Posted on 10/19/2006 7:18:55 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Two private-sector groups have submitted proposals to develop the Trans-Texas Corridor-69, a 600-mile thoroughfare that may wind around Lufkin and Nacogdoches one day.
The bid process is part of the effort to create a public-private partnership that the Texas Department of Transportation says would speed the construction of "one of the state's priority transportation projects."
Trans-Texas Corridor-69, if and when it is built, is expected to connect with Interstate 69, which will stretch from Canada to Mexico. The proposed Texas corridor would start in South Texas and pass Houston, Lufkin and Nacogdoches before hitting Texarkana and/or breaking off into Louisiana.
An ongoing environmental study is expected to narrow TTC-69's proposed route to a four-mile-wide swath — or determine that it shouldn't be built at all. The study began in early 2004. Environmental studies for projects with the scope of TTC-69 typically take five years to complete, according to Ric Williams, chairman of the Texas Transportation Commission.
The two groups that are competing to develop TTC-69, according to TxDOT, are Texas-based Zachry American Infrastructure and ACS Infrastructure Development Inc., and Bluebonnet Infrastructure Investors, led by Cintra.
The proposals detail the groups' experience in developing and financing transportation projects similar to TTC-69, and include conceptual proposals describing how the team would finance, design, construct, operate and maintain the corridor here. Williams, during a visit to Lufkin in April, said TTC-69 would likely be a toll road.
TxDOT's next step, the agency said in its Keep Texas Moving newsletter this week, is to review the proposals, which could be done by next month.
"Teams with experience, qualifications and innovative engineering will be placed on a short list of potential strategic partners for TTC-69," TxDOT stated in the newsletter.
Once the proposals are reviewed, they'll have to be approved by the Texas Transportation Commission. If that happens, TxDOT will request detailed proposals from the short list of potential strategic partners, according to the agency. TxDOT could select a strategic partner by late 2007.
If TTC-69 is environmentally approved, and a strategic partner is in place, the project "would be developed as needed and as private sector resources are available," TxDOT stated in its newsletter.
On the Web: www.keeptexasmoving.com, http://www.txdot.gov/KeepTexasMovingNewsletter/10162006.html#TTC-69
Thursday, October 19, 2006
The only jab that scored against Rick Perry in his last campaign was his opponent’s use of a video from a traffic stop in which Perry told a state trooper to “let us get on down the road.”
Who imagined that our governor would set out, upon re-election, to construct a super highway he could use all by himself?
Perry portrays the Trans-Texas Corridor as the answer to, um, swift motor conveyance.
With the tolls foreseen if and when it ever happens, only Perry could afford it, and only by dipping into his $9 million campaign chest.
Of course, officials with Spanish contractor Cintra-Zachry have been good to Perry. They’ve donated $59,000 this year to his re-election. Maybe he’d get a lifetime toll tag.
Then again he may not live that long. That’s no comment on Perry’s longevity. The state says 2014 is a target date. But none of us may live to see Perry’s ultimate road trip.
When I read that it might cost $15 in projected tolls to drive from Waco to Austin on it, I visualized two things: (1) me never using it; (2) the bullet train that wasn’t.
You may remember the bullet train. In the ’90s, Texas went though similar rigmarole with it. It would have had some of the same characteristics. The leading suitor was a foreign company (French). The plan inflamed landowners far and wide. And the state was committed to spending no money constructing it.
Ultimately, the plan fell apart largely on the latter concern. It was not feasible to build a high-speed rail without a considerable state subsidy. Of course, it’s absurd that subsidy of an alternative means of transportation should be verboten if the state really needs it. See how taxpayers subsidize vehicular and air travel.
Now we have a proposed mega-superhighway to be funded by tolls alone. No tax dollars going that-away. No, sir.
Well, I’m here to tell you that if tolls are going to 15.2 cents per mile for cars and 58.5 cents per mile for trucks (Texas Department of Transportation projections), you can set speed limits however you want on the Trans-Texas Corridor. The only vehicles on it will be Brinks trucks hauling gold ingots and that solitary limousine carrying an ex-governor of Texas who still, even in 2014, has good hair.
Maybe by 2014 we’ll know the details of the state’s contract with Cintra-Zachry, something Attorney General Greg Abbott has sued to obtain but which Perry and Co. have fought.
It’s proprietary, see? Perry believes in contracting government out whenever possible. And with it goes pertinent information that is “proprietary” and none of your business, even if the contract is awarded in your name.
[Note to Mr. Young: the proprietary info has been released. --TSR]
A WFAA report calls Nov. 7 a “referendum on the Trans-Texas Corridor.” Maybe so. Of course, with a field split between four major candidates, three of whom are blasting the TTC, even the loser in this referendum is likely to win.
The real referendum, if this boondoogle proceeds, will be in motorists who vote with their bumpers. They’ll opt for clogged interstates over confiscatory tolls by a foreign company.
Maybe Texas should just pay for better highways, and for rail alternatives, you know?
John Young’s column appears Thursday and Sunday.
Associated Press' FACT CHECK Wrong - OCT. 15, 2006
The Associated Press released analysis of a campaign ad today erroneously stating that Spain-based Cintra holds a 65-percent equity position in Cintra Zachry LP. That's wrong. The correct equity position is 85-percent with Zachry Construction holding the small 15-percent equity balance. Zachry holds a larger 35-percent position in their collaboration with Cintra on SH-130 segments 5 and 6.
Associated Press also questions the claim, "largest land grab in Texas history." The AP compares the 4,000 miles of the TTC to 41,755 miles of Texas farm-to-market roads (1946-1989). In doing so they miss the glaring difference of added land being taken for utilities, rail and other purposes. Land taken for farm-to-market (and ranch-to-market) roads range typically from 60-feet to 90-feet in width and many were constructed where roads had already existed. The TTC, with a width of 1,200-feet, requires 13 to 20 times more land than a farm-to-market road. All the farm-to-market roads built over the last 50-years do not consume anywhere near as much land as the TTC.
Trans-Texas Corridor PING!
But everybody says that there are no bids open, and the Governor gave permission to Cintra in a back room deal. Zachry has an outstanding track record in Texas and the southern US.
Uh-Oh. Hydroshock has been outed!
BTTT
bump.
carrying an ex-governor of Texas who still, even in 2014, has good hair.
Thanks for the ping!
You're welcome. :-)
All of these super highway deals need to be put before the voters of Texas in a special election. These roads effect way too many people and their lands for all this to be done behind closed-doors. The Legislature was 'less than honest' in the way they presented the funding issues to the voters in earlier elections.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.