Free Republic

Gregg and Rusk county reps on a regional transportation board aren’t happy with the lack of progress, reporting and marketing for Toll 49 on which traffic and revenues have slowed.Northeast Texas Regional Mobility Authority directors hope a new on-ramp that opened Tuesday plus the addition of 6 more miles that open Nov. 1 — two months ahead of schedule — can resurrect sluggish toll revenue.Board member Dave Spurrier raised questions, however, about why more hasn’t been done to attract new drivers, especially from Interstate 20.“I’d just like to see an aggressive marketing plan,” Spurrier, who represents Gregg County, said soon...

Trucks hauling everything from cars to produce use Southeast Texas roads to deliver their goods, and when a proposed Interstate 69/Trans Texas Corridor is completed, local drivers could see even more of them, local transportation officials said. The proposed I-69 corridor stretches from Michigan down to Texas. Once in Texas, the corridor goes about 650 miles from Texarkana to Brownsville and Laredo and includes separate lanes for cars and semis and areas for trains and utilities. It doesn't cut through Beaumont, but local arteries like U.S. 69 and Interstate 10 would connect to it. Travelers and truckers just need to...

The Trans-Texas Corridor project, proposing four to six toll truck lanes and four to six toll passenger lanes from Laredo to Oklahoma, may be as near as five years. Greg Massey, a member of the Oklahoma Highway Authority, recently met with the Texas Department of Transportation. “We really didn't get any new information. The project is still proposed to cross over and connect with I-35 to come into Oklahoma. TxDOT did say they are five years out on the project,” Massey said. Ten different routes are proposed for the corridor. The major variations in the routes follow the three represented...

Assistant City Manager Tim Young is well-versed on the Trans-Texas Corridor project that has been proposed to make four to six toll truck lanes and four to six toll passenger lanes from Laredo, Texas through San Antonio, Texas and up I-35 to Oklahoma. “Dallas/Fort Worth doesn't want the truck traffic to go away as they are afraid of losing warehouse businesses to cities east and west of them,” Young said. Oklahomans are pushing for the widening of U.S. 69/75 to bring truck traffic through Durant and up through Tulsa. The Texas Department of Transportation has more information on the proposal...

A company was selected Thursday to develop a system so that motorists can pay their way on Trans-Texas Corridor toll roads without stopping at a booth. Meeting in Austin, the Texas Transportation Commission selected Raytheon Co. as the prime contractor for the system. The first leg of Trans-Texas is a planned toll road that would be an alternative to Interstate 35 from Dallas-Fort Worth to San Antonio. Construction is expected to be under way by 2007 and be completed by 2015. Eventually, toll roads, rail lines and utilities would crisscross the state, according to Gov. Rick Perry's vision of Trans-Texas....