Trans-Texas Corridor PING!
ping
maybe instead of a road he should build a pyramid.
Funny how they never say who owns these companies. Can you say middle east oil as in someone like Ben's family.
This is theft at the highest levels of state government. I-35 was initially built with public funds and, over its lifetime, it has been bought and paid for several times over. It can no more be given away to someone than it can be abandoned, the road belongs to we, the people!! The gas taxes we pay for every gallon we pump are supposed to go toward building, maintaining and updating these roads.
If Texas wants to build toll roads, there isn't anything in the world to keep them from doing it. However, there is a huge trick being played on us before our eyes. For Texas to commission toll roads at the expense of the interstates AND to keep the gas taxes, is theft and fraud. Texas is trying to have its cake and eat it, too.
Keeping the gas taxes and NOT applying them for the purpose they were intended amounts to a hidden tax increase. To charge the gas tax and fail to maintain the public roads AND to charge tolls on roads that the public's input is being ignored to build is theft, fraud and malfeasance.
Folks, we're being had - and so are our children and grandchildren.
First, if any bills were rushed through in 2003, I'd blame the Dems who ran away a few times, disrupting the Regular Session and guaranteeing a few Special Sessions.
However, I do not like the way TexDot is handling the toll roads. I'm concerned about access, the non-compete clauses, and the perpetual construction of bits and pieces. There's no benefit that I can see to going where I don't want for a fee, all the while getting on and off and trying to find a connection to where I do want to go. Add in the problems I've read about with the electronic pre-payments and the piece-meal construction of this stretch, then that stretch, then the next and the snarls can only get worse in my lifetime (I guess they could be better in 50 years, but at 50, I don't plan to be driving in 2056.)
And this is the first I've heard about the non-compete clauses interfering with improvements on State owned roads.
I'm concerned about security, too.
I grew up hearing about Eisenhower's decision that the highways needed to be capable of serving as landing fields for jets. I like that idea.
I went to the New Braunfels League of Women Voters forum last month, with a Mr. Casteel as TexDot rep. He was vague, condescending, and struck me as selling snake oil. I'd like to know why.
OverviewYour involvement is key to the successful development of the TTC. There will be many opportunities for citizens to participate in the development process. You are encouraged to check this website frequently for updates on public involvement opportunities.
"Inquiries" is a blind link.
The posting of meeting agendas is incomplete, the posting of summaries is farther behind. The latest summary is from July. No notice of the December meeting (accidentally found by checking the agenda for the November meeting) or any future meeting.
The page labeled, "Receive Information by Email" leads instead to a form for comments rather than the expected link to sign up for email updates. The form is limited to 1000 characters and there's no preview function, much less a link to use to send a more thoughtful comment. http://www.keeptexasmoving.com/comments_questions/
Here's my 3 AM post:
The public info here and otherwise is poorly organized and communicated.
I do not approve of any non-compete clauses - keep it public if that's the only way to avoid these.
Reps such as Casteel come off as selling snake oil.
The "plan" does not appear to guarantee anything other than indefinite broken links and constant construction.
1. Decide whether the route is planned to move Texans around and through Texas or to move commercial traffic from Mexico to Oklahoma.
2. Guarantee that evacuation routes will be open and accessible at all times.
3. Reassure Texans that our daily commutes to work snd (sic) across the State will improve rather than perpetually be impeded by construction and designed lack of links.
4. Stop wasting money on roadside art and wildflowers that are obviously redone over and over during construction.
5. Keep control in Texas for Texas and National security and voter assurance: no more 'non-compete" clauses.
We complain about the congestion at Logan Airport in Boston but whenever there is a proposal to build a second airport at nearby Hanscom Field in Bedford (or anywhere else), there is a public outcry against it.
We complain about the traffic congestion but every new highway proposal is squashed. Once, during the early 1970s, I-95 was being built to run right around the outside perimeter of Boston and through the North Shore (Revere, Lynn, etc.) to connect to NH and Maine. But public outcry stopped the project and instead, I-95 was routed through the outer suburbs of Boston via the old "Route 128" which at the time was derisively called the "road to nowhere." Ironically, today, this stretch of I-95 is the heart of the Boston-area economy and people who used to own empty fields and cow pastures along it are multi-millionaires today.
People want more prisons built but nobody wants them build in their town which means that we are building them along median strips of highways.
People complain about I-93 running through Boston and because nobody wanted more highway lanes built above ground, we wasted billions of dollars of taxpayer money simply sinking the highway underground while adding little or no highway capacity so the drive through the city is as congested as ever only now you get no picturesque view. Just ugly tunnel where you get no radio reception.