Free Republic

WATCHTexas opened the fastest highway in the nation this weekend, but before a single driver got onto the road, Texan John Hennessey was cruising down the freeway at more than 200 mph. Hennessey, who specializes in making some of the fastest cars, asked lawmakers if he could test whether the TxTag toll tag system could capture license plates and tags at the new high speeds, according to Jalopnik. Texas officials gave him the thumbs up to test the system on the open road. Hennessey topped out his car at 220 mph, and the tag system grabbed his tag and license...

The Texas Department of Transportation is considering the move on a portion of state Highway 130 that would run north-south between Austin and Seguin, a town just east of San Antonio, spokesman Mark Cross said Thursday. The agency is looking at the toll road's topography, checking what speed most drivers are traveling on existing parts of the highway and ensuring the access points and cross-sections would still be safe with an 85 mph speed limit, Cross said.

Will the governor sign the death certificate for his brainchild? The House unanimously voted late Monday to accept Senate changes to House Bill 1201, Rep. Lois Kolkhorst's legislation that would remove all references to the Trans-Texas Corridor from state statutes. And, oh yes, allow an 85 mph speed limit on certain roads completed after June. The bill now goes to Gov. Rick Perry for his signature, or his veto. For now, the only road likely to qualify for the 85 mph limit will be the southern 40 miles of the Texas 130 tollway, now under construction between the southeast outskirts...

AUSTIN — The ceremony was brief and drew few mourners, but the Trans Texas Corridor is finally dead. The Senate unanimously passed a bill that strikes from state law any language, reference and authority once connected to the massive highway envisioned to slice a swath through Texas. The same measure already has passed the House. There are some minor differences that still need to be reconciled, but the bill is expected to go to Gov. Rick Perry, who will have to decide whether to join in the final rites for his once-prized project. Legislators did keep a provision that was...

A recent poll posted at KeepTexasMoving.org, shows that visitors to the site consider land acquisition as the most pressing issue needing to be addressed regarding the planned Trans-Texas Corridor. Visitors to the site chose acquisition of property by an overwhelming 64 percent of the vote, with 14,280 votes. The next highest vote was for connectivity to cities with only 12 percent, or 2,659 votes. The Web site is published by the Texas Department of Transportation to release information regarding the planned Trans-Texas Corridor. The Trans-Texas Corridor is a large transportation plan envisioned by Gov. Rick Perry and TxDOT to provide...

DENTON - "Grandma" lost her argument for a contrived ballot nickname. But Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn of Austin might have found a plank on which to build a campaign against Gov. Rick Perry. It's a plank 600 miles long and a quarter-mile wide. It's a giant, privately owned, multilane tollway that would part the Texas countryside the way the governor parts his ample hair. Strayhorn, a Republican running as an independent candidate, has criticized the Trans-Texas Corridor tollway plan loudly for months. So have the other principal challengers in this traffic jam of a race, novelist Kinky Friedman of Medina...

“Texans have a problem,” State Representative Larry Phillips said about the current statewide transportation system and its government-proposed solution, the Trans-Texas Corridors. “We can either address the problem, know what’s coming, and plan accordingly, or we can stick our heads in the sand and pretend it will go away.” Texas Governor Rick Perry proposed the corridor system in 2002. Texas Department of Transportation and other officials echo that sentiment and are looking at the TTC to offer long-term solutions for the masses. The TTC plan to date The Trans-Texas Corridor is a proposed multi-use, statewide network of transportation routes in...

Now that Texas Gov. Rick Perry and other officials have pronounced “the federal funding genie” dead, as far as highway construction money goes, it's time to find another way to pay for Interstate 69. “By the time Washington funds I-69, we'll be driving around in hover cars or whatever,” Perry said Thursday during a meeting of I-69 Alliance members, including Lufkin Mayor Louis Bronaugh, in Houston. “The harsh reality is we cannot wait for Washington, D.C., to solve the problems of this state.” Perry wants to “resuscitate” I-69 by merging it with his proposed Trans Texas Corridor, which would combine...

Perry Announces Plan to Accelerate Interstate 69Ambitious Transportation Corridor Will Create Jobs, Trade Opportunities HOUSTON - Gov. Rick Perry today announced an ambitious plan to partner with the private sector to develop an interstate-quality highway corridor with additional rail freight capacity that connects the Lower Rio Grande River Valley to I-37 and continues along the south and east portions of Texas from Corpus Christi through Houston all the way to northeast Texas. The visionary transportation project, TTC-69, will connect industrial hubs in South Texas and the Midwest. “When construction is complete, Texas will benefit from unprecedented trade opportunities, a faster,...