Thread: Partial Victory on Trans-Texas Corridor Plan

June 11, 2008, 6:29AM
Trans-Texas Corridor plans take a detour
State rules out building roads through rural areas and now says it will stick to major highways

By RAD SALLEE
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle


The Texas Department of Transportation said Tuesday it has abandoned plans to build part of the controversial Interstate 69/Trans-Texas Corridor through rural areas north and west of Houston.

Instead, TxDOT said, it will stick to major highways — principally U.S. 59 — for most of the route. Through the Houston area, it could stay on U.S. 59 or go on Loop 610 or the planned Grand Parkway.

In South Texas, where many residents welcomed the corridor plan, part of the superhighway would go on U.S. 281, U.S. 77 and Texas 44.

The change of plans comes after months of grass-roots opposition from rural residents in the areas under study for the route in East Texas and counties west of Houston.

Merchants along U.S. 59 who had supported the idea of making the route an interstate highway were incensed at TxDOT's announced plan to name a private partner to build and operate the corridor as a toll road and develop its own concessions along it.

The revolt spread to elected officials at all levels, leading the Legislature in 2007 to impose a two-year moratorium on long-term privately operated toll projects.

"Thank God. That is the best news I have heard in a long time," said Dennis Mlcak, who ranches in Frydek, near Sealy. The small Czech community is in the former corridor study area.

Lloyd Koppen of nearby Mixville, whose ranch lay near the center of the study area, was brief in his response: "Whooo!"

"Maybe now we can get on with our lives and make some repairs that we have been putting off," Koppen said.

TxDOT officials had planned to publicly announce the change today after briefing reporters privately Tuesday.

The story broke early, however, after others, including state Sen. Robert Nichols, R-Palestine, spoke to news media about the change.

Grand Parkway in the mix
Nichols, a former member of the Texas Transportation Commission, said he sees the change as "a huge victory for the public," KHOU-TV reported.

"I believe utilizing existing infrastructure will be more cost efficient and have far less negative impact on family farms and small communities," Nichols said.

Harris County Judge Ed Emmett said the change would have little impact on Harris County "because we already have a fully developed U.S. 59 and they're not allowed to go in and toll. They can't lease a highway that's already been built."

The Harris County Toll Road Authority is eager to develop the northwest segment of the planned Grand Parkway, which was being considered as long ago as 2000 as the route for a future Interstate 69. That project was folded into Gov. Rick Perry's Trans-Texas Corridor plan, announced in 2002.

Under legislation enacted by opponents of the corridor idea, the county has first shot at developing the Grand Parkway if it can reach an agreement with TxDOT on its value.

Amadeo Saenz, the department's executive director, said Tuesday that TxDOT is "working closely with HCTRA" on the project. "They are just as interested in getting this built as we are," he said.

Saenz said a large share of the 28,000 comments received in 47 public hearings and 12 town hall meetings along the route expressed opposition to the project.

"A lot of them said, in essence, 'We don't want you, we don't want the route, and we don't want you across our farm,' " Saenz said. "And a lot of people said, 'Why don't you expand 59? You have a perfectly good road in 59.' "

Saenz said he will recommend to the Texas Transportation Commission, which sets policy for TxDOT, that only existing highways, principally U.S. 59, be considered for the route.

"Anything not on an existing highway will be set aside and not moved forward," he said, adding that in the distant future — perhaps 50 years from now — that may become necessary.

He said TxDOT no longer is considering bringing the route west of Houston. Earlier plans had showed the study area passing near Huntsville, Navasota, Prairie View, Waller, Sealy, Wallis, Richmond and Rosenberg, drawing intense opposition from residents.

To be built in segments
Although the revised route sticks mostly to U.S. 59, there still are spurs to the ports of Houston and Corpus Christi.

Through Houston, Saenz said, the corridor might follow U.S. 59, Loop 610 or the planned Grand Parkway. In each of eight segments, he said, the route would be decided by TxDOT with input from advisory committees of local residents and officials.

The initial phase likely would involve adding toll lanes to the present lanes of U.S. 59 and building bypasses around many built-up areas, Saenz said.

Other corridor components, such as dedicated lanes for trucks or cars, tracks for passenger or freight rail and easements for utilities, could be added later as needed, he said.

The project likely would be built in segments as needed, based on traffic growth and forecasts indicating that tolling a segment would be profitable, Saenz said. No existing free lanes would be tolled, he said.

rad.sallee@chron.com

This sounds like a victory...we shall see!




>>ACTION ALERT 6/11<<
PLEASE TAKE ACTION ON SO. CAROLINA
INSTRUCTIONS AND INFORMATION!
http://www.alipac.us/ftopicp-702279.html#702279

I wonder if the win is due to the amount of guns Texans have..don't mess with Texas.

Texas Corridor detour: Officials nix land grab
Toll plan tossed: 'Any area that is not along an existing highway will not be considered'

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Posted: June 14, 2008
10:56 pm Eastern

© 2008 WorldNetDaily

Opponents of a plan to build a Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC) road and rail system from Mexico to Oklahoma received welcome news this week, as Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) officials announced their strategy would no longer include building new highway routes southwest of Houston, a plan that would have annexed huge tracts of private land.

The $184 billion TTC project originally called for a 4,000-mile network of transportation corridors, 1,200 feet wide, to be built across Texas. The plan would have taken about a half million agricultural acres out of private hands, leading to a maelstrom of objections from Texas landowners.


But now TxDOT executive Director Amadeo Saenz says plans have changed. In a conference call with reporters he said TxDOT "had narrowed the study area for TTC I-69" and that the department "is going to be considering only existing highway" routes, and "any area that is not along an existing highway will not be considered."

"This is great news for landowners," said John Means, president of the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association. "TSCRA appreciates the agency's decision to not build the toll roads through rural lands that would threaten the private property rights of many of our members."

The TxDOT website states that "the preliminary basis for this decision centers on the review of nearly 28,000 public comments made" on the issue. Saenz added that 47 town hall meetings with Texas residents had further influenced the decision.

Brehham, Tex., State Rep. Lois W. Kolkhorst, who joined in the battle to protect rural lands from the project, told The Huntsville Item, "The real heroes who deserve the credit here are the constituents. I want to thank the thousands of people who joined me in fighting the I-69 TTC for the past 5 years, writing letters, calling and attending meetings to make their voices heard."

Though opponents of the TTC celebrate victory in this battle, they have been quick to point out that the war is not over.

"This is good news about a retreat from the corridor," Kolkhorst said, "but the controversy over how we pay for our roads will continue. We need to stay strong against the forces out there who want to sell off our highway infrastructure to foreign sources."

"This is a great first step," said Kenneth Dierschke, president of the Texas Farm Bureau. "But we must continue to hold TxDOT's feet to the fire during the next legislative session to ensure they keep these promises."

David Stall of the anti-TTC group CorridorWatch is also wary of crying victory too soon. Speaking of TxDOT, Stall told a Houston Community Newspaper, "They've never taken the public's input into consideration before."

Part of the concern is that the announcement to limit the TTC's scope only included project proposals south and west of Houston. The announcement did not mention plans for the northern I-35 corridor.

"We want (Saenz) to send the same letter to the Federal Highway Administration for TTC I-35 that he sent about I-69," Stall said. "There was as much public input about I-35 as there was about 69."

Stall also worries that TxDOT was motivated largely by "financial ability and political expediency," warning, "As soon as it becomes fiscally viable, it will come back."

For now, landowners in southwestern Texas are breathing a sigh of relief and preparing for future battles if necessary.

Last year Amy Klein, a member of CorridorWatch, quoted Stall in the Gainesville Daily Register with words that are just as meaningful now to the group as they were then. "You eat an elephant one bite at a time," she quoted. Then she added, "I think we're slowly devouring this elephant."

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/?pageId=67133