Thread: Texans protest TxDOT's plans for corridor, tolls

Texans protest TxDOT's plans for corridor, tolls
CBS 42 Reporter: Alexis Patterson
Email: adpatterson@keyetv.com
Last Update: 4/05 10:58 pm

Trans-Texas Corridor Protest
Click link and Vidio is on the right.

According to the state, toll roads are really the only way to meet the transportation needs of our skyrocketing population. Not everyone buys that argument.

Toll opponents marched through downtown before rallying at the Capitol.

"We don't need all the tolls," says Nina Speairs, who attended the rally. "Most of those roads have already been paid for, but secondly, the Trans-Texas Corridor is a monstrosity and a travesty."

Exact routes are yet to be determined, but the proposed 10-lane corridor would incorporate new and existing highways, with separate lanes for big trucks. It will include railways and utility cable paths.

"This world we live in now is a fast-paced world, and I think [the Trans-Texas Corridor] is going to help," says JD Alcazar.

The corridor will be built largely, if not exclusively, as toll roads.

"The toll roads help me by way of saving a lot of time," says Alcazar. "They help me save actually on fuel which is a good thing these days."

Not everyone is convinced.

"They want to take 580,000 acres of prime Texas farm- and ranchland and put it into that Trans-Texas Corridor," said Speairs.

The Texas Department of Transportation admits it may resort to seizing property.

"It's going to take their land and destroy their heritage and agriculture," said Hank Gilbert, an organizer of the anti-tolls rally.

But landowners are compensated, and the Department of Transportation says that's how roads are built.

The Texas Department of Transportation tells us it isn't feasible to just expand existing roads. The department believes the corridor will make driving safer, route hazardous cargo away from populated areas, and create economic development.

"That's just marketing baloney," said Speairs.

The Department of Transportation says if opponents have better ideas, it wants to hear them. The department is accepting public comments on one element of the corridor for about two more weeks.

http://www.keyetv.com/content/news/topn ... ef6df1d346

TRANS-TEXAS CORRIDOR

Trans-Texas Corridor foes march on Capitol
Critics say proposed toll-rail-utility routing will usurp property rights and harm the environment.
By Patrick George

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Sunday, April 06, 2008

For Peyton Gilbert, the battle over the Trans-Texas Corridor is reminiscent of the moment in 1836 when Lt. Col. William Travis drew a line in the sand at the Alamo and invited those willing to fight thousands of Mexican soldiers to step across.

"That line in the sand is the Trans-Texas Corridor, and it's a threat to our sovereignty again, just like at the Alamo," said Gilbert, 14, who is from Whitehouse, near Tyler.

Gilbert was among a large crowd of people who marched down Congress Avenue to the Capitol on Saturday afternoon to demonstrate against the proposed highway-rail-utility corridor and the placement of toll roads on existing freeways. The corridor would go from the Texas-Mexico border to the Oklahoma state line and have special trucking lanes, rail lines and communications and utility cables.

Opponents say Gov. Rick Perry's plan for 4,000 miles of cross-state tollways will usurp private land, will use private companies to operate toll roads and could hurt the environment. The corridor is slated to be built by private contractors, primarily Spanish firm Cintra.

"In a nutshell, we are against it because of the devastation it's going to cause rural and urban landowners, the effect it will have on the middle class and the consequences it will have on our liberty," said Hank Gilbert of Texas TURF, or Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom, the San Antonio-based group that organized Saturday's rally.

"TxDOT says these corridors are for trade out of Mexico and ultimately China, but it's Texans who will have to pay out the nose for it," said Gilbert, Peyton's father.

Both spoke at the rally.

Supporters of the corridor and toll roads say they are the only way to accommodate the state's growth without increasing gasoline taxes.

"Texans need and deserve real solutions to our growing traffic challenges, not just blind opposition to new lane and highway construction," said Bill Noble, a spokesman for Texans for Safe Reliable Transportation, a pro-tollway group. "Every day we delay building new roads means higher construction costs and more frustration for drivers."

In the warm, breezy spring weather, most rally participants carried signs with slogans like "No TTC!" and "Who does TTC benefit?" while listening to the band the Texicans play "The Trans-Texas Corridor Blues."

Many sported shirts and paraphernalia from Republican U.S. Rep. Ron Paul's presidential campaign, expressing their support for the Libertarian-leaning lawmaker.

"Ron Paul stands up for the Constitution," said Charles Walker, who hails from Lake Jackson, which is in the lawmaker's district. "He was one of the original people to oppose the corridor."

pgeorge@statesman.com; 445-3851

Slideshow
http://www.statesman.com/ap/mediahub/me ... ?tId=98884

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/n ... 6turf.html

Fox4 News reported that about 1,000 people attended this rally.

Dixie

Of course the AFL-CIO is a big supporter of infrastructure projects, which they refer to as the "Rebuild America" campaign.
http://www.aflcio.org/aboutus/thisisthe ... 72007e.cfm

Some of their construction unions have split off to form another coalition.
But it boils down to more jobs, including illegal aliens, more union members, and eventually more Democrat Party voters. Of course, also continued deficits and higher taxes all capped by the surrender of US sovereignty.