Thread: Some Trans Texas Corridor details are being kept very quiet

Carlos Guerra: Some Trans Texas Corridor details are being kept very quiet

Web Posted: 02/14/2006 12:00 AM CST
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/ ... c6240.html
San Antonio Express-News

Among the Trans Texas Corridor's most fervent opponents are farmers and ranchers who are closely tied to family land.

Many are like Susan Ridgeway Garry of Coupland, a small, rural community in the Austin area.

"When you say the Trans Texas Corridor 'will be built on state land handed to investors,' you leave out an important step," she wrote. "It is not currently state land, it is Texas citizens' land, some of which has been in the same family for generations."

Though they no longer farm, the Garrys live on land that has been in her husband's family for generations. But when the Texas Department of Transportation released a map of the planned corridor routes, they found their home within one of the corridor routes.

Like others throughout Texas, the Garrys joined neighbors in the Coupland Civic Organization.

"Little groups like ours are using the new technology to work together," she said. Through e-mails, they keep each other informed and reach out to educate others about what the corridor really is.

"People don't understand that (the Trans Texas Corridor) is not like the interstate, where there is access and communities along it prosper," she says. "This will cut off communities. It's a network of quarter-mile-wide dividing lines that will cut up the state, cut up agricultural areas and change the entire character of Texas."

Her points are amply detailed in "Crossroads of the Americas: Trans Texas Corridor," the Texas Department of Transportation's plans for the $184 billion project.

The state intends to take at least 548,000 acres of land — most of it from private owners through eminent domain — in swaths as wide as three football fields laid end to end. On the 4,000 miles of new right of way, the plans call for four sets of vehicular lanes, two rail lanes, and easements, both above and underground, for utilities.

The corridor will have no frontage roads, such as those along the interstate highway system that have fostered economic development in many communities.

Instead, vehicular access to the tollways will be only from interstate, U.S. and some state highways that intersect it through expensive interchanges.

Other intersecting roads — such as farm-to-market roads, county roads, local highways and two-lane state highways — will not provide access to the corridor. Instead, expensive "flyovers" will have to be built over the wide corridor for the larger roads, and smaller roads will simply end at the corridor's edge.

As planned, corridor routes will be leased to private-sector interests that will not only collect the vehicular tolls, but will also benefit from railway and utility leases and from real estate development within the right of way, such as motels, gas stations and eateries.

And even though decisions are being made and deals are being cut, many important details about the project are very hard to get.

"The corridor's Draft Environmental Impact Statement was due in December and it's not out," Garry said, explaining that it will more precisely plot the final route of the corridor. "My husband and I filed an open records request to see it," she says, "and TxDOT sent a letter saying they referred our request to the attorney general for an opinion on whether they must let us see it."

I know how frustrating that can be. And I hope the Garrys aren't too surprised if they don't see it until after the November election.

Why should we care about this?

Because this is part of what NAFTA is going to do to this country.

Read more here:

http://www.monthlyreview.org/0206vogel.htm

I guess truck driving is another "one of those jobs Americans won't do"

found this while researching the texas corridor


http://www.corridorwatch.org/ttc/cw-corridor.htm

What Is The Trans Texas Corridor?

The Trans Texas Corridor is an all-Texas superhighway that is planned to include tollways for passenger vehicles and trucks, passenger bullet trains, commuters trains, high-speed freight trains, pipelines of all types, and electrical transmission towers. Plans also include gas stations, garages, restaurants, hotels, stores, billboards, warehouses, freight interchange, intermodal transfer areas, passenger train stations, bus stations, parking facilities, dispatch control centers, maintenance facilities, pipeline pumping stations, and of course, toll booths.

The Trans Texas Corridor is the largest engineering project ever proposed for Texas. The corridor will far exceed any public works project in the state’s history. This statewide network of corridors will stretch 4,000 miles and measure up to 1,200 feet wide.

Each segment of the corridor will contain:


Six 12-foot Passenger Vehicle Lanes (80mph); 112-feet in aggregate width with shoulders.

Four 13-foot Truck Lanes; 84-feet in aggregate width with shoulders.

Two Tracks for 200mph High-Speed Passenger Rail. (All depots are contained within the corridor.)

Two Tracks for 80mph Commuter Passenger Rail.

Two Tracks for 80mph Freight Rail.

A 200-foot Utility Zone for large underground water lines, natural gas and petroleum pipelines, telecommunication cables and overhead high-voltage electric transmission lines.

Operational Maintenance Zone.

Safety Zones sufficient to accommodate future roadway expansion.

http://www.corridorwatch.org/ttc/images ... dor600.gif

Four priority corridors have been identified. Those corridors parallel:


I-35, I-37 and I-69 (proposed) from Denison to the Rio Grande Valley.



I-69 (proposed) from Texarkana to Houston to Laredo.



I-45 from Dallas-Fort Worth to Houston.



I-10 from El Paso to Orange.



The priority corridors account for 49% of the total 4,000 miles of the Trans Texas Corridor.

In addition to TxDOT, private-sector analysis will identify other corridors for immediate development and future investment. TxDOT or the private sector will develop the other corridors as each segment becomes more necessary.

The typical corridor section will require 146 acres of right of way per mile. The total anticipated right of way for 4,000 miles of corridor is 584,000 acres.

Based on an estimated cost of $31.4 million per centerline mile, the 4,000-mile corridor will cost $125.5 billion, not including right of way and miscellaneous costs. Factoring in right of way at $11.7 billion to $38 billion and miscellaneous costs at $8 billion to $20 billion, the estimated total cost for the Trans Texas Corridor ranges from $145.2 billion to $183.5 billion.

No major land acquisition in metropolitan areas is required.

The TxDOT plan states that they need to move quickly in developing the corridor segments that will generate the highest toll level—revenue that will enable them to extend the corridor into every section of the state.

The vision is that the corridor will be developed in phases through several scenarios. For example, the heavy-duty truck lanes (two in each direction) could be built first, to be shared initially by both passenger vehicles and trucks. As traffic volumes increase and additional capacity is warranted, separate passenger lanes will be constructed.

The rail component also lends itself to phased construction. Construction of high-speed passenger rail to connect the largest population areas will be implemented as the need grows for travel alternatives.

The TxDOT plan anticipates that they would lease undeveloped segments of the utility zone back to adjacent landowners.

Connection between the corridor and nearby cities will be accomplished with the existing highway system. Proposed corridor segments will require interconnection with additional modes of transportation to enable passengers and freight to reach their final destinations in nearby cities. Privately funded franchises or public-private partnerships will provide transportation from the corridor to destination cities.

These corridor connections will create investment opportunities for public-private partnerships, utility companies and privately funded franchises interested in providing utility lines, intermodal freight transfer facilities and passenger facilities at strategically located access points.

All roadways (excluding unpaved county roads), rails and streams intersecting the corridor are assumed to be grade-separated.

Most crossings will be handled by simple grade-separation bridge structures. These allow existing local highway and rail facilities to cross the corridor but not access it. Grade separations will be provided for farm to market highways, two-lane state highways, rail lines and paved county roads.

The corridor may cut through about 1,200 unpaved county roads. These roads will be reconnected to other facilities to maintain efficient traffic flow. TxDOT will endeavor to assist counties in rebuilding any important intra-county routes affected by the corridor.

Double-diamond interchanges will be used where the corridor intersects a highway serving a significant regional traffic base. These interchanges will provide access to and from the corridor and the crossing facility. Double-diamond interchanges will be necessary for about 60 percent of all state highways and 80 percent of all U.S. highways intersecting the corridor.

Directional interchanges will be used where a corridor segment intersects a major highway serving cross-state traffic. Much of the traffic from both the corridor and crossed highway facilities will need an interchange between these intersecting routes. Direct-connection interchanges will be provided at all 23 locations where the corridor intersects itself, at all interstate highways intersecting the corridor and at about 20 percent of the U.S. highways.