"The new toll road is still on the drawing board, right where it ought to stay — unless, of course, there is a waste bin handy."
Opinion
Road future: Corridor planning taking a toll on East Texas land?
June 29, 2008
Longview News-Journal
Copyright 2008
Every Longview resident who thinks a toll road connecting our city and the proposed Interstate 69 is a good idea raise your hands.
Go ahead, raise them high so we can get a good count.
Come on now, where are your hands?
Doesn't anybody in Longview think it's a good idea to charge a toll to travel to the Marshall area?
Is anybody getting the impression that the only way that Gov. Rick Perry and the cronies he has put in charge of Texas' highway planning have any ideas that don't involve toll roads — especially toll roads operated by private contractors?
What's more, the private companies designing the proposed Interstate 69/Trans Texas Corridor say the toll road included in their conceptual plan would not involve an existing road.
That is supposed to reassure East Texans that they won't be asked to pay tolls to travel along U.S. 80 or Interstate 20 to catch the new highway that is supposed to follow the route of U.S. 59 through East Texas. So we will still be able to travel our traditional routes to reach the Marshall area without paying tolls.
That's good, but if the new connector won't follow old routes, does that mean another swath of East Texas forests and fields would be rolled under the road graders to make way for this proposed toll road? Is that really necessary?
We don't think so.
Fortunately, the new toll road is still on the drawing board, right where it ought to stay — unless, of course, there is a waste bin handy.
© 2008, Longview News-Journal: www.news-journal.com
To search TTC News Archives clickHERE
To view the Trans-Texas Corridor Blog clickHERE
Road future: Corridor planning taking a toll on East Texas land?
June 29, 2008
Longview News-Journal
Copyright 2008
Every Longview resident who thinks a toll road connecting our city and the proposed Interstate 69 is a good idea raise your hands.
Go ahead, raise them high so we can get a good count.
Come on now, where are your hands?
Doesn't anybody in Longview think it's a good idea to charge a toll to travel to the Marshall area?
Is anybody getting the impression that the only way that Gov. Rick Perry and the cronies he has put in charge of Texas' highway planning have any ideas that don't involve toll roads — especially toll roads operated by private contractors?
What's more, the private companies designing the proposed Interstate 69/Trans Texas Corridor say the toll road included in their conceptual plan would not involve an existing road.
That is supposed to reassure East Texans that they won't be asked to pay tolls to travel along U.S. 80 or Interstate 20 to catch the new highway that is supposed to follow the route of U.S. 59 through East Texas. So we will still be able to travel our traditional routes to reach the Marshall area without paying tolls.
That's good, but if the new connector won't follow old routes, does that mean another swath of East Texas forests and fields would be rolled under the road graders to make way for this proposed toll road? Is that really necessary?
We don't think so.
Fortunately, the new toll road is still on the drawing board, right where it ought to stay — unless, of course, there is a waste bin handy.
© 2008, Longview News-Journal: www.news-journal.com
To search TTC News Archives click
To view the Trans-Texas Corridor Blog click
posted by Porkus Maximus Tex: at Sunday, June 29, 2008
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