"We are going to be the transportation and trade corridor of this hemisphere."
State wants to tap private sector for I-69 project
By Matt Whittaker
The Brownsville Herald
Copyright 2006
WESLACO — State transportation officials are asking private companies to contribute ideas for Texas’ 600-mile portion of a Canada-to-Mexico highway and rail corridor that could run through McAllen or Brownsville, or both.
The Texas Department of Transportation is beginning a competitive process of mixing state and private money for financing, designing, building, operating and maintaining the state’s section of the Interstate 69 project, a planned 1,600-mile national highway — connecting Mexico, the United States and Canada — involving eight states.
Within the state, the Interstate 69 highway project is being called the Trans-Texas Corridor, which could include tolls to help investors recoup their costs and turn a profit.
“We are going to be the transportation and trade corridor of this hemisphere … if we are smart about it,” Commissioner Ted Houghton, of the Texas Transportation Commission, said at a news conference here Monday. “Brownsville, McAllen and Harlingen are part of this corridor. We’re going to develop an Interstate highway to the Valley.”
The state transportation commission oversees TxDOT, the agency in charge of the state’s roads.
The first round of proposals, which the transportation agency began asking for Friday, are due by June 7. The process could result in a state-picked developer by mid- to late 2007.
As TxDOT explores private investment possibilities, an environmental study to determine the final route for the $30 billion TTC-69 continues. The route under consideration includes broad swaths along major Texas roadways from Texarkana through Houston, past Interstate 37, and splitting off to Laredo, McAllen and Brownsville.
A draft of a separate but similar environmental study for the proposed Trans-Texas Corridor-35 — part of the larger Trans-Texas Corridor concept that will include passenger vehicle and large truck lanes, freight and high-speed commuter railways and telecommunications infrastructure — was released last week.
TTC-35 generally parallels Interstate-35 from North Texas to Laredo. It will go from Oklahoma to Mexico, and TTC-69 is planned to go from Northeast Texas to Mexico, the United State’s No. 2 trading partner after Canada.
Construction cannot begin until federally required environmental studies, similar for both corridor legs, are completed, according to TxDOT. Sections of the final routes for the two proposed corridors may be identified sometime between 2007 and 2010.
The TTC-35 leg of the project is about eight months ahead of the TTC-69 leg, Amadeo Saenz Jr., an assistant director for engineering with TxDOT, said at the news conference Monday.
State transportation officials expect the first draft of the TTC-69 environmental study by late this year or early 2007, with the route narrowed to an approximately four-mile-wide corridor. Subsequent studies would determine the final route for the project.
Asked after Monday’s meeting whether the final route will go to McAllen, Brownsville, Laredo or all three cities, Houghton said he could not comment on what the environmental study will dictate. However, he said that because the TTC-35 portion of the Trans Texas Corridor project is going to Laredo, it would be logical for the TTC-69 portion to go to McAllen or Brownsville or both.
That would depend on whether the private sector thinks it can recoup the investment required to build legs to both cities. It likely would not go to both Valley cities and Laredo, he said.
TTC-35 likely will have a price tag similar to TTC-69’s, said Mario Jorge, TxDOT’s district engineer based in Pharr. Construction could begin on both legs in five to 10 years. Construction would happen in stages, and the project could be finished 20 to 25 years after initial construction, Jorge estimated based on the TTC-35 proposal.
The private sector has offered to put up more than $7 billion in equity to build TTC-35. A similar figure is not available for the TTC-69 portion because the process involving private businesses has just begun, Jorge said.
State officials say using private investment to fund the I-69 project within Texas will get the state’s portion done more quickly than waiting for federal funds. So, in Texas, the highway will be developed under the Trans-Texas Corridor master plan, which could be completed in phases over the next 50 years.
TxDOT will oversee planning, construction and ongoing maintenance, although private companies will be responsible for much of the daily operations. To recoup their investment, those private companies likely would be allowed to collect tolls on portions of the expanded system.
Existing U.S. 77 and U.S. 281 lanes, according to state law, will remain toll-free. However, additions to those highways, such as truck lanes, likely would be tolled to help pay for the improvements, TxDOT’s Saenz said at the news conference.
Monday’s announcement flows from Gov. Rick Perry’s December instructions to TxDOT to build an Interstate-quality highway to the Valley, Houghton said.
The region is the only metropolitan area in the state without direct access to an Interstate system.
“Immediately begin developing proposals to build an Interstate-quality highway to connect the Lower Rio Grande River Valley to I-37, including the consideration of new, separate lanes for commercial truck traffic,” the governor told TxDOT in a Dec. 9 letter to Richard F. Williamson, Texas Transportation Commission chairman.
mwhittaker@themonitor.com
© 2006 The Brownsville Herald www.brownsvilleherald.com
By Matt Whittaker
The Brownsville Herald
Copyright 2006
WESLACO — State transportation officials are asking private companies to contribute ideas for Texas’ 600-mile portion of a Canada-to-Mexico highway and rail corridor that could run through McAllen or Brownsville, or both.
The Texas Department of Transportation is beginning a competitive process of mixing state and private money for financing, designing, building, operating and maintaining the state’s section of the Interstate 69 project, a planned 1,600-mile national highway — connecting Mexico, the United States and Canada — involving eight states.
Within the state, the Interstate 69 highway project is being called the Trans-Texas Corridor, which could include tolls to help investors recoup their costs and turn a profit.
“We are going to be the transportation and trade corridor of this hemisphere … if we are smart about it,” Commissioner Ted Houghton, of the Texas Transportation Commission, said at a news conference here Monday. “Brownsville, McAllen and Harlingen are part of this corridor. We’re going to develop an Interstate highway to the Valley.”
The state transportation commission oversees TxDOT, the agency in charge of the state’s roads.
The first round of proposals, which the transportation agency began asking for Friday, are due by June 7. The process could result in a state-picked developer by mid- to late 2007.
As TxDOT explores private investment possibilities, an environmental study to determine the final route for the $30 billion TTC-69 continues. The route under consideration includes broad swaths along major Texas roadways from Texarkana through Houston, past Interstate 37, and splitting off to Laredo, McAllen and Brownsville.
A draft of a separate but similar environmental study for the proposed Trans-Texas Corridor-35 — part of the larger Trans-Texas Corridor concept that will include passenger vehicle and large truck lanes, freight and high-speed commuter railways and telecommunications infrastructure — was released last week.
TTC-35 generally parallels Interstate-35 from North Texas to Laredo. It will go from Oklahoma to Mexico, and TTC-69 is planned to go from Northeast Texas to Mexico, the United State’s No. 2 trading partner after Canada.
Construction cannot begin until federally required environmental studies, similar for both corridor legs, are completed, according to TxDOT. Sections of the final routes for the two proposed corridors may be identified sometime between 2007 and 2010.
The TTC-35 leg of the project is about eight months ahead of the TTC-69 leg, Amadeo Saenz Jr., an assistant director for engineering with TxDOT, said at the news conference Monday.
State transportation officials expect the first draft of the TTC-69 environmental study by late this year or early 2007, with the route narrowed to an approximately four-mile-wide corridor. Subsequent studies would determine the final route for the project.
Asked after Monday’s meeting whether the final route will go to McAllen, Brownsville, Laredo or all three cities, Houghton said he could not comment on what the environmental study will dictate. However, he said that because the TTC-35 portion of the Trans Texas Corridor project is going to Laredo, it would be logical for the TTC-69 portion to go to McAllen or Brownsville or both.
That would depend on whether the private sector thinks it can recoup the investment required to build legs to both cities. It likely would not go to both Valley cities and Laredo, he said.
TTC-35 likely will have a price tag similar to TTC-69’s, said Mario Jorge, TxDOT’s district engineer based in Pharr. Construction could begin on both legs in five to 10 years. Construction would happen in stages, and the project could be finished 20 to 25 years after initial construction, Jorge estimated based on the TTC-35 proposal.
The private sector has offered to put up more than $7 billion in equity to build TTC-35. A similar figure is not available for the TTC-69 portion because the process involving private businesses has just begun, Jorge said.
State officials say using private investment to fund the I-69 project within Texas will get the state’s portion done more quickly than waiting for federal funds. So, in Texas, the highway will be developed under the Trans-Texas Corridor master plan, which could be completed in phases over the next 50 years.
TxDOT will oversee planning, construction and ongoing maintenance, although private companies will be responsible for much of the daily operations. To recoup their investment, those private companies likely would be allowed to collect tolls on portions of the expanded system.
Existing U.S. 77 and U.S. 281 lanes, according to state law, will remain toll-free. However, additions to those highways, such as truck lanes, likely would be tolled to help pay for the improvements, TxDOT’s Saenz said at the news conference.
Monday’s announcement flows from Gov. Rick Perry’s December instructions to TxDOT to build an Interstate-quality highway to the Valley, Houghton said.
The region is the only metropolitan area in the state without direct access to an Interstate system.
“Immediately begin developing proposals to build an Interstate-quality highway to connect the Lower Rio Grande River Valley to I-37, including the consideration of new, separate lanes for commercial truck traffic,” the governor told TxDOT in a Dec. 9 letter to Richard F. Williamson, Texas Transportation Commission chairman.
mwhittaker@themonitor.com
© 2006 The Brownsville Herald
posted by Porkus Maximus Tex: at Tuesday, April 11, 2006
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