braeden0613
01-06-2009, 04:59 PM
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/010609dnmetttc.43c00ac6.html
Trans Texas Corridor is dead, TxDOT says
01:40 PM CST on Tuesday, January 6, 2009
By MICHAEL A. LINDENBERGER / The Dallas Morning News
[email protected]
AUSTIN – The Texas Department of Transportation announced this morning that it has officially killed the Trans Texas Corridor, saying that despite the project's visionary aspects, "it is clearly not the choice of Texans."
The announcement comes six years after Gov. Rick Perry shook up the state's transportation and political circles by unveiling an ambitious plan to stretch highways, rail lines and utilities for hundreds of miles along the Interstate 35 and Interstate 69 corridors.
Also Online
09/29/03: Corridor plan on road to reality
The plan, which would have cost tens of billions of dollars and relied heavily on private toll roads, was hugely controversial.
Amadeo Saenz, executive director of TxDOT, made the announcement that the agency was giving up on the idea at the annual Transportation Forum in Austin.
"Make no mistake: The Trans Texas Corridor as we have known it no longer exists," he said.
Each of the dozens of projects that were linked together under the rubric of the TTC – including the Loop 9 project in Dallas and the I-69 project in the south – will remain as stand-alone projects, he said.
"The concept has been diminished," he said. "We must recognize the inevitable: The TTC is not the choice of Texans."
The real impact of today's news is symbolic, signaling a strategic retreat by an embattled agency and its chief political sponsor, the governor.
The timing of this week's meeting was itself indicative of TxDOT's woes. The forum was held just days before lawmakers return to Austin for the 2009 legislative session, when the future and structure of the agency will be hotly debated.
Saenz said as much in his remarks.
"The Legislature has been clear, they want transformation," he said. "That handwriting is on the wall, in big bold letters."
The TTC was controversial for many reasons, not least of which was that landowners in central and southern Texas recoiled at the thought of huge swaths of acreage being taken by the state through condemnation proceedings.
Others feared that the use of private toll road developers – including firms based in Spain – would amount to foreign ownership of Texas roads.
TxDOT spent years attempting to dispel these concerns. But today's announcement shows that Perry and the agency's leaders had no interest in fighting that fight in the coming session.
Saenz vowed, however, that TxDOT will continue to seek private partnerships for some of the individual toll projects that were once part of the TTC – assuming that the Legislature does not outlaw that practice.
Trans Texas Corridor is dead, TxDOT says
01:40 PM CST on Tuesday, January 6, 2009
By MICHAEL A. LINDENBERGER / The Dallas Morning News
[email protected]
AUSTIN – The Texas Department of Transportation announced this morning that it has officially killed the Trans Texas Corridor, saying that despite the project's visionary aspects, "it is clearly not the choice of Texans."
The announcement comes six years after Gov. Rick Perry shook up the state's transportation and political circles by unveiling an ambitious plan to stretch highways, rail lines and utilities for hundreds of miles along the Interstate 35 and Interstate 69 corridors.
Also Online
09/29/03: Corridor plan on road to reality
The plan, which would have cost tens of billions of dollars and relied heavily on private toll roads, was hugely controversial.
Amadeo Saenz, executive director of TxDOT, made the announcement that the agency was giving up on the idea at the annual Transportation Forum in Austin.
"Make no mistake: The Trans Texas Corridor as we have known it no longer exists," he said.
Each of the dozens of projects that were linked together under the rubric of the TTC – including the Loop 9 project in Dallas and the I-69 project in the south – will remain as stand-alone projects, he said.
"The concept has been diminished," he said. "We must recognize the inevitable: The TTC is not the choice of Texans."
The real impact of today's news is symbolic, signaling a strategic retreat by an embattled agency and its chief political sponsor, the governor.
The timing of this week's meeting was itself indicative of TxDOT's woes. The forum was held just days before lawmakers return to Austin for the 2009 legislative session, when the future and structure of the agency will be hotly debated.
Saenz said as much in his remarks.
"The Legislature has been clear, they want transformation," he said. "That handwriting is on the wall, in big bold letters."
The TTC was controversial for many reasons, not least of which was that landowners in central and southern Texas recoiled at the thought of huge swaths of acreage being taken by the state through condemnation proceedings.
Others feared that the use of private toll road developers – including firms based in Spain – would amount to foreign ownership of Texas roads.
TxDOT spent years attempting to dispel these concerns. But today's announcement shows that Perry and the agency's leaders had no interest in fighting that fight in the coming session.
Saenz vowed, however, that TxDOT will continue to seek private partnerships for some of the individual toll projects that were once part of the TTC – assuming that the Legislature does not outlaw that practice.