ferrovial’s construction company Agroman is getting a share in the business.

Zachry joined with Cintra in a scheme to provide private investment worth $6 billion. The assignment is to design, build and operate a four-lane toll road covering the 500 km distance between Dallas and San Antonio, bypassing the State capital at Austin.

For this concession Cintra is paying the State of Texas $1.2 billion. It gives them the right to build and operate this initial segment of the intended Trans-Texas Corridor.

This would be part of the ‘super-highway’ spanning the United States from the Mexican border at Laredo, making its way through Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma and connecting with the Canadian highway system north of Duluth, Minnesota.

Because it would provide a connection all the way between Canada and Mexico, the project is also described as the North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA) super highway.

The project as conceived by Cintra and its partners and endorsed by the Texas transport department is certainly ambitious. They have talked about developing a corridor providing two lanes for high speed trucks and three for passenger vehicles in each direction, plus high speed and freight railway lines, possibly also telecommunication cables and oil, gas and water pipelines in an adjacent utilities corridor.

But a corridor of this overall width – maybe as much as 360 m - has alarmed people who stand forced to surrender property in land and buildings to the project. This concern has been sharpened by the disclosure that, citing a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling, the developers intend to exercise the principle of ‘eminent domain’ in land acquisition proceedings on the grounds that they are acting as agents of a public authority.

The developers apparently believe that such rights, once established in Texas, could then be applied across the entire 6,500 km length of the NAFTA highway. Whether that proves to be so depends on the outcome of any challenge that might be launched against such a claim.

The Cintra-Zachry partnership is however in a strong position because they have already secured an agreement granting them the right to develop the new highway in Texas. They have also put money down for the privilege.

The first concession within the Trans-Texas Corridor has already been awarded to Cintra. According to a statement by parent company Ferrovial, construction is expected to start early in 2007 once environmental and other permits have been obtained.

These initial contracts, to build two segments of the new toll road 64 km between Austin and Seguin will be performed 50 per cent each by Ferrovial’s construction subsidiary Agroman and Zachry, which has won around $180 million worth of road contracts already this year from the Texas Department of Transport.

Total construction investment in the new contracts is said to be $1.3 billion.

“The new highway”, the statement explained, “will offer an alternative to I-35 between San Antonio and north Austin, making it possible to avoid the highly congested area of central Austin on medium and long-distance journeys.

“The new high capacity road will absorb growth in long-distance truck traffic expected as a result of trade agreements between the United States, Mexico and Canada.”

Cintra has also recently taken over management of the Indiana Toll Road (ITR) after paying $3.8 billion to the State’s finance authority for the transfer of the asset. In a 50:50 consortium with the Australian bank Macquarie, Cintra now has charge of this 250 km highway which links Chicago with the eastern seaboard of the United States.

The concession will run over 75 years.

The company commented: “The project reinforces Cintra’s presence in the U.S., a strategic market for the company: it has a 99-year concession to operate the Chicago Skyway ($1.83 billion) which links with the Indiana Toll Road, and it is a strategic partner of the State of Texas for 50 years to develop the Trans-Texas Corridor, one of the most ambitious infrastructure projects ever undertaken in the United States.”

CorridorWatch.org SLAMS TRANSPORTATION COMMISSION FOR PANDERING

082406 - CorridorWatch.org PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Today's Texas Transportation Commission meeting included an item titled, "Report on public comments from the Dallas/Fort Worth region concerning the Tier One Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed Trans-Texas Corridor (the Oklahoma to Mexico/Gulf Coast Element) project." [August 24, 2006, Agenda Item 7a]

Today's discussion follows last week's letter from Governor Perry to Transportation Chairman Williamson reportedly asking TxDOT to take into consideration North Texas' wishes for a highway route not currently part of the TTC-35 plan.

David Stall of CorridorWatch.org says, "On its face it might look like the Governor, the Commission and TxDOT are listening to the citizens of Texas." But Stall says today's meeting sends a strikingly different message. "What today's discussion tell us is that while responding to political pressure from the Dallas-Fort Worth area the rest of Texas is being completely ignored."

Stall who planned to watch and listen to this morning's discussion via the TxDOT Internet website was disappointed to find that neither he nor others could access the streaming video feature today. "I was looking forward to hearing Williamson pander to Dallas and Fort Worth while thumbing his nose at virtually every other community up and down the proposed TTC-35 route." "It's quite a reversal for Williamson who has previously described their concerns as whining and dismissed their pleas until they began to have a political consequence," said Stall.

Altogether 14,000 people attended this series of TTC-35 hearings. 1,600 citizens turned out in Temple, 900 in San Antonio, 1,000 in Waco, 700 in Floresville, and thousands more at the long list of hearings held outside the Dallas-Fort Worth region. "So where’s the discussion about their public comments?," asks Stall.

We expect TxDOT will tell us that North Texas presented them with an alternative plan and that made their case different. Stall agrees, but points out that North Texas has presented that same plan to TxDOT several times over the last few years and yet it had been rejected from TTC-35 consideration until just now.

Stall also points out that one of the official alternates is always the 'no-build' alternative plan. Stall said, "If they listen to the 1,103 Texans who spoke at TTC-35 public hearings they would hear strong support for a very clear plan, don’t build it!"

Of course neither Governor Perry nor Chairman Williamson can dictate the route selection process regulated by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Today's peace offering is merely symbolic. Formal consideration of the route requested by North Texas officials would have occurred as a result of their comments alone, without action by Perry or Williamson. "It's kind of like taking their watch off and giving it to them as a gift," says Stall. "It's something they already had."

It is nothing more than political pandering and an insult to the thousands of Texans whose concerns about the Trans Texas Corridor are falling on deaf ears in Austin. Whether it's Holland or San Antonio, citizen concerns those communities also deserve Commission discussion and honest consideration.

CorridorWatch.org has previously filed a complaint with the Federal Highway Administration expressing a belief that the alternatives raised for consideration out the hearing will be evaluated against the same narrowly defined criteria that excluded them during the original review. Therefore CorridorWatch.org expects the outcome to remain the same. If so, the North Texas plan will still be left behind with the TTC-35 corridor moves on.

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David Stall has been a vocal critic of the Trans-Texas Corridor since its inception. Together with his wife Linda Stall they formed CorridorWatch.org who operates a very active website. The Stalls have traveled across Texas educating the public and elected officials about the TTC.

CorridorWatch.org has testified and provided comments on the TTC-35 draft environmental impact statement. CorridorWatch.org’s oral and written comments are available on the organization’s website.

CorridorWatch.org is a not-for-profit organization with members who live in, or own property in, 186 Texas counties.

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CorridorWatch.org, Inc.
Fayetteville, TX 78940-5468
"Challenging the Wisdom of the Trans-Texas Corridor"

CorridorWatch.org, is an organization of more than 5,000 concerned Texans and public officials who question the wisdom of the Trans-Texas Corridor. CorridorWatch.org members can be found in 186 counties across Texas. Our mission is to increase public awareness and understanding of the Trans-Texas Corridor and its impact on Texas and all Texans.

For More Information Visit Us on the Internet: www.CorridorWatch.org

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