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What proponents say:
What opponents say:
Controversial transportation plan moves forward
•The corridor paves the way—literally—to the future of Texas.
•The Trans Texas Corridor will allow for much faster and safer transportation of people and freight.
•It will relieve Texas' congested roadways.
•It will keep hazardous materials out of populated areas.
•It will improve air quality by reducing emissions and provide a safer, more reliable utility transmission system.
•It will keep Texas' economy vibrant by creating new markets and jobs.
•It will bring economic development to all parts of the state, but especially in economically depressed rural areas.
•Industrial parks served by multimodal transportation and economic development zones built around connectivity points will foster economic growth.
•The corridor will lead to the development of new cities while increasing the importance of existing cities.
•Funding framework for the corridor (Proposition 15 approved by Texas voters, Nov. 6, 2001) allows innovative funding, including public-private partnerships called exclusive development agreements, and funding options like toll equity, the Texas Mobility Fund, regional mobility authorities and other sources.
•Public involvement will be a key to planning and developing the corridor. During the corridor's route-selection phase, any needed changes will be identified through a detailed, project-specific process of public involvement. The public will have opportunities to comment early and often.
Plans for the largest engineering project ever are moving forward in Texas in the form of Governor Rick Perry's Trans Texas Corridor proposal.
Introduced in January 2002, the Trans Texas Corridor (TTC) calls for a 4,000-mile system (up to 1,200 feet wide) that incorporates toll and non-toll roads, high-speed freight and commuter rail, water lines, oil and gas pipelines, electric transmission lines, broadband and other telecommunications infrastructure in the same corridors. The massive network, which would pass through 143 of the state's 254 counties, is projected to cost between $145 billion and $183 billion.
The Texas Transportation Commission already has begun planning for the Corridor, which will link with existing interstate systems, three existing regional transportation systems, as well as major ports of entry in Laredo, El Paso, Brownsville, Beaumont, Corpus Christi and Houston. According to the master draft, "The concept includes separate lanes for passenger vehicles (three lanes in each direction) and trucks (two lanes in each direction).
"The high-speed, controlled-access tollway will also include six rail lines (three in each direction): two tracks for high-speed passenger rail, two for commuter rail and two for freight. The third component of the corridor would be a protected network of safe and reliable utility lines for water, petroleum, natural gas, electricity and data."
Planned for phased construction, the system will connect cities across the state with a series of multimodal corridors. TxDOT has set four priority corridor segments. They will run parallel with I-35, I-37, the proposed I-69 from Denison to the Rio Grande Valley, the proposed I-69 from Texarkana to Houston to Laredo, I-45 from Dallas-Fort Worth to Houston and I-10 from El Paso to Orange.
Because Congress has designated the I-69 Corridor in the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 to address the transportation needs associated with trade opportunities beyond U.S. borders, sections of the North Texas-to-Mexico road that would run just southeast of Fort Worth would be the first part of the corridor built. They could be completed 10 to 12 years sooner than originally projected because of the new federal designation. Three consortiums of construction companies have submitted secret bids to build the first leg of the corridor, roughly paralleling I-35 from east of San Antonio to just south of Hillsboro. The precise route will not be known until the proposals are unveiled later this year or in early 2005. Under the streamlined process, public hearings would still be conducted, but they would not have to be completed before work started.
To fund this massive project, highway department officials will not only be looking at bonds, but also private investment—potentially some from foreign countries.
The master draft further states, "To preserve the corridor for future generations, acquiring property for all components should begin as soon as possible. Property rights are important to TxDOT and will receive high priority in this process.
Through good-faith negotiation, TxDOT will acquire necessary right- of-way in a single transaction with each owner. Acquisition of right-of-way will be characterized by public-private investment, including financial participation by utilities, railroads, developers and landowners."
TxDOT has already held public hearings throughout the state to assess the impact on currently planned construction projects, determine facilities needed to connect the corridor segments to nearby cities, connectivity to facilities in Mexico and adjacent states, public involvement, route analysis and selection.
•It's designed to generate revenue first and provide transportation second.
•The Corridor plan is predicated on a projection that Texas population growth will continue at a rate of 30,000 new residents a month, but does not address population distribution or how the proposed corridors will serve that population.
•Corridor creates overlaps, and/or does not ideally connect, with existing highways.
•The Corridor will take business away from hundreds of Texas communities by limiting traveler access and providing, in its place, State contract concessions that will include gas, food, hotels, and stores.
•To protect their money, private investors may insist on terms and conditions that are contrary to the public good.
•Potential for tremendous liabilities created by Comprehensive Development Agreements, controversial financing instruments.
•Tolls "double tax" motorists who already pay for highways at the gasoline pump, vehicle registration counter, and at auto supply retailers.
•The project authorizes the Commission to seize more than one-half million acres of private land. The property will be used not only for transportation, but as State owned rental property in direct competition with private business.
•The approximately 580,000 acres consumed by the Corridor will become State land taken off county and school district tax rolls. Local taxpayers will absorb the difference.
•Passenger rail doesn't work anywhere but urban areas.
•The TTC will create air pollution in rural Texas.
