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NORTH TEXAS (CBS11) – It is nearly impossible these days in North Texas to avoid road construction projects. While billions of dollars are being pumped into the roadway system, TxDOT said it still can’t keep up with the growth. “There are a thousand people moving a day to Texas and we’ve (North Texas) got most of them,” said TxDOT Dallas spokesperson Donna Huerta. “We can’t keep up with that kind of demand, but what we can do is take what we have and make it better.” With a new approach allowing contractors to design and build a project simultaneously, TxDOT...

It's not the least bit hard to describe the choice that Texas Transportation Commission members will face Thursday at their meeting in Austin: (1) Agree with the overwhelming preference of this region's elected officials and allow the North Texas Tollway Authority to build the Texas 121 toll road in Denton and Collin counties, or (2) award the lucrative project to the apparent favorite among state toll road devotees, the Spanish company Cintra.From here, it's an easy decision: Pick NTTA.But there is reason to worry that in the boiling pot of Austin politics, the commission may see things differently. Because of...

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has filed a lawsuit to stop three individuals and their organization from falsely claiming they can protect property owners from potential eminent domain proceedings possibly linked to the Trans-Texas Corridor project. The Attorney General’s lawsuit alleges that promoters of “You Can’t Take It” with its associated Web site attempt to scare property into believing their properties may be affected by the future highway projects. The scare tactics then lead to offers to rescue them from speculative eminent domain proceedings for a fee of $600, which will increase to $1,000 by November. The organization also would...

Governor emphasis on tollways, private road-builders has generated urban and rural unrest Rick Perry's political problem with transportation, to the extent that he has one, may be that he's trying to douse a fire in 2006 that won't ignite for another 10 to 20 years. His critics say, no, the problem is that Perry wants to charge us for the water. What isn't in dispute is that the Republican governor and his appointees over the past six years have turned Texas transportation on its head, moving the state from financing public roads solely with taxes to a system that would...

CorridorWatch.org NEWSLETTER - 07.27.06 TTC-35 PUBLIC HEARINGS CONTINUE NEXT MONDAY - JULY 31ST Overflow crowds are attending TTC-35 hearings!!!! Overwhelming opposition is showing up and speaking. Last Monday in WACO 1,000 - - Wednesday in TEMPLE 1,500 CorridorWatch.org TO FILE FORMAL COMPLAINT AND COMMENTS TONIGHT David Stall will attend the public hearing tonight in Dallas where he will speak and file ten-pages of formal written Tier One TTC-35 DEIS comments on behalf of the more than 5,000 members of CorridorWatch.org. ATTEND A PUBLIC HEARING A public hearing guide is available on the homepage of CorridorWatch.org. Please take a few minutes...

Though many were unsure, no members of the public spoke in favor of the Trans-Texas Corridor plan at a public hearing in Weatherford Thursday. The plan, unveiled by Gov. Rick Perry, calls for the construction of a transportation network spanning the state from Laredo to Gainesville. tate transportation department officials say the corridor is needed because current traffic volumes for most segments of I-35 exceed design capacity. According to the Texas Department of Transportation, 45 percent of 21 million Texans live within 50 miles of I-35. TxDOT Project Developer Jack Heiss also said half the fatalities on I-35 involved large...

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...

TTC-35 PUBLIC HEARINGS BEGIN NEXT MONDAY - JULY 10TH IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU PARTICIPATE IN THE NEPA PUBLIC HEARING PROCESS. These hearings seek comment on TTC impact to: farmland; Ag conversion; community travel patterns; community social disruption; emergency services; local retail; regional economy; property & sales tax revenue; disadvantaged populations; air quality; noise; water quality; wildlife; floodplains; threatened & endangered species; historical sites; cemeteries; archaeological sites; hazardous waste sites; and, visual quality. Your opportunity has been created by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), a federal law that requires TxDOT to follow a specific process in assessing the...

Two companies have submitted bids to construct a portion of the Trans Texas Corridor that could run through Fort Bend County. The Trans Texas Corridor is the name given to the statewide transportation master plan developed by the Texas Department of Transportation. Gov. Rick Perry and TxDOT officials have proposed several wide corridors winding through the state, with dedicated truck and car lanes, as well as rail lines and utilities running side-by-side. One of the corridors would run along what is called I-69, or the NAFTA Highway. I-69 is a proposed highway that would run through the U.S. and connect...

Who's calling the shots? Who will have final say on where and how the Trans-Texas Corridor system is developed in the Dallas-Fort Worth area? Will it be the Texas Transportation Commission, working with North Central Texas elected officials and transportation planners who know the region and its long-term mobility needs better than anyone? Or will it be a Madrid-based company, Cintra, whose primary interest is making bucks by extracting tolls? The Star-Telegram Editorial Board strongly believes that state and regional officials and transportation planners should decide. The primary determinant should be what best meets the current and future transportation and...

AUSTIN -- Companies that are willing to pay for the right to build toll roads in Texas should have wide latitude to decide where they're built, state officials told Metroplex leaders Thursday. New evidence of the state's move to privatize roads was on display Thursday, when members of the Texas Transportation Commission said they will not pressure the private consortium Cintra Zachry to build the Trans-Texas Corridor closer to Dallas-Fort Worth. About 100 North Texas elected officials and business leaders had traveled to Austin to ask the commission to force Cintra Zachry to build the highway as a loop around...