Such a Deal!
Static
They Get Us Coming and Going
2/21/07
Fort Worth Weekly
Copyright 2007
Exciting news, folks — Interstate 69, a proposed Texas-to-Michigan road that’s part of the Trans-Texas Corridor, may get built even quicker than expected!
Well, gosh, that’s a relief.
According to Keep Texas Moving, a newsletter from the Texas Department of Transportation, the TTC arm that would reach from Laredo to northeast Texas has been placed by federal transportation gurus on a short list for fast-track development.
Whew — Static was worried that Texas might forget itself and fund some regional or statewide public transit, but just in time, we’ve found a way to spend those dollars on more concrete.
And another fast-track!
When you combine it with the fast lane that our Guv put the TXU coal-fired plants in, it just makes you realize how modern and efficient our state is — we can get things done by government fiat regardless of how many actual citizens, air breathers, land owners, farmers, ranchers, mayors, business leaders, and environmentalists (like they matter) oppose it.
But what do you expect from a co-opted governor who bows at the altar of the energy industry and disputes the existence of global warming, even when his incessant use of hairspray is rumored to have burned away much of the ozone?
TxDOT, by the way, says all those alarmists are wrong when they claim that no-compete clauses in the contracts with foreign companies to build (and charge tolls on) the TTC would keep free roads in the same areas from being maintained or improved (“Detours on a Super-Highway,” Jan. 10, 2007).
The newsletter says “absolutely not!” If a road or an improvement is already in the 25-year plan, TxDOT says, it will be built — as will any improvement for safety. And the state can build whatever “competing” road projects it wants — as long as it compensates the foreign company for anything that cuts down on traffic on the privately run toll roads.
So, let’s see — that means we either pay the potentially outrageous tolls directly, or we go around on free roads and let the state pay tax dollars to compensate the poor mega-corporation.
Now that’s some contract.
© 2007 Fort Worth Weekly: www.fwweekly.com
To search TTC News Archives clickHERE
To view the Trans-Texas Corridor Blog clickHERE
They Get Us Coming and Going
2/21/07
Fort Worth Weekly
Copyright 2007
Exciting news, folks — Interstate 69, a proposed Texas-to-Michigan road that’s part of the Trans-Texas Corridor, may get built even quicker than expected!
Well, gosh, that’s a relief.
According to Keep Texas Moving, a newsletter from the Texas Department of Transportation, the TTC arm that would reach from Laredo to northeast Texas has been placed by federal transportation gurus on a short list for fast-track development.
Whew — Static was worried that Texas might forget itself and fund some regional or statewide public transit, but just in time, we’ve found a way to spend those dollars on more concrete.
And another fast-track!
When you combine it with the fast lane that our Guv put the TXU coal-fired plants in, it just makes you realize how modern and efficient our state is — we can get things done by government fiat regardless of how many actual citizens, air breathers, land owners, farmers, ranchers, mayors, business leaders, and environmentalists (like they matter) oppose it.
But what do you expect from a co-opted governor who bows at the altar of the energy industry and disputes the existence of global warming, even when his incessant use of hairspray is rumored to have burned away much of the ozone?
TxDOT, by the way, says all those alarmists are wrong when they claim that no-compete clauses in the contracts with foreign companies to build (and charge tolls on) the TTC would keep free roads in the same areas from being maintained or improved (“Detours on a Super-Highway,” Jan. 10, 2007).
The newsletter says “absolutely not!” If a road or an improvement is already in the 25-year plan, TxDOT says, it will be built — as will any improvement for safety. And the state can build whatever “competing” road projects it wants — as long as it compensates the foreign company for anything that cuts down on traffic on the privately run toll roads.
So, let’s see — that means we either pay the potentially outrageous tolls directly, or we go around on free roads and let the state pay tax dollars to compensate the poor mega-corporation.
Now that’s some contract.
© 2007 Fort Worth Weekly:
To search TTC News Archives click
To view the Trans-Texas Corridor Blog click
posted by Porkus Maximus Tex: at Wednesday, February 21, 2007
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