"Our position is fundamentally unchanged. We are opposed to the corridor."
State wants corridor to shadow I-35
Trans-Texas road and rail route narrowed to 10-mile-wide study area
April 4, 2006
By TONY HARTZEL
The Dallas Morning News
Copyright 2006
A coordinated network of new toll roads, rail lines and utility lines should be built on or very near one of the main concrete arteries of Texas commerce, according to a new report and study released Tuesday.
Texas transportation officials have chosen "a study area" closely associated with Interstate 35 as the preferred route for the so-called Trans-Texas Corridor.
Ric Williamson, chairman of the Texas Transportation Commission, said the gigantic public works project would help ease terrible traffic congestion on I-35 as the population continues to grow.
"The Interstate 35 corridor is the single most important economic generator in the state of Texas," Mr. Williamson said. "We would not have pursued this solution if we were not convinced that this is the best solution and the only solution."
The 4,300-page draft environmental report represents a significant early step in a long process that could lead to construction of the Trans-Texas Corridor. At the earliest, a toll road or freight rail line could open in about 10 years. State highway officials and the project's private developers do not have any plans to build passenger rail lines in the foreseeable future.
The draft report, two years in the making, narrows the corridor's potential location to a 10-mile-wide study area that, in part, clips the southeast corner of Dallas County, runs just east of Lake Ray Hubbard and winds through much of Rockwall County.
Local concerns
Local leaders throughout the state – and particularly in North Texas – have expressed worries that the study area would be too far away from urban areas, effectively drawing new development away from cities and increasing traffic in rural areas.
Dallas City Council member Bill Blaydes said if the corridor is built in the proposed study area, it would do nothing for southern Dallas, which is underdeveloped and would benefit greatly from a closer corridor location. "We will not accept the plan as it currently exists," he said.
In addition, a route as far away as central Kaufman County or Rockwall County could entice existing manufacturing and freight businesses to move farther east, Mr. Blaydes said.
State highway officials say it would be impractical or impossible to put a 1,200-foot-wide corridor through the urban landscape in Dallas.
The proposed route area was a closely held secret until Tuesday morning. Local leaders were not briefed before the unveiling.
The state did conduct 117 public meetings and received more than 4,000 videotaped or written comments, said Texas Department of Transportation spokeswoman Gaby Garcia.
But Dallas County Commissioner Maurine Dickey said the state should have held formal public hearings to take testimony about route options.
"I'm sorry to say our neighbors in Austin feel like they should have more input than the people in North Texas," Ms. Dickey said.
Ms. Garcia, however, said, "Public input is public input."
As proposed in the report, the corridor will run 521 miles from Gainesville on the Red River to Laredo on the Rio Grande. In areas where roads, rail and utility lines are built together, the corridor will be 800 to 1,200 feet wide.
The challenge for state leaders may be balancing the needs of a statewide corridor with the interests of North Texas. The largest part of that challenge will lie in how the state or project developers connect the main corridor study route with urban areas.
State officials say that North Texas leaders have come up with good ideas to connect Dallas to the proposed road and rail corridor.
Those ideas include construction of toll roads along a State Highway 360 southern extension and along a long-planned Loop 9 in southern Dallas County.
"I want to tell anyone who will listen that we are not opposed to that route," Mr. Williamson said. Project developers "are not going to build a road that doesn't have interconnecting facilities."
In the new plan, the state has designated almost all of North Texas as a "modal transition zone" where road and rail connections can run directly from urban areas around Dallas into the corridor project to the east.
Rockwall County leaders have anticipated the Trans-Texas Corridor coming through their area since the idea was first raised, Commissioner Bruce Beaty said.
"If you're a resident and in the path, it's going to be a bad thing," Mr. Beaty said. "In the long run, it'll probably be good. We keep talking about economic development, and this is something that could help us."
Rockwall and Collin counties are working on a long-term highway project that they hope will eventually mesh with the proposed Trans-Texas Corridor.
"It [the corridor] is a wide swath," said Collin County Commissioner Joe Jaynes. "If it does happen, there will be some issues to work on."
The public will have its say on the corridor this summer, when the Texas Department of Transportation holds more than 50 public hearings on the draft report. A report outlining the final study area is expected in mid-2007.
After the 10-mile-wide study area is finalized, the state then may begin environmental reviews of specific projects. To build the toll roads from San Antonio to Dallas, for example, is expected to involve about six separate projects.
In general, those detailed reviews can take an average of almost four years to complete, said Doug Booher, environmental manager for the state transportation department's turnpike division.
Proposed in 2002
Gov. Rick Perry first announced plans for the Trans-Texas Corridor in 2002 as a way to solve the state's increasing highway congestion woes. The project has at times drawn opposition from the Texas Farm Bureau and from three of Mr. Perry's opponents in this fall's gubernatorial election.
The farm bureau said the corridor would take too much agricultural land to complete and split some farms in half.
"Our position is fundamentally unchanged. We are opposed to the corridor," said Gene Hall, a farm bureau spokesman who pledged to get the corridor shelved in the next legislative session.
As part of the corridor, project developer Cintra-Zachry has laid out general plans to build $6 billion in toll roads. Last week, the partners announced plans for another $6 billion in new freight rail lines from San Antonio to North Texas.
The Blackland Coalition, a group representing rural interests in Central Texas, said the proposed corridor is not needed and serves to benefit foreign investors.
"They seem to be in a rush to build without a common-sense understanding of who is going to use this road," Chris Hammel, the group's co-founder, said recently.
Staff writer Ian McCann contributed to this report.
E-mail thartzel@dallasnews.com
© 2006 The Dallas Morning News Co www.dallasnews.com
Trans-Texas road and rail route narrowed to 10-mile-wide study area
April 4, 2006
By TONY HARTZEL
The Dallas Morning News
Copyright 2006
A coordinated network of new toll roads, rail lines and utility lines should be built on or very near one of the main concrete arteries of Texas commerce, according to a new report and study released Tuesday.
Texas transportation officials have chosen "a study area" closely associated with Interstate 35 as the preferred route for the so-called Trans-Texas Corridor.
Ric Williamson, chairman of the Texas Transportation Commission, said the gigantic public works project would help ease terrible traffic congestion on I-35 as the population continues to grow.
"The Interstate 35 corridor is the single most important economic generator in the state of Texas," Mr. Williamson said. "We would not have pursued this solution if we were not convinced that this is the best solution and the only solution."
The 4,300-page draft environmental report represents a significant early step in a long process that could lead to construction of the Trans-Texas Corridor. At the earliest, a toll road or freight rail line could open in about 10 years. State highway officials and the project's private developers do not have any plans to build passenger rail lines in the foreseeable future.
The draft report, two years in the making, narrows the corridor's potential location to a 10-mile-wide study area that, in part, clips the southeast corner of Dallas County, runs just east of Lake Ray Hubbard and winds through much of Rockwall County.
Local concerns
Local leaders throughout the state – and particularly in North Texas – have expressed worries that the study area would be too far away from urban areas, effectively drawing new development away from cities and increasing traffic in rural areas.
Dallas City Council member Bill Blaydes said if the corridor is built in the proposed study area, it would do nothing for southern Dallas, which is underdeveloped and would benefit greatly from a closer corridor location. "We will not accept the plan as it currently exists," he said.
In addition, a route as far away as central Kaufman County or Rockwall County could entice existing manufacturing and freight businesses to move farther east, Mr. Blaydes said.
State highway officials say it would be impractical or impossible to put a 1,200-foot-wide corridor through the urban landscape in Dallas.
The proposed route area was a closely held secret until Tuesday morning. Local leaders were not briefed before the unveiling.
The state did conduct 117 public meetings and received more than 4,000 videotaped or written comments, said Texas Department of Transportation spokeswoman Gaby Garcia.
But Dallas County Commissioner Maurine Dickey said the state should have held formal public hearings to take testimony about route options.
"I'm sorry to say our neighbors in Austin feel like they should have more input than the people in North Texas," Ms. Dickey said.
Ms. Garcia, however, said, "Public input is public input."
As proposed in the report, the corridor will run 521 miles from Gainesville on the Red River to Laredo on the Rio Grande. In areas where roads, rail and utility lines are built together, the corridor will be 800 to 1,200 feet wide.
The challenge for state leaders may be balancing the needs of a statewide corridor with the interests of North Texas. The largest part of that challenge will lie in how the state or project developers connect the main corridor study route with urban areas.
State officials say that North Texas leaders have come up with good ideas to connect Dallas to the proposed road and rail corridor.
Those ideas include construction of toll roads along a State Highway 360 southern extension and along a long-planned Loop 9 in southern Dallas County.
"I want to tell anyone who will listen that we are not opposed to that route," Mr. Williamson said. Project developers "are not going to build a road that doesn't have interconnecting facilities."
In the new plan, the state has designated almost all of North Texas as a "modal transition zone" where road and rail connections can run directly from urban areas around Dallas into the corridor project to the east.
Rockwall County leaders have anticipated the Trans-Texas Corridor coming through their area since the idea was first raised, Commissioner Bruce Beaty said.
"If you're a resident and in the path, it's going to be a bad thing," Mr. Beaty said. "In the long run, it'll probably be good. We keep talking about economic development, and this is something that could help us."
Rockwall and Collin counties are working on a long-term highway project that they hope will eventually mesh with the proposed Trans-Texas Corridor.
"It [the corridor] is a wide swath," said Collin County Commissioner Joe Jaynes. "If it does happen, there will be some issues to work on."
The public will have its say on the corridor this summer, when the Texas Department of Transportation holds more than 50 public hearings on the draft report. A report outlining the final study area is expected in mid-2007.
After the 10-mile-wide study area is finalized, the state then may begin environmental reviews of specific projects. To build the toll roads from San Antonio to Dallas, for example, is expected to involve about six separate projects.
In general, those detailed reviews can take an average of almost four years to complete, said Doug Booher, environmental manager for the state transportation department's turnpike division.
Proposed in 2002
Gov. Rick Perry first announced plans for the Trans-Texas Corridor in 2002 as a way to solve the state's increasing highway congestion woes. The project has at times drawn opposition from the Texas Farm Bureau and from three of Mr. Perry's opponents in this fall's gubernatorial election.
The farm bureau said the corridor would take too much agricultural land to complete and split some farms in half.
"Our position is fundamentally unchanged. We are opposed to the corridor," said Gene Hall, a farm bureau spokesman who pledged to get the corridor shelved in the next legislative session.
As part of the corridor, project developer Cintra-Zachry has laid out general plans to build $6 billion in toll roads. Last week, the partners announced plans for another $6 billion in new freight rail lines from San Antonio to North Texas.
The Blackland Coalition, a group representing rural interests in Central Texas, said the proposed corridor is not needed and serves to benefit foreign investors.
"They seem to be in a rush to build without a common-sense understanding of who is going to use this road," Chris Hammel, the group's co-founder, said recently.
Staff writer Ian McCann contributed to this report.
E-mail thartzel@dallasnews.com
© 2006 The Dallas Morning News Co
posted by Porkus Maximus Tex: at Tuesday, April 04, 2006
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