"Many West Texans are disinterested in the ambitious Trans Texas Corridor plan."
MOTRAN announces highway projects near Crane, Fort Stockton
11/18/2005
Bob Campbell
Midland Reporter-Telegram
Copyright 2005
Two major highway projects were announced at Thursday's annual meeting of the Midland-Odessa Transportation Alliance.
MOTRAN President James Beauchamp said the Texas Department of Transportation has been given $44 million to widen a 20-mile section of Highway 385 from Crane to McCamey and build an 18-mile reliever route around the west side of McCamey.
He said the cost had been projected to be $42 million and, with another $2 million from the Federal Highway Administration, widening 385 to a four-lane divided highway is now fully funded.
Area TxDOT Engineer Lauren Garduño of Odessa said the project's planning phase has been authorized and he will await TxDOT's go-ahead to advertise for bids.
Garduño said work is slated in 2006 to widen a 15-mile stretch of Highway 67 south of Interstate 10 from Fort Stockton to a "super two-lane" road that will actually be three lanes wide.
Attended by 30 people, the afternoon meeting at the Permian Basin Regional Planning Commission near Midland International Airport also featured an address by state Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, who has become involved in a dispute between MOTRAN and TxDOT.
When asked if he is helping advance right of way purchases for Highway 349 reliever route construction northwest and north of Midland, Seliger said it is the kind of situation elected officials should facilitate. "That conversation is continuing," he said.
New MOTRAN Chairman Drew Crutcher conceded his group is "impatient" but said the entities are working together more harmoniously than Beauchamp's criticism of TxDOT at a Midland Development Corp. board meeting last month might have indicated. "I don't think there is as much friction as one might imply," Crutcher said.
Seliger said many West Texans are disinterested in the ambitious Trans Texas Corridor plan because I-35 is too far away. He said MOTRAN's La Entrada al Pacifio trade corridor and intermodal facilities like the loading dock La Entrada's Rural Rail District plans on Union Pacific tracks south of the airport should be more important than "pouring concrete" for more truck traffic.
Beauchamp said he and Garduño have sometimes disagreed, but TxDOT's Odessa District could solve most of its problems if it had more money to work with.
Beauchamp said Midland-Odessa have more trucks go down I-20 each day than San Antonio-I-35 -- about 7,900 to 7,100. He said San Antonio-I-35 see a total of 33,000 vehicles per day while Midland-Odessa-I-20 have 17,300.
Outgoing MOTRAN Chairman Robin Donnelly said his organization has had to work hard to get the Basin's "fair share" of TxDOT and FHA funding because, when MOTRAN was founded 14 years ago, most of the money was dedicated to I-20 maintenance.
Rail District Co-Chairman John Cunningham said the district still doesn't have a contract with Iowa Pacific Holdings of Chicago to manage the loading dock but hopes to by the end of this year. He said Iowa Pacific executives want to meet first with officials of the Family Dollar Texas Distribution Center at Odessa, one of the facility's major prospective clients.
©MyWestTexas.com 2005 www.mywesttexas.com
11/18/2005
Bob Campbell
Midland Reporter-Telegram
Copyright 2005
Two major highway projects were announced at Thursday's annual meeting of the Midland-Odessa Transportation Alliance.
MOTRAN President James Beauchamp said the Texas Department of Transportation has been given $44 million to widen a 20-mile section of Highway 385 from Crane to McCamey and build an 18-mile reliever route around the west side of McCamey.
He said the cost had been projected to be $42 million and, with another $2 million from the Federal Highway Administration, widening 385 to a four-lane divided highway is now fully funded.
Area TxDOT Engineer Lauren Garduño of Odessa said the project's planning phase has been authorized and he will await TxDOT's go-ahead to advertise for bids.
Garduño said work is slated in 2006 to widen a 15-mile stretch of Highway 67 south of Interstate 10 from Fort Stockton to a "super two-lane" road that will actually be three lanes wide.
Attended by 30 people, the afternoon meeting at the Permian Basin Regional Planning Commission near Midland International Airport also featured an address by state Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, who has become involved in a dispute between MOTRAN and TxDOT.
When asked if he is helping advance right of way purchases for Highway 349 reliever route construction northwest and north of Midland, Seliger said it is the kind of situation elected officials should facilitate. "That conversation is continuing," he said.
New MOTRAN Chairman Drew Crutcher conceded his group is "impatient" but said the entities are working together more harmoniously than Beauchamp's criticism of TxDOT at a Midland Development Corp. board meeting last month might have indicated. "I don't think there is as much friction as one might imply," Crutcher said.
Seliger said many West Texans are disinterested in the ambitious Trans Texas Corridor plan because I-35 is too far away. He said MOTRAN's La Entrada al Pacifio trade corridor and intermodal facilities like the loading dock La Entrada's Rural Rail District plans on Union Pacific tracks south of the airport should be more important than "pouring concrete" for more truck traffic.
Beauchamp said he and Garduño have sometimes disagreed, but TxDOT's Odessa District could solve most of its problems if it had more money to work with.
Beauchamp said Midland-Odessa have more trucks go down I-20 each day than San Antonio-I-35 -- about 7,900 to 7,100. He said San Antonio-I-35 see a total of 33,000 vehicles per day while Midland-Odessa-I-20 have 17,300.
Outgoing MOTRAN Chairman Robin Donnelly said his organization has had to work hard to get the Basin's "fair share" of TxDOT and FHA funding because, when MOTRAN was founded 14 years ago, most of the money was dedicated to I-20 maintenance.
Rail District Co-Chairman John Cunningham said the district still doesn't have a contract with Iowa Pacific Holdings of Chicago to manage the loading dock but hopes to by the end of this year. He said Iowa Pacific executives want to meet first with officials of the Family Dollar Texas Distribution Center at Odessa, one of the facility's major prospective clients.
©MyWestTexas.com 2005
posted by Porkus Maximus Tex: at Monday, November 21, 2005
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