It's mentioned at the bottom of this article. You can't get past this mamoth. There is no way to cross it.

This is out of East Texas

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?n...d=226369&rfi=6
TRANS-CORRIDOR DRAWS PUBLIC ANGER

By: MARK COLLETTE, Staff Writer
07/19/2006

TERRELL - A proposed toll highway that would parallel Interstate 35 would run more than 100 miles from Willie Kay Paredez's rural property in Wood County, but she still made the trip here Wednesday to give transportation officials a piece of her mind.

"This massive private land grab by the state should be considered a treasonous act," she said, adding the project would harm small East Texas businesses.

"Communities will be separated," she said. "Farms will be divided and/or destroyed ... Because of a limited number of overpasses, people will have to travel farther to get across a corridor to destinations on the other side."

Paredez was among the majority, based on a show of hands, of about 350 people at a public hearing held by the Texas Department of Transportation over the proposed toll highway. Most opposed the project as it's currently outlined.

The Trans-Texas Corridor 35, or TTC-35, is part of a $184 billion project to build a network of crisscrossing corridors with highways, utilities and rail lines throughout Texas, aimed at relieving the congestion expected to consume existing interstate highways. The plan was unveiled by Gov. Rick Perry in 2002.

TTC-35 would include more than 500 miles of toll highway from Oklahoma to the Mexico border, closely paralleling Interstate 35, except at the Metroplex, where it would curve around the east side of Dallas.

That's according to the "preferred" corridor identified by an initial environmental study - about 4,000 pages long - by the Texas Department of Transportation. The 10-mile-wide corridor, if approved, would be narrowed to a final alignment, at or under a width of 1,200 feet, after future studies and public hearings.

The state has signed a $7.2 billion deal with Cintra-Zachry, a private Spanish-American partnership developing TTC-35. The firm and TxDOT went to court to keep parts of the deal secret, including what was deemed to be the partnership's proprietary information, though most of the contract is available on TxDOT's Web site.

Perry's plan has been criticized by people such as Paredez who are worried about impacts on farming, pollution, and what they view as unsavory private involvement in a Texas project. Cintra-Zachry would operate the corridor for decades and collect tolls to pay for it. It's also opposed by dozens of governments in the Metroplex, including Fort Worth and Dallas, who would rather TTC-35 run between the two cities, connecting with a proposed outer loop around them.

TxDOT officials maintain that there are few alternatives to tolls, given an urgent need to relieve traffic congestion with a growing population and increased international commerce.

The 54 TxDOT hearings scheduled this month in cities across Texas have also served as a political battleground in an election year. Independent gubernatorial candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn blasted Perry's vision at a hearing in Fort Worth on Monday. Perry's other opponents, independent Kinky Friedman and Democrat Chris Bell, have each criticized the plan.

Fred Head of Athens, the Democratic candidate to replace Strayhorn as comptroller, stumped against the proposal at the Terrell hearing, and more than a dozen local government representatives attended.

Thom Bouis, a Democrat running for Rockwall County Judge, opposed the project and hurled a barb at Republican leadership, urging the toll highway pass through President Bush's home of Crawford.

That's unlikely, based on TxDOT's preferred corridor. It would start at the Oklahoma border at Gainesville, curve around the east side of Dallas County and then hug the east side of Interstate 35 to Laredo at the Mexican border.

Monday's hearing in Terrell seemed to serve mainly as a rallying point for those opposed to the preferred corridor, and some opposed the entire Trans-Texas Corridor vision. Members of Corridor Watch, a grassroots group against the entire project, passed out materials outside the hearing.

Most speakers drew applause after addressing TxDOT officials, who couldn't respond to comments under administrative rules, but Jon Gammon didn't.

The Delta County resident said there's no way around growing congestion, other than a massive new project. But he still feels queasy about eminent domain, which will allow the state to acquire as much as 146 acres per mile of mostly rural land for TTC-35, according to the Texas Farm Bureau.

"I think it's very un-Texan. I think it's a little bit un-American," Gammon said.

Perry and state transportation officials have said the Trans-Texas Corridor will spur economic development in areas along its path, and TxDOT said it will consider providing ways for existing farm roads to pass through the corridor.

Mark Collette covers Smith County. He can be reached at 903.596.6303. e-mail: news@tylerpaper.com

©Tyler Morning Telegraph 2006