Thread: It's back: Texas in 'Super Highway' deal with Spain; Gov Perry signs agreement 3 yea

WND EXCLUSIVE

It's back: Texas in 'Super Highway' deal with Spain

Perry signs agreement 3 years after public opposition halted project

Published: 5 hours ago
by Jerome R. Corsi

NEW YORK – Believe it or not, the Trans-Texas Corridor is back.

Very quietly, Gov. Rick Perry and the Texas Department of Transportation, or TxDOT, signed in October a comprehensive development agreement to construct a toll-road redevelopment of Interstate 35 north of downtown Fort Worth.

TxDOT signed the 50-year deal with NTE Mobility Partners Segments 3 LLC, a U.S.-based wholly-owned subsidiary of Cintra, the Spanish-owned construction company. TxDOT picked Cintra in 2005 to build what some critics called the “NAFTA Super Highway.”

Chris Lippincot, the former TxDOT information officer who is currently acting as the new public relations man for Cintra in the United States, also announced TxDOT signed a contract in September with Cintra to build a privatized State Highway 130 toll road in San Antonio.

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Perry may never have abandoned his original idea to build what during the presidential administration of George W. Bush was known as the Trans-Texas Corridor project, a 4,000-mile network of privately built and operated toll roads to crisscross the state, with Spanish development company Cintra scheduled to earn the tolls under 50-year leases.

In 2009, Perry scrapped the TTC plan after a series of combative town hall meetings throughout the state showed TxDOT it faced massive taxpayer resistance.

But now, the plan apparently is being implemented in small chunks, without the fanfare of divulging a statewide blueprint Perry and TxDOT may still have tucked away in their back pockets.

Was TTC ever really dead?

Operating below the radar of public opinion, Texas currently has $20 billion in roadwork underway through public-private partnerships, according to Ted Houghton, TxDOT chairman, the Texas Tribune reported earlier this month.

Despite Perry’s pledge in 2009 to end the Trans-Texas Corridor project with Cintra, TxDOT has kept the public-private partnership toll road concept alive by proposing smaller projects for the approval of the Texas state legislature.

Nicholas Rubio, the president of Cintra’s U.S. arm in Austin, told the Texas Tribune that Cintra currently has contracts for three road projects in Texas, consisting of approximately $5 billion in private investment against about $1 billion in public subsidies.

“You have to recognize, in general, that policymakers in Texas have been ahead of the curve,” Rubio told the Tribune. “The states that have been developing P3s (public-private partnerships) are Texas, Florida, Virginia, and that’s about it.”

In October, Perry and Rafael del Pino, chairman of Ferrovial, Cintra’s parent company in Spain, attended the grand launch of a 41-mile stretch of State Highway 130 P3 project between Austin and Sequin.

Texas owns the land on which the SH 130 P3 project is built, but a private consortium owned and operated by Cintra is scheduled to build the toll road. It’s to be operated under a 50-year lease, with Cintra taking the lion’s share of the tolls collected over the next 50 years to recover construction costs and to make a profit.

To make the SH 130 toll road palatable to Texas drivers, the speed limit will be set to 85 miles per hour, the fastest posted limit in the United States.

A look-back to the Bush era

Quietly but systematically, the Bush administration in conjunction with Perry in Texas advanced the plan to build a huge highway, four football fields wide, through the heart of Texas, parallel to Interstate 35, from the Mexican border at Laredo, Texas, to the Texas border with Oklahoma.

The Trans-Texas Corridor moved ahead to begin construction following the re-election of Perry in November 2006.

Plans to build TTC-35 were fully disclosed on KeepTexasMoving.org, a now defunct official TxDOT website.
On March 11, 2005, a “Comprehensive Development Agreement” was signed by TxDOT to build the “TTC-35 High Priority Corridor” parallel to Interstate 35.

The contracting party was a limited partnership formed between Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte, S.A., a publically-listed company headquartered in Spain, majority controlled by the Madrid-based Groupo Ferrovial, and a San Antonio-based construction company, Zachry Construction Corporation.
The Cintra deal meant that once the TTC was completed, anyone who wanted to drive on it would have to pay an investment consortium in Spain for the privilege of driving in Texas.

Although somewhat incomprehensible to most U.S. citizens, these public-private partnerships involve selling off key U.S. infrastructure projects to foreign entities.

Granted, the “ownership” rights of projects like TTC-35 would have remained with the state of Texas, yet selling off the leasing rights amounts in the thinking of most U.S. citizens to selling off the highway to foreign interests for the term of the lease.

Under the terms of the TTC agreements with TxDOT, Cintra would have had the rights to operate TTC-35 for 50 years and to collect all tolls on the road in that period of time.

The Comprehensive Development Agreement called for Cintra-Zachry to provide private investment of $6 billion “to fully design, construct and operate a four-lane, 316-mile toll road between Dallas and San Antonio for up to 50 years as the initial segment of TTC-35.

For this, Cintra-Zachry paid the state of Texas $1.2 billion for the long-term right to build and operate the initial segment as a toll facility.

In April 2006, TxDOT released a 4,000-page Environmental Impact Statement, or EIS, for what was described as the “Trans-Texas Corridor-25 Oklahoma to Mexico/Gulf Coast Element.”

The April 2006 EIS made clear that Cintra-Zachry planned to build a 1,200-foot-wide (approximately four football fields wide) complex with 10 lanes of highway – five lanes in each direction, north and south.Three lanes in each direction would be reserved for passenger vehicles and two separate lanes reserved for trucks.

The EIS design included six rail lines running parallel to the highway, with separate rail lines in each direction for high-speed rail, commuter rail and freight rail.

Finally, the design called for a 200-foot wide utility corridor that would include pipelines for oil, natural gas, water, telecommunications and data, as well as electricity towers.

According to the TxDOT Trans-Texas Corridor Plan adopted in June 2002, TxDOT ultimately would build some 4,000 miles of highway-railway-utility super-corridors throughout Texas over the next 50 years, using some 584,000 acres of what is now Texas farm and ranchland, at an estimated cost of $184 billion.

The TTC plan left little doubt TTC toll-road super-corridors were designed to facilitate international trade, primarily speeding trucks and trains carrying “inter-modal” containers from Mexican ports to destinations in the heartland of the U.S.

The full TTC build-out was designed to move goods through Texas rapidly, bypassing the major cities.


It’s back: Texas in ‘Super Highway’ deal with Spain

http://www.alipac.us/f19/council-for...2013-a-269532/

FROM WATCHDOG WIRE - TEXAS


Governor Perry Hypes Texas Transportation Projects



New award named for Rick Perry

January 10, 2014
by P-G Matuszak

Gov. Rick Perry has been lauding the improvements in the Texas transportation system.
The available data indicates that Texas transportation infrastructure, particularly highways, has increased and grown substantially since 2001. In fact, records show that over 6,600 new miles of highway have been built in the past 12 years. The growth and improvements have cost taxpayers almost $60 billion.
In order to accomplish the projects, Perry and the state have instituted P-3 (Private-Public Partnership) projects similar to those instituted by Gov. Mitch Daniels of Indiana. They have also delegated much of the roadwork to local and municipal officials so they could target the work where the cities felt it was most needed.
Of course, that works great if the local municipal government is transparent and not corrupt. However, it leaves questions about cities such as San Antonio whose mayor has been pushing for an overpriced light rail system that will never generate enough revenue to be self-sufficient. That means it will forever be a burden upon the taxpayers to run mostly empty trains. Other questions can be raised concerning transportation funding in San Antonio should a trace on the funds show it being deposited into any of the revolving accounts such as “the variable” in the city’s telecommunications department.
The improvements made in the past 12 years have prompted the Texas Transportation Commission to create the Governor Rick Perry Leadership in Transportation Award. The award will be given to leaders in Texas who increase transportation infrastructure in a manner that does not increase taxes on citizens.
Gov. Perry remarked on the importance of transportation infrastructure in Texas and the government’s role in facilitating projects:

Transportation fuels the economy that’s making it possible for families to build lives, but transportation is also essential to help families enjoy the lives they’ve built. That’s a simple fact of life that we need to keep in mind moving forward. That’s why we’ve taken so many steps over the past decade to improve our roads, while remaining true to the essential Texas value of fiscal responsibility.

With many businesses moving from less-business-friendly states to Texas and the relative economic boom in the state, many contend that the improvement and growth of transportation infrastructure is a necessary factor in continuing economic growth in the state. Companies such as X-Cor and Magpul benefit from relocating to Texas. In order for their products to get to their designated markets, they need roads, railways, and airfields.
One key feather in the state government’s cap is they have accomplished this without raising taxes. However, a drawback is unfunded liabilities generated from the sale of bonds. Bonds are a form of loan to the government, part of the public debt. They must be paid back with interest in the future. That leaves a drawback of potentially leaving the next generation stuck with the bills.
The 83rd Legislature had to convene for a second special session this past summer to debate (and pass) resolutions regarding the transportation funding in the state. The resolution went before voters this past November and were ratified to the Texas State Constitution. The resolution allowed for the creation of a new transportation fund and the movement of a portion of the Economic Stability Fund (so-called “rainy day fund”). The ESF funds were then to be back-filled by any budgetary surplus after the biannual budget closed.
Comptroller Susan Combs certified the budget with a $5.5 billion surplus for 2012-13. Many voters are wondering why the transportation fund wasn’t just created on its own without having to reduce the ESF. The ESF is mostly funded from the remainders of any budgetary surplus that results. It is part of the state’s balanced budget amendment. Others contend that the surplus could also have been used to pay down some of the public debt. Though the state is not in bad shape, some Texas cities, such as San Antonio and Houston, have record high public debts. More conservative citizens contend that it is far more responsible to live the life you can afford instead of living the life you can borrow today at the cost of tomorrow’s prosperity.
P-G Matuszak

P-G Matuszak retired from the US Army as a Sergeant First Class after 24 years of service. The last 15 of those years were in the intelligence field including assignments in Europe, Hungary, The Balkans, Central and Western Asia, and the Middle East. During his career, his threat analysis and geopolitical analysis was sought out by senior military leadership on a regular basis. P-G retired in 2011 to pursue writing and raising a family. He moved from Arizona, where he was active with the Cochise County Tea Party and Verify The Vote - Arizona to Texas in July 2012 and married his love of a lifetime, Melissa, who joins him in co-writing book, restaurant, and movie reviews on his web-blog, Mental Aikido ( http://pg-matuszak.blogspot.com ). P-G is currently penning two books. The first is on his evolution of his political philosophy. The second is about his time with military transition teams in Iraq during the first year of the Obama presidency. P-G Matuszak is the contributing editor-in-chief of Mental Aikido as well as a contributing columnist for Toraradical.com . His articles have also appeared at FreedomWorks.com. He can be found on twitter as @pavelgregory (https://twitter.com/pavelgregory) and @MentalAikido discussing topics of relevance or bantering about with Breitbart and Town Hall contributor Kurt Schlichter and other Top Conservatives on Twitter (#tcot).
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http://watchdogwire.com/texas/2014/0...tion-projects/


Awake yet America?????

20 Years Later Mexico May Be NAFTA’s Biggest Winner

It now called Smart Growth and Opportunity Zones aren't we lucky....wake up America http://www.clarksvillesmartgrowth.co...stCorridor.htm

Trans-Texas Corridor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Texas_Corridor The Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC) was a proposal for a transportation network in the U.S. State of Texas that was conceived to be composed of a new kind of ... CorridorWatch.org - Challenging the Wisdom of the Trans-Texas ... http://www.corridorwatch.org/ A group of public officials and private citizens opposed to the Texas Department of Transportation's proposed Trans-Texas Corridor, a wide multimodal rebuild of ... It's back: Texas in 'Super Highway' deal with Spain http://www.wnd.com/2012/12/its-back-...al-with-spain/ Dec 29, 2012 ... NEW YORK – Believe it or not, the Trans-Texas Corridor is back. Very quietly, Gov. Rick Perry and the Texas Department of Transportation, ... Tracking and Charging: Trans-Texas Corridor-NAFTA ... http://21stcenturywire.com/2014/02/2...dor-nafta-supe... Feb 24, 2014 ... Most people still think that due to public pressure, Texas governor Rick Perry had abandoned the controversial Trans-Texas Corridor-NAFTA ... Tribpedia: Trans-texas Corridor | The Texas Tribune http://www.texastribune.org/tribpedi...exas-corridor/ The Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC) is a transportation network originally envisioned to be a 4,000-mile ... Tolling Texans: Impact of Trans-Texas Corridor Lingers. Tolling Texans: Impact of Trans-Texas Corridor Lingers | The Texas ... http://www.texastribune.org/2012/12/...ridor-lingers/ Dec 3, 2012 ... Caleb Ging and Libby Fischer stand near the Ging family's home in Coupland in front of signs protesting the Trans-Texas Corridor in 2007. NAFTA Super Highway - Trans Texas Corridor NAFTA ... - YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DnGTpOYDku1s Aug 22, 2013 ... Is there a NAFTA Super Highway? A.K.A. Trans Texas Corridor NAFTA Superhighway? The answer is Yes!!! Sources Below: ... Trans-Texas Corridor - Vol. 69 · No. 1 - Public Roads https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publication...s/05jul/07.cfm The Trans-Texas Corridor joins two other Texas projects on the Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA) list of megaprojects—the $2.7 billion, 37-kilometer ... Trans Texas Corridor | Texans for Rick Perry http://www.rickperry.org/pages/ttc The Trans Texas Corridor (TTC) is new way to move commuters and cargo, remove ... By using the Trans Texas Corridor to combine many of these rights of way ... Trans-Texas Corridor plans dropped after public outcry - Houston ... http://www.chron.com/neighborhood/cy...ans-dropped-af... Jan 6, 2009 ... AUSTIN — The ambitious proposal to create the Trans-Texas Corridor network has been dropped in response to public outcry and will be ...

Also

http://www.alipac.us/f19/connecting-...2022-a-288479/

It's back: Texas in 'Super Highway' deal with Spain; Gov Perry signs agreement 3 yea


I-90 Corridor Overview
http://www.illinoistollway.com/const...ridor-overview