Proposal in Texas for a Public-Private Toll Road System Raises an Outcry

New York Times ^ | February 10, 2008 | Ralph Blumenthal

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

ROBSTOWN, Tex. — Leon Little’s farm here near Corpus Christi would not be seized for Texas’s proposed $184-billion-plus superhighway project for 5 or 10 years, if ever.

But Mr. Little was alarmed enough to show up Wednesday night with hundreds of his South Texas coastal neighbors to do what the Texas Department of Transportation has been urging: “Go ahead, don’t hold back.”

Don’t worry. Texans have gotten the message, swamping hearings and town meetings across the state to grill and often excoriate agency officials about a colossal traffic makeover known as the Trans-Texas Corridor, a public-private partnership unrivaled in the state’s — or probably any state’s — history, that would stretch well into the century and, if completed in full, end up costing around $200 billion.

“Is your road more important than the foodstuffs we put together for you?” asked Mr. Little, glaring at transportation officials at the town meeting.

The plan envisions a 4,000-mile network of new toll roads, with car and truck lanes, rail lines, and pipeline and utilities zones, to bypass congested cities and speed freight to and from Mexico.

Critics abound, but experts say Texas is addressing a problem certain to worsen nationally in coming decades: the price of gasoline may be rising but revenue from gasoline taxes is not, and with the rise of more fuel-efficient vehicles, less money is being raised for highway projects, even as traffic grows.

So transportation planners are increasingly looking to the private sector to put up construction money for toll roads in return for revenue from motorists.

“We’re relying on 1993 income for 2008 output,” said Robert Harrison, deputy director of the Center for Transportation Research at the University of Texas in Austin. “It’s unsustainable.”

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Lower Rio Grande Valley starving for interstate

NAFTA Superhighway

East Texans fear I-69/TTC will disrupt their rural lives

First county I-69/TTC hearing coming to Wharton

Houston session on Tuesday will launch corridor hearings

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Trans-Texas Corridor PING!

[oblomov]

Public-Private = corporate welfare

[Wiseghy]

Oops, fuel efficent vehicles are now bad for road building, hmmm...why does this seem deeply suspicious to me?

Does my 2700 lbs Civic Hybrid cause just as much road damage, pollution, congestion and wear as an unregulated, overloaded Semi-Truck from Mexico?!!!

I think not.

[kittymyrib]

The Trans-Texas Corridor: Texas’s Version of Boston’s Big Dig

If they plan on spending $200 BILLION, one can rest assured that it will be at least a trillion before it is finished...if it is ever finished. And all for speeding freight, legal and illegal goods, from Mexico.

Texas voters need to clean house from top to bottom beginning in November and continuing until every last politician of both parties who voted for this monstrosity is voted out of office. We are educating most of Mexico’s children, feeding much of their population, and paying for their hospitalization and incarceration. I think that should be enough.

[TADSLOS]

..and they thought Ken Lay was corrupt...

[Donnaplume]

This madness must be stopped. We don’t want the drugs and aliens streaming into our country.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

Pardon me for a little schadenfreude here, but complaints that gasoline taxes aren’t high enough are b.s., and here’s why:

We have had the technology since the 1960s to build asphalt roads that last perhaps 10 times as long as typical asphalt roads. And while they are almost twice as expensive, the long term savings *would* have been enormous, except for one thing.

Nobody is using that technology, basically laying down a Kevlar sheet on the roadbed before laying asphalt on top of it. The reason?

Paving contractors. In every State in the union, paving contractors own the State legislature. They get the big bucks on their contracts, and the do not, no how and no way, want low maintenance roads.

For this reason, we have crummy roads in constant need of maintenance, huge, bloated paving and repair contracts for not just new roads, but endless repairs on old roads. And all paid for with gasoline taxes.

If they made better quality roads to begin with, our gas taxes could be cut in half overnight. Endless billions of dollars returned to the driving public. And not ironically, even our fuel bills would go down, because you burn less gas on good roads than on bad.

But ever since they have been building modern roads in the US, the rackets have been gouging the public for it, and the State and federal governments were more than happy to let them do so.

[UCFRoadWarrior]

The Trans-Texas Corridor: Texas’s Version of Boston’s Big Dig

If they plan on spending $200 BILLION, one can rest assured that it will be at least a trillion before it is finished...if it is ever finished. And all for speeding freight, legal and illegal goods, from Mexico.

---

You are right. This NAFTA Freakway System will cost a lot more than they claim

And thats just Texas....this Freakway System is supposed to extend all over the US.

Instead of subsidizing anti-American liberal globalism...we could use some of that revenue to create jobs in America...and the remainder returned to the citizens

[E.G.C.]

BTTT

[djf]

Worth a bump.

Alot of these roads are in their planning stage.
Alot of these roads, if they are built, will be toll roads.
Alot of these roads, if they are toll roads, ALREADY have agreements in place that the rights to collect the tolls are owned by Europeans.

There have been examples in history showing that if you want to control a country, controlling the money is good, but controlling the roads is far better.

I ain’t making this crap up.