|
|
|
|
|
|
State's ambitious transportation
plan moves a step closer to reality
The state's most ambitious transportation project ever moved a step closer to reality in December 2004, when the Texas Transportation Commission (TTC) selected a proposal by Cintra—an international group of engineering, construction and financial firms—to develop the Oklahoma-to-Mexico portion of the Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC-35).
Cintra proposes to invest $6 billion in a toll road between Dallas and San Antonio by 2010, give the state $1.2 billion for additional transportation improvements between Oklahoma and Mexico, and to extend the corridor into the Lower Rio Grande Valley to Mexico. Cintra's package also includes funding options for a route connecting southeast San Antonio to State Highway 130 and for relocating — to the east—the existing Union Pacific Railroad between San Antonio and Austin.
Texas Farm Bureau delegates overwhelmingly rejected the statewide transportation plan during their annual convention in December, 2004.
Noting the disproportionate burdens the TTC plan would impose on rural Texans, delegates opposed the state acquiring additional farm and ranch lands through the power of eminent domain for the construction of the corridor.
Those burdens, delegates said, would include: additional time and cost related to moving equipment from one side of a farm or ranch to the other because of division by the corridor; economic damages due to the lack of exits to small Texas towns; additional tax burdens passed on to local taxpayers for property removed from the tax base; and the negative effect on wildlife and hunting in many areas of the state.
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. TTC officials say granting the contract to Cintra is in keeping with the Commission's goal of first looking to private money before asking taxpayers to pay for the project.
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."
Plans call for the TTC to be completed in phases over the next 50 years with routes prioritized according to Texas' transportation needs. 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.
TxDOT will oversee planning, construction and ongoing maintenance, although private vendors will be responsible for much of the daily operations.
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."
Further, highway planners have pledged to work with communities near TTC routes in designing interchanges and access points to ensure emergency access, connections between properties separated by the TTC route, and economic benefit to nearby communities.
TxDOT has already held public hearings throughout the state to assess the impact on currently planned construction projects. A second series of public meetings for both the I-69/TTC and TTC-35 elements will begin in February 2005. Check the new Trans Texas Corridor web site (www.keeptexasmoving.org) for dates.
Governor defends statewide
transportation plan...
By Gov. Rick Perry
Not too long ago there was a great deal of controversy generated by newspaper stories that told of a new transportation plan in the works at the state capitol. The proposed system of roads would be as massive as the corresponding price tag, and would require the state to purchase land from private citizens.
Some 70 years later, the Farm to Market system is the backbone of transportation in rural Texas.
Texas has changed tremendously since that time. Our population has skyrocketed and is expected to double in a few short decades. We are the number one exporting state in the nation—thanks in no small part to farmers—and 80 percent of United States-Mexico truck traffic comes through Texas. The result is that all too often our roads and highways look more like parking lots than a first class transportation system.
As a fast-growing state, we have to confront the reality of aging infrastructure and a lack of capacity that jams millions of drivers onto the same roads each day. That's why I have proposed the Trans Texas Corridor.
With my background in farming and ranching, I am well aware of the concerns that many will raise about the scope and size of this new transportation system. That's why we have built in numerous safeguards and benefits available to private citizens who participate in Trans Texas Corridor projects.
In the past, when the state needed land to build new roads, it simply paid the landowner fair market value. The Trans Texas Corridor goes far beyond that by allowing "participation payments" for landowners—similar to a royalty in the oil and gas industry. That means landowners can choose to profit financially for decades or receive the traditional fair market value cash payment when the land is purchased.
Additionally, landowners who participate in corridor projects are guaranteed maximum use of the right-of-way during development. Only the land needed for the immediate infrastructure will be used and the remainder will be available for use by adjacent landowners.
Let me also make clear that the Trans Texas Corridor is not going to be built overnight. The state will not begin construction on a specific corridor segment until justified by congestion and traffic. The state's needs decades from now will determine if and when specific segments are built.
By expanding our transportation system using the Trans Texas Corridor method, rural Texas has unprecedented opportunities to benefit. Not only will the Corridor ease the movement of goods from the farm to the global marketplace, it gives farmers and ranchers the ability to become financial stakeholders in this new transportation system.
I know there were a lot of farmers upset about the Farm to Market system in the 1930's. But looking back, it would be tough to imagine life without it. I have every confidence that farmers 70 years from now will look back and wonder the same thing about the Trans Texas Corridor.
Plan draws fire from Texas Farm Bureau...
By TFB President
Kenneth Dierschke
There has never been any question that the voting delegates of Texas Farm Bureau take their responsibility very seriously. When they tackled the issue of the Trans Texas Corridor at our San Antonio convention, voting to oppose the plan, it got the attention of the Texas media.
In fact, Texas Farm Bureau leaders have been monitoring the corridor's progress for some time. We now know all we need to know to understand that rural Texans will once again give up the most to see this huge project completed. Though the state has the power to take prime farm and ranch land all the way up and down the proposed corridor's path, we believe doing so would be misusing that power.
During the debate, our delegates spoke of the burdens placed on farmers and ranchers in having to move equipment and livestock from one side of the quarter mile wide corridor to the other. Imagine the frustration of seeing your land from the back porch, yet having to drive 20 or 30 miles to reach it! We'd like to see frontage roads and crossovers so that we can take care of daily business on the farms and ranches fronting the corridor.
The policy the delegates adopted on this issue was very responsible. It starts with outright opposition to acquiring additional farm and ranch land for construction of the TTC. If the corridor is built, however, our delegates proposed some measures to lessen the impact on farmers, ranchers and rural communities.
Farm Bureau is very much concerned about the impact on small towns, as these superhighways might not provide enough exits to bring in travelers. This would cripple the economies of many rural communities. These quarter -mile swaths cut through the heart of rural Texas will take big chunks of property from the local tax base. How will small towns and rural school districts replace the dollars lost in this process?
Then there's the question of paying highway taxes for roads, and then paying again in the form of tolls on many of the new proposed roadways in the TTC plan. That approach has many Texans concerned, and Farm Bureau members are no different.
No one can deny that Texas must address a growing transportation problem as our population continues to grow. It is important to address the traffic congestion on our state's major thoroughfares. If new rights-of-way are needed in future transportation plans, we would certainly prefer that they be located adjacent to existing rights-of-way. This would minimize the impact on agriculture and lessen the economic consequences for Rural Texas.
The state has the power to take land for these rights-of-way, through eminent domain, but should this be done? Have other alternatives been adequately explored? We don't think we yet have answers to all the questions surrounding the TTC. It's a big project, with a big price tag and large consequences.
To sum it up, the TTC is a property rights issue and these issues are of the highest priority for Farm Bureau members. We recognize the need to address the future of Texas transportation. We need, however, to find a better way.
