Texas Governor Leads Superhighway Rally

WorldNetDaily ^ | September 1, 2006

[Man50D]

Texas Gov. Rick Perry has led a pep rally for a $7 billion highway project that will loop around the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area, but is being opposed by landowners who will see their private property taken by the state.

A report on KWTX said the tollway to be built by the Spanish-based Cinta-Zachry consortium is part of an "ambitious" $184 billion plan for a network of superhighway transportation corridors around the state.

Those, in turn, are expected to be part of the nationwide network of NATFA superhighways that are planned to run from Mexico to Canada, dividing the United States into economic and social districts.

The rally in DeSoto featured handshakes among local government officials who say they have sought the project for some time, over the opposition of property owners whose land would be taken for the massive project.

Staff members for the state Department of Transportation are working to compile and evaluate the comments that were submitted at the dozens of public hearings on the project where residents could ask questions and register opinions, the report said.

A decision from the Federal Highway Administration on environmental concerns is expected in 2007.

This portion of the superhighways complex is expected to run east of Interstate 35, promoters said in the report.

The Cintra-Zachry consortium already has been given a contract by the state for the first portion of what is expected to be a 4,000-mile network of quarter-mile-wide transportation corridors across Texas, the report said.

Up to six separate passenger vehicle lanes, with another four for trucks, two high speed passenger rail tracks, two more for freight trains and a variety of other features are planned.

Cintra partnered with the San Antonio-based Zachry Construction to make plans for the work, the report said.

Cintra plans to spend $6 billion on the first portion of the corridor and plans to pay the state $1.2 billion and then will have the right to run the road and charge tolls for 50 years, plans show.

[Dallas59]

In twenty years the NAU will be ready to roll...I wonder what our money will look like?

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

One way to reward Spain for bailing out in Iraq and getting a socialist government.

Steal land to reward foreign governments.

[KarinG1]

TTC ping

[Louis Foxwell]

By the time this massive enterprise is completed transportation will no longer be earthbound and the roadway can be used for housing.
BINGO and the UN agency on biodiversity have already drawn up the maps and published the policy. This superhighway system will be a reverse nature corridor in which humans will be restricted to asphalt corridors.
Say it ain't so.

[isthisnickcool]

Rick Perry doesn't have the grey matter to put such a thing like the TTC together. As one other Freeper put it the other day, "Perry as a dumbass, but he's our dumbass".

This is one of those monster government projects that rapes the taxpayer who never gets to see the wizard behind the curtain. It's like the "big dig", I imagine that whoever made the "big bucks" off of that "project from hell" is smiling on a beach somewhere. Somewhere far far away.

As the song says "Don't it always seem as so you don't know what ya got til it's gona? Pave paradise (Texas) and put in a parking lot".

I've seen Rick perry, I've met Rick perry, I'll say one thing about thing about him for sure, "nice hair".

[DustyMoment]

In the face of massive disapproval by voters in the public meetings held around the state about this project, I cannot understand why Perry wants to push ahead with it. Somebody must have promised him something under the table to make this worth his while.

For the most part, Rick Perry has been a good governor and had a good political career - I simply cfannot fathom why he wants to blow it all on this unwanted, unpopular boondoggle that turns Texas into "flyover country".

[nativist]

For the most part, Rick Perry has been a good governor and had a good political career - I simply cfannot fathom why he wants to blow it all on this unwanted, unpopular boondoggle that turns Texas into "flyover country".

I agree. It reminds me of Bush's attitude toward illegal immigration and his hostility to his own constituents who are against it.

Its time to concede that there are powers that want a NWO and it starts with The EU and the NAU. While the Dems get our attention with their cowardly appeasing filthy Socialist agenda, the Powers in the Republican party are selling us out for the buck. The love of money truly is the root of all evil.

I guess Bush Sr., Clinton, and W are all in the same club when it comes to this.

[MissAmericanPie]

If this is going to be voted on, I think it will be defeated. I don't think most Americans are keen on any of our foreign allies right now, or having to pay to drive on a road that their tax money built. Besides, Dallas already has Loop 12 and it's free.

[Outland]

"Those, in turn, are expected to be part of the nationwide network of NATFA superhighways that are planned to run from Mexico to Canada, dividing the United States into economic and social districts."

Last I read -and I may be mistaken-, there hasn't been any congressional approval for this, yet it's moving forward.

[GarySpFc]

Yes, it is moving forward. The plans call for 10 lanes of highway, 6 sets of railroad tracks, with a corrodor for communications and I believe pipelines. The whole thing will be as wide as 4 football fields. The thought of over 1,000 trucks per day driven by Mexican drivers, without American driver's licenses is not appealing to say the least. Most of the goods will come from new Mexican ports being built on the Pacific Coast – ports being run by Chinese state-controlled shipping companies.

NAFTA superhighway to mean Mexican drivers, say Teamsters Union warns of drug-taking truckers, unsafe rigs on planned trade routes

"Tens of thousands of unregulated, unsafe Mexican trucks will flow unchecked through out border – a very real threat to the safety of our highways, homeland security and good-paying American jobs," writes Teamster President Jim Hoffa. "The Bush administration hasn't given up on its ridiculous quest to open our border to unsafe Mexican trucking companies. In fact, Bush is quietly moving forward with plans to build the massive network of highways from the Mexican border north through Detroit into Canada that would make cross-border trucking effortless."

So incensed was the union over the plan for the NAFTA superhighway that it sent investigative reporter Charles Bowden to Mexico for its August magazine report on the problems affecting Mexican drivers – problems that could soon come home to Americans with the plans for the new intercontinental highways.

Drivers interviewed for the magazine report say they are exploited by companies that force them to drive 4,500 kilometers alone over the course of five or six nights without sleep. How do they stay awake on such long hauls?

One driver says, "professional secret." Another laughs, "magic dust." Others mention "special chemicals."

"And then they are off, a torrent of words and quips and smiles, and a knowing discussion of that jolt when a line of cocaine locks in," writes Bowden. "They are all family men who run the highways at least 25 days a month and they are adamant about two things – that nobody can run these long hauls without cocaine and crystal meth, and now and then some marijuana to level out the rush. And the biggest danger on their endless runs comes from addicted Mexican truck drivers, which means all truck drivers."

Mexican drivers, of course, earn considerably less than their U.S. counterparts – about $1,100 a month. Hoffa says the NAFTA superhighway plan would "allow global conglomerates to capitalize by exploiting cheap labor and non-existent work rules and avoiding potential security enhancements at U.S. ports."

The drivers interviewed for Teamster magazine say they are completely at the mercy of their employers, the Mexican government and police – who are the first to rob them. All of those interviewed said they have killed people with their trucks on the highways and fled the accident sites.

[zeugma]

I simply cfannot fathom why he wants to blow it all on this unwanted, unpopular boondoggle that turns Texas into "flyover country".

It is really quite simple. Crony capitalism at its finest. The only reason Perry doesn't have a (D) by his name is because he knows that a democrat cannot be elected to statewide office in Texas.

[Gritty]

What in hell is wrong with this guy anyhow!!??

[1rudeboy]

You know, the last time you posted that Teamster BS you got shot down. What makes you think you won't be again?

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

The Roads Must Roll by Robert Heinlein.

It covers this issue.

[DustyMoment]

The thought of over 1,000 trucks per day driven by Mexican drivers, without American driver's licenses is not appealing to say the least.

Would these trucks and their drivers be subject to regulatory authority by the DOT? I see them periodically running sweeps on truckers here in central FloriDUH and, it almost seems as though anything with more than 4 wheels or a name like Mack, Kenworth or Peterbilt will get you pulled over by the DOT. Any chance of that occuring with the Mexican trucks/drivers?

[1rudeboy]

I'm not sure how much leeway Texas will get, but all trucks, Mexican or otherwise, must conform to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's NAFTA Rules.

[1rudeboy]

. . . Mexican carriers applying to operate anywhere in the United States will be required to have a distinctive USDOT number, have their vehicles pass a safety inspection, and undergo intensified safety monitoring during an 18-month provisional period, and provide supplemental safety certifications as part of the application process. Mexican commercial vehicles will be permitted to enter the United States only at commercial border crossings and only when a certified motor carrier safety inspector is on duty.

The regulations also will require Mexican carriers operating in the United States to have a drug and alcohol-testing program, a system of compliance with U.S. federal hours-of-service requirements, adequate data and safety management systems, and valid insurance with a U.S. registered insurance company. The carrier's ability to meet these requirements will be verified by a safety audit conducted by qualified U.S. inspectors prior to receiving provisional authority to operate to and from the U.S.

At least half of these safety audits, which are to be conducted by qualified inspectors, must take place in Mexico. In addition to safety audits, all Mexican carriers granted provisional operating authority will undergo full safety compliance reviews during the 18-month provisional period.

Source.

[GarySpFc]

You know, the last time you posted that Teamster BS you got shot down. What makes you think you won't be again?

Liar! No, I did not get shot down. I simply did not respond to your nonsense. You wanted me to detail why this is not a good program. If you're that dense there is little point in dealing with you.