Free Republic

Flanked by Dallas County and state officials, Gov. Rick Perry led a bipartisan pep rally Wednesday for the $7 billion Trans-Texas Corridor, his sprawling transportation project that has drawn criticism from several quarters. Perry announced that the private sector has offered to build the southern sector of Loop 9 as a toll road. The proposed outer loop around the Dallas metropolitan area has been under study for decades and could eventually tie in with the corridor project. Cintra-Zachry, a U.S.-Spanish consortium proposing to build the first segments of the corridor, has notified the Texas Department of Transportation that the company...

Union warns of drug-taking truckers, unsafe rigs on planned trade routes. The NAFTA superhighway, a north-south interstate trade corridor linking Mexico, Canada and the U.S., would mean U.S. truckers replaced by Mexicans, more unsafe rigs on American roads and more drivers relying on drugs for their long hauls, charges the International Brotherhood of Teamsters – the latest group to weigh in against the Bush administration plan. The August issue of Teamster magazine features a cover story on the plan for an enlarged I-35 that will reach north from the drug capital border town of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, 1,600 miles to...

A Texas congressman is asking his colleagues as well as American citizens nationwide to join him in opposing a plan that describes itself as seeking more security and more prosperity for the United States, when in fact it may do neither. Rep. Ron Paul has written his weekly "Texas Straight Talk" column about the "Security and Prosperity Partnership Of North America (SSP)," which, he says, "will likely make us far less secure and certainly less prosperous." A key to that plan, he noted, is a massive new NAFTA superhighway about which WorldNetDaily has run a series of reports. "A massive...

Grupo Ferrovial, Spain’s construction, infrastructure and services giant, had a busy summer acquiring airports in the UK and Peru. Now it has a concession to build and operate a Texas superhighway. Construction of the new toll road project, designed to develop an alternative route to Interstate 35 as part of the planned Trans-Texas Corridor is due to start early next year. This is has been agreed by the Texas Department of Transport under a comprehensive development deal with the Spanish company Cintra - Concesiones de Infrastructuras de Transporte, a member of the Ferrovial group. Cintra’s partner for the five-year road...

AUSTIN - A proposed toll road that would encircle Dallas-Fort Worth has a new nickname: the Doughnut. Texas Transportation Commission members passed out Krispy Kreme doughnuts Thursday to symbolize their support for the outer loop, which would be built in segments from 2011 to 2030 as part of the Trans-Texas Corridor. They also celebrated the commission's approval Thursday of a new road-building partnership among Metroplex cities and counties, the North Texas Tollway Authority and the state. The partnership would also work with any companies wishing to build private toll roads in the area. "We are committed to the Doughnut," commission...

TOPEKA, Kan. - Democratic congressional challenger Nancy Boyda repeated concerns Wednesday about a proposed multilane superhighway that eventually could span the United States from Mexico to Canada, calling it a threat to Kansans. "There seems to be a plan to blur the border with the United States and Mexico," Boyda said, referring to a proposed 10-lane corridor parallel to Interstate 35 in Texas. Boyda has made the highway an issue in her effort to defeat incumbent Republican Jim Ryun in a rematch of their 2nd District race two years ago. While Ryun says immigration is the top issue on his...

A MASSIVE road four football fields wide and running from Mexico to Canada through the heartland of the United States is being proposed amid controversy over security and the damage to the environment. The "nation's most modern roadway", proposed between Laredo in Texas and Duluth, Minnesota, along Interstate 35, would allow the US to bypass the west coast ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to import goods from China and the Far East into the heart of middle America via Mexico, saving both cost and time. However, critics argue that the ten-lane road would lay a swathe of concrete...

‘I-69 is dead’ State, federal officials disagree on status of road By Matt Whittaker The Monitor WESLACO, November 9, 2005 — There are not enough federal dollars for an Interstate highway to the Rio Grande Valley, state officials said Tuesday “I-69 is dead in the state of Texas,” Texas Transportation Commissioner Ted Houghton told about 75 area city officials and business leaders at a lunch discussion about transportation issues. “The road fairy has been shot.” But federal lawmakers said the project to create an Interstate linking major commercial centers in Mexico, the United States and Canada is still alive and...

The latest, proposed route of the I-69 "NAFTA Highway" is slightly different from previous expectations, with a major segment skipping Fort Bend County. The NAFTA Highway is a proposal to link Mexico, the U.S. and Canada through a major highway starting at Laredo and Matamoros and running through Port Huron, Mich. The highway proposal also includes a separate route connecting the main corridor to the Houston Ship Channel, and that will likely run through Fort Bend County. For years, local officials have speculated the main corridor of the highway would run through Fort Bend County in place of U.S. 59....