Many of you may or may not have heard about the plans for the new Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC), a proposed multi-use, statewide network of transportation routes in Texas that will incorporate existing and new highways, railways and utility right-of-ways. What you may not have heard is how the TTC will displace over a million Texans from their homes, or that the TTC will not actually provide much traffic relief for Texans, despite what the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDot) would like you to believe. In reality, the Trans-Texas Corridor will not alleviate traffic for most of us, but will benefit big business and freight transportation from Mexico to Canada, in many cases dividing small towns completely in half.
Because of the rail line associated with the Trans-Texas Corridor, my brother and my sister will lose their homes and land. In addition, the rail line will cut through my hometown, splitting the tiny community in half. All of the county roads will dead end at the TTC and there will be no way to get to the other side unless long detours are made (in all of Williamson County, there are only 4 planned crossovers, essentially splitting the county in 2). Also, because of the huge amount of land area needed for construction, many landowners and farmers will lose their homesteads, including my friend whose family has owned their farm for 135 years.
Until recently, TxDot refused to release information on the TTC and denied Open Records Requests. The Texas attorney general ruled that the records had to be opened to the public, and under pressure from hundreds of landowners, TxDot finally released the suppressed information on September 28, 2006, a little over a month before election day. Therefore, people are just finding out about this -- a very convenient move for Governor Rick Perry, one of the TTC's strongest proponents.
Finding out this close to election day makes it hard for us to do anything, but we are trying to get the word out to vote for [deleted see footnote #1 --Ed.]. Though we don't particularly like any of the candidates, we especially want to stop Perry. Rick Perry is the impetus behind the Trans-Texas Corridor and has indicated that he will be moving forward with TTC plans as quickly as possible if elected, with some of the work scheduled to start as early as 2007 if final approval is given. If he wins, we stand little chance of getting the public educated in time to make changes.
Also, I want to emphasize that I am not trying to stop the toll roads that are already being built and are scheduled to be opened soon around the Austin area. TTC is a totally different construction and I don't think people actually realize the scope of it.[2]
A study sponsored by the Texas Department of Transportation and conducted at the University of Texas had many negative impact statements. Here are some of them:
-- TTC width will be 1200 feet (4 football fields). It could be built using 765 feet.
-- The TTC is for long distance trips (ie: state to state). It will not impact local trips.
-- Because of the high tolls (estimated at approx. $50 to cross Texas), TTC users will be wealthy long distance travelers. It is not actually known if trucks will even pay the tolls.
-- The Trans-Texas Corridor will have no frontage roads, as they would be free and diminish demand for the toll road.
-- The TTC will interchange only to U.S. and state highways. It will only have interchanges every 20 miles or more in rural areas and 10 miles or more in urban areas. Right now, interstate freeways have interchanges at least every 3 miles in rural areas and every one mile in urban areas. And, existing toll roads have one cross road per mile in rural areas.
-- Travel adjacent to the TTC will require additional miles due to severed roads and local roads will have to be upgraded to accommodate that traffic. This means traffic in the major cities will actually increase, not decrease as TxDot would like you to believe.
-- When all modes of transportation are in place in the TTC, noise abatement will be required for houses 1000ft. from the corridor and for park land 6200 ft. from the corridor. Noise abatement barriers cost one million dollars per mile.
-- High Speed Rail must be separated from other modes with fences or grade separation (also very expensive and difficult to cross)
-- Land along TTC will be undesirable for residential use
These are just some of the negative impacts found with the study and we are trying to get the Austin paper to publish all of them, as well as other information that has been suppressed. One other thing to note-TxDot has entered into a contract with a Spanish-based company, Cintra Zachry, LP, to develop and construct the Trans-Texas Corridor. They will be operating it and collecting the tolls for 50 years.
For more information, you can Google Cintra Zachary to find out more about the company and the agreement with the Texas Department of Transportation. Also, googling Trans-Texas Corridor will bring up info, and www.keeptexasmoving.org is TxDot's site for info.
Thank you for considering this before you go to the polls,
An Old Texan
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from Reason to Freedom receives a lot of mail and the above (post has been slightly modified) is one of the better ones to define the horrendously corrupt land grab being made by our elected officials.
[1] As the Texas governor election goes to the person with the most votes (they can be elected with less than 50% of the votes and there is no run-off), from Reason to Freedom requests you vote for any candidate other than Perry who has the highest poll rating on November 6th, 2006.
[2] from Reason to Freedom still oppose all Toll roads and all candidates supporting Toll roads for the reasons shown on "To Toll or Not to Toll?"
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List of Texas Toll Projects (partial):
Trans-Texas Corridor, Addison Airport Toll Tunnel, Dallas North Tollway, Fort Bend Parkway Toll Road, Hardy Toll Road, International Parkway, Loop 1 (MoPac Extension), Mountain Creek Lake Bridge, President George Bush Turnpike, Beltway 8 (Sam Houston Tollway), State Highway 45, State Highway 130, Westpark Tollway
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Most Highways to be Tolled to Finance The Trans Texas Corridor
Warren Buffet has linked leasing roads to be tolled by private companies as selling off pieces of the farm and raising the mortgage. Story here.
During the 1995 legislative session, Dan Shelley, who was working for Gov. George W. Bush, pushed a bill that created strong incentives for the state to contract out welfare programs to private firms. Shortly after the bill passed, Shelley quit Bush's office and began lobbying for Lockheed-Martin-IMS, one of several companies that were vying for the welfare contract. The contract was worth approximately $2 billion.
Then, during Perry's administration, Dan Shelley, who was working as an independent “consultant” lobbying for Cintra, was hired as an aide to Gov. Perry. Next, Cintra was awarded the exclusive development rights for the corridor. Then, Shelley returned to being a lobbyist for Cintra. Story here.
Gov. Rick Perry is aggressively pursing tolling most highways, in part be used to pay for the toll road. Yet, there exists ample money in TxDOT's coffers to pay for the roads without resorting to tolling. Revenue will mainly be used to pay for the Trans Texas Corridor -- specifically relocating the railroad lines. That was made clear once the contract with Cintra-Zachry was made public. It is something Perry does not want known. That's why it was a secret.
Gov. Perry and Lt. Gov. Dewhurst, who sit on the Texas Bond Review Board, have been trying to use money from Texas Mobility Fund ONLY to fund TOLL roads. The one who has prevented Perry’s travesty is the third member of the board -- Carole Keeton Strayhorn. She is the only candidate with a viable plan to terminate the contract with Cintra-Zachry. She is endorsed by the San Antonio Toll Party. Please vote for Strayhorn for governor.