Toll Road lobbyist Mike Weaver advises "35W Coalition"
35W Coalition pushes to speed up construction
Mar. 08, 2006
By GORDON DICKSON
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Copyright 2006
Business leaders along Interstate 35W say they’re frustrated that it may be more than two years before ground breaks on the highway’s expansion.
“Why can’t we accelerate this project? We have to ask hard questions that sometimes politicians don’t want to answer,” Russell Laughlin of Hillwood Properties said Wednesday during the second gathering of the 35W Coalition, a group formed in January to push for more highway dollars.
About 80 business owners, elected leaders and other residents attended the session at a Coca-Cola plant on Fossil Creek Boulevard, northeast of the I-35W/Loop 820 interchange.
Organizers urged those attending to campaign fiercely for more funding. Business owners were asked to speak out on behalf of the coalition at public meetings in North Texas, Austin and anywhere else necessary.
An estimated $600 million or more will be needed to build toll lanes on I-35W from Alliance to Meacham airports, and for the adjacent expansion of Loop 820 from I-35W to the Airport Freeway vortex, Laughlin said.
Area leaders have said they will accept tolls on new lanes if that’s what it takes to get them built before 2015.
When delivery trucks are delayed by traffic — even by just 15 minutes — the lost productivity can add up to “well over a million dollars” per year, said Jay Long, who represents Coca-Cola on the 35W Coalition.
Some progress has been made, Laughlin told the group. The Texas Department of Transportation is expediting an environmental study of I-35W that is required by federal law before road work can begin.
Even so, it may be the end of the year before the state agency is ready to ask companies to bid on toll lanes. And, it may be 2008 before a contract can be awarded. The project’s design and buying land for highway expansion could further delay the project, consultant Mike Weaver said.
“It’s not only about money, even when you have money in the bank,” he said. “It takes a couple of years to buy right-of-way, no matter how fast you try to do it.”
But Weaver did say that area businesses can put pressure on their neighbors to cooperate in land sales to the state.
Gordon Dickson, (817) 685-3816
gdickson@star-telegram.com
© 2006 Fort Worth Star-Telegram: www.dfw.com
Mar. 08, 2006
By GORDON DICKSON
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Copyright 2006
Business leaders along Interstate 35W say they’re frustrated that it may be more than two years before ground breaks on the highway’s expansion.
“Why can’t we accelerate this project? We have to ask hard questions that sometimes politicians don’t want to answer,” Russell Laughlin of Hillwood Properties said Wednesday during the second gathering of the 35W Coalition, a group formed in January to push for more highway dollars.
About 80 business owners, elected leaders and other residents attended the session at a Coca-Cola plant on Fossil Creek Boulevard, northeast of the I-35W/Loop 820 interchange.
Organizers urged those attending to campaign fiercely for more funding. Business owners were asked to speak out on behalf of the coalition at public meetings in North Texas, Austin and anywhere else necessary.
An estimated $600 million or more will be needed to build toll lanes on I-35W from Alliance to Meacham airports, and for the adjacent expansion of Loop 820 from I-35W to the Airport Freeway vortex, Laughlin said.
Area leaders have said they will accept tolls on new lanes if that’s what it takes to get them built before 2015.
When delivery trucks are delayed by traffic — even by just 15 minutes — the lost productivity can add up to “well over a million dollars” per year, said Jay Long, who represents Coca-Cola on the 35W Coalition.
Some progress has been made, Laughlin told the group. The Texas Department of Transportation is expediting an environmental study of I-35W that is required by federal law before road work can begin.
Even so, it may be the end of the year before the state agency is ready to ask companies to bid on toll lanes. And, it may be 2008 before a contract can be awarded. The project’s design and buying land for highway expansion could further delay the project, consultant Mike Weaver said.
“It’s not only about money, even when you have money in the bank,” he said. “It takes a couple of years to buy right-of-way, no matter how fast you try to do it.”
But Weaver did say that area businesses can put pressure on their neighbors to cooperate in land sales to the state.
Gordon Dickson, (817) 685-3816
gdickson@star-telegram.com
© 2006 Fort Worth Star-Telegram:
posted by Porkus Maximus Tex: at Wednesday, March 08, 2006
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