Author: Terri Hall

Pennsylvania to toll I-80, despite opposition

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Link to article here. Does this sound familiar or what? Politicos push tolling of existing highways by any means necessary, regardless of PUBLIC OPPOSITION, in order to subsidize everything under the sun with this new infiniti DOUBLE TAX. This is the equivalent of tolling I-35, which is in TxDOT’s toll plans, which means economic disaster, and the politicians just don’t care. Throw the bums out!

Tolling Of I-80 Nears
By: Dan Hirschhorn, The Bulletin
10/09/2007

As rural residents and lawmakers continue their opposition to plans to the tolling Interstate 80, state officials are inching closer to that first tollbooth.
The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC) expects to sign a lease within days allowing it to manage – and toll – the massive highway stretching across Pennsylvania, according to a commission spokesman.

“We are at the point right now where we expect to have an executed lease this week,” PTC spokesman Carl DeFebo said.
A current draft lease agreement, which lawyers for both PennDOT and the commission have discussed for weeks, stipulates no revenue from tolling I-80 may be used for mass transit in the state, a sticking point for rural constituents unhappy at the prospect of subsidizing city transit they don’t use. The first tollbooth wouldn’t hit the ground before 2011.
Instituting the tolls is part of the state transportation funding package that passed in Harrisburg in June. The legislation called for about $965 million in additional yearly funding for roads, bridges and mass transit throughout the state, money that would come from sales taxes, tolling I-80 and, later, toll increases on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. The dedicated funding SEPTA secured through the same legislation is dependent on the extra revenue.
Almost immediately after the bill, Act 44, passed in June, area residents and government leaders, uneasy at subsidizing SEPTA with local taxes lashed out against the plan to toll I-80. They have insisted it would devastate local economies while maintaining that rural residents should not have to pay for city transit.
Two northeastern Pennsylvania GOP congressmen, Reps. Phil English and John Peterson, this summer tucked an amendment into a large federal appropriations bill attempting to block the tolling plan. While that appropriations bill passed the house, the amendment was removed in the Senate.
Simultaneous efforts have been made to completely repeal Act 44, but the chairman of the state House Appropriations Committee last week said a repeal was out of the question.
“It’ll never get out of my committee – put it that way,” Rep. Dwight Evans, D-Philadelphia, said.
Such opposition also led Gov. Ed Rendell to reopen the idea of leasing the Pennsylvania Turnpike to increase revenue, and 34 companies submitted letters of interest to PennDOT last month.
Meanwhile, PTC CEO Joseph Brimmeir has taken considerable steps in recent weeks to blunt criticisms of the tolling plan, promising that no money from tolls on I-80 will fund SEPTA. Rather, he has said, toll revenue will fund only projects in the region.
Toll revenue would fund, among other things, $2 billion worth of capital improvements on I-80 during the first decade of tolling, Mr. DeFebo said.
Though neither Mr. English nor Mr. Peterson could be reached for comment over the weekend, they and their allies remain on the offensive.
“While we recognize this is going to be a fight. I know that Congressman English and Congressman Peterson are committed to keeping a toll-free I-80,” Julia Wanzco, a spokeswoman for English, said in August.
Local politicians have fiercely criticized the opposition for blocking the tolling efforts. State Sen. Vincent Fumo has gone so far as to call Mr. Peterson and Mr. English hypocrites. But for the commission, instituting the plan is a matter of law.
“We have a responsibility to move ahead with the implementation of Act 44,” Mr. DeFebo said. “It’s a law, and we’ve got to move ahead implementing.”

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RMA votes to pay LOSING bidders on toll projects

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Link to article here.

We testified against the policy to pay LOSING bidders on toll projects citing that even BIG TIME pro-toll Transportation Commission Chairman Ric Williamson called the practice as “nutty as fruitcake.” But as usual, the unelected appointees did the bidding of the highway lobby over the interests of the public. Once again, all we’re told is there is no money for roads, yet they continue to spend money on advertising, $10 million rest stops, and special “pay-offs” to highway contractors who won’t even be building the project. Board member Christina Rodriguez had it right when she said, architects spend $250, 000 or more to bid on government projects all of the time and NEVER get reimbursed for it. So why should highway engineers get special treatment? Welcome to Texas where the highway kings reign supreme!

Then, after consulting with a bond attorney, we found that the RMA’s intention to reimburse itself from capital improvement project bonds on 281 is illegal! They cannot reimburse themselves for salaries and operating expenses from capital improvement bonds.

Of course, when questioned, they said they could. Once again, looks like a court will have to decide. But if you take the RMA’s logic to its conclusion, the City of San Antonio could float bonds for street improvements and then use those bonds to pay City employees salaries and operating expenses. That’s not the purpose of public bond debt for a tangible capital project like a road. Not to mention, the RMA is relying on financial advice from a former City finance official who was reportedly fired from his job having been found in a drunken stupor at his desk. Gives you great confidence that the government is lookin’ out for us, eh?
Paying the losers
By Pat Driscoll
Express-News
October 11, 2007Just one vote made the difference Wednesday to let San Antonio’s toll agency to pay losing bidders on a U.S. 281 tollway project.

Alamo Regional Mobility Authority board voted 3-2 to pay losers either $200,000 or 0.1 percent of the project’s cost, whichever is lower, for their detailed proposals.
Voting for:

  • Bill Thornton
  • Jim Reed
  • Reynaldo Diaz

Voting against:

  • Maria Cristina Rodriguez
  • Jesse Jenkins

Officials say the payments encourage more bidders to take a shot with projects such as the U.S. 281 tollway, in which design and construction phases are combined, by reimbursing them for their work. The mobility authority will own the losing plans and can implement any good ideas.

RIC WILLIAMSON1.jpg
Ric Williamson

The stipends are sore spots with critics, who call them give-aways that would be better spent on actual construction. The Texas Department of Transportation is paying millions of dollars worth of stipends for toll projects around the state.

Texas Observer reporter Eileen Welsome said in a December story that Texas Transportation Commission Chairman Ric Williamson called the stipends “nutty as a fruitcake” and said they might be a holdover from an era of big government. But it was an omnibus transportation bill passed by the Legislature in 2003, giving TxDOT tolling and privatization powers, that ushered in the payments.

Not just any company can submit a detailed bid. They have to be invited after first showing their qualifications.

The mobility authority is accepting credentials from companies through Oct. 19 for the U.S. 281 project. The agency will shortlist proposers Oct. 24 and begin seeking detailed bids Nov. 29. Final bids are due Feb. 28.

Construction to rebuild U.S. 281 into a tollway with non-toll frontage roads from Loop 1604 to Marshall Road or beyond could start soon after and be open by 2012. Toll fees could start at 17 cents a mile.

Also Wednesday, the mobility authority board voted to use upcoming bond funds to reimburse itself up to $250 million for development of the U.S. 281 tollway.

The board also agreed to exempt $42,000 a year in U.S. 281 toll fees for VIA Metropolitan Transit, enough to allow buses and vans to ride free. Adding in other VIA vehicles such as vanpools would cost, but the transit agency gets to choose how to divide the exempted fees among its various vehicles.

Other recent news about the mobility authority:

Hundreds turn out to oppose elevated tollway, Grand Parkway

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Link to article here. This Grand Parkway project is widely reported to be a connector to the Trans Texas Corridor, TTC-69 project.

Says a local business representative:

”You all that proposed this plan, you have awakened a sleeping giant.”Hundreds turn out to hear Grand Parkway plans
Oct. 11, 2007
By DUSTIN WENZEL
Houston Chronicle
More than 250 residents spilled into Manford Williams Elementary on Wednesday night to voice their concerns about plans to develop Segment C of the Grand Parkway into a four-lane tollway.

Hosted by the coalition STOP, or Stop Tolls on Parkway, the meeting drew a standing-room only crowd with representatives from eight communities near the proposed highway, which will run from U.S. Hwy. 59 to U.S. Hwy. 288.

”This road is obviously built to accommodate the future residents in Fort Bend County. We are not being accommodated, said Ann Franson,” a Brazos Lakes representative from STOP. ”We are just like the people that will come later and yet we have not been invited into the dialogue of this road.”

Current plans for Segment C show it to be a four-lane road with grassy medians and access ramps that begins with an overpass over U.S. Hwy. 59 connecting Segment D. It will continue along Crabb River Road until curving to the west at Rabbs Bayou before hugging the north and east edges of Bridlewood before traveling past the George Ranch and eventually connecting with U.S. Hwy. 288.

STOP is asking for a 60-day comment period and the elimination of tolls on Segment C. The group also seeks the removal of the planned overpass on U.S. Hwy. 59 and access ramps near Bridlewood and Brazos Lakes subdivisions.

Grand Parkway Association executive director David Gornet said he does not have the authority to extend the comment period and that the Texas Department of Transportation’s Houston-area district engineer, Gary Trietsch, will make the final decision on the segment’s route.

Gorent said after a study team completes the final environmental impact statement, which is due before the end of the year, TxDOT will hold another public meeting. Construction on the segment will not start until at least 2010, he said.

Need for road discussed

Community representatives took turns grilling Gornet about how the segment’s route was planned and the need for a tollway through a scarcely-populated area with little traffic.

”Prior to reaching Brazos Lake, there is farmland, people — open land,” said Lynn Franklin, representing Canyon Gate at the Brazos. ”I guess were trying to operate on the ‘Build it and they will come’ theory.”

Franklin said she is concerned how much impact taxpayers have on a ”road that goes to nowhere” and that the tollway will produce more traffic around their communities.

Other residents openly complained about the view of a tollway outside their community and the potential increase in air and noise pollution in a rural area.

”If you look at the (proposed) fly-by (connecting U.S. Hwy. 59 to the Grand Parkway), its like a roller coaster – but its a roller coaster ride you dont want to get on,” said Cheryl Rambaud, a five-year resident of Canyon Gate at the Brazos. ”From my vantage point instead of looking at the trees and the sky and my neighbors’ two-story homes, I will be looking at the Jetsons’ version of the roller coaster.”

Gornet later [responded on]explained why he believed elected officials favor Segment C and included it in the Houston-Galveston Area Council’s 2025 transportation plan.

”The Grand Parkway possibly provides continued growth of our county. (Elected officials) have seen that it has been a benefit as you go south from (Interstate 10),” he said.

County judge opposes tollway

Franklin wasn’t the only audience member who questioned the need for the tollway. Fort Bend County Judge Bob Hebert said the county is against constructing the segment now, but added the county can’t stop TxDOT from building a state highway.

Hebert, though, wouldn’t rule out the need for Segment C in the future.

”One of the principles of doing tollroads is that tollroads are devices of last resort,” he said. ”You have to have cars to pay for it. Fort Bend County has no plans to make Segment C a tollroad. Theres no traffic out in Segment C.

”I agree with you folks, now is not the time to even be considering the subject. I’m not opposed to tollways. (But) Segment C is not needed at this time.”

Impact on businesses

Quart Graves, the owner/operator of Chick-Fil-A Greatwood, represented various businesses in the River Park Shopping Center on the northeast corner of the Grand Parkway.

He called the tollway’s potential construction horrific and compared the tollways impact on businesses inside the center to Town and Country Mall, which eventually closed after construction to the Sam Houston Tollway limited access to the shopping center.

Tentative plans call for the construction of direct connectors with U.S. Hwy. 59 directly over the edge of the shopping center. If construction proceeds, Graves said Chick-Fil-A, Mattress Firm, Bank of America and Whataburger would be forced to close.

Other businesses on Crabb Road that lie in the segment’s proposed right-of-way include Exxon, Burger King, The Z Icehouse and Greatwood Automotive. However, Gornet said, TxDOT will not take any action on businesses that sit in the right-of-way until it issues a record of decision to purchase the right-of-way.

Regardless of the timetable, Graves said he will fight the proposal.

”The cement has barely dried on my business,” Graves said. ”You all that proposed this plan, you have awakened a sleeping giant.”

For information on Segment C, visit www.grandpky.com.

Vicente Fox: North American currency, Amero, on the way

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Ex-Mexican prez: ‘Amero’ on the way
Vicente Fox confirms long-term deal worked out with President Bush

Posted: October 9, 2007
 By Jerome R. Corsi
 © 2007 WorldNetDaily.com


Ex-Mexican President Vicente Fox last night on CNN

Former Mexican President Vicente Fox confirmed the existence of a plan conceived with President Bush to create a new regional currency in the Americas, in an interview last night on CNN’s “Larry King Live.” It possibly was the first time a leader of Mexico, Canada or the U.S. openly confirmed a plan for a regional currency. Fox explained the current regional trade agreement that encompasses the Western Hemisphere is intended to evolve into other previously hidden aspects of integration.

According to a transcript published by CNN, King, near the end of the broadcast, asked Fox a question e-mailed from a listener, a Ms. Gonzalez from Elizabeth, N.J.: “Mr. Fox, I would like to know how you feel about the possibility of having a Latin America united with one currency?”

Fox answered in the affirmative, indicating it was a long-term plan. He admitted he and President Bush had agreed to pursue the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas – a free-trade zone extending throughout the Western Hemisphere, suggesting part of the plan was to institute eventually a regional currency.

“Long term, very long term,” he said. “What we proposed together, President Bush and myself, it’s ALCA, which is a trade union for all the Americas.”

ALCA is the acronym for the Area de Libre Comercio de las Américas, the name of the FTAA in Spanish.

King, evidently startled by Fox’s revelation of the currency, asked pointedly, “It’s going to be like the euro dollar (sic), you mean?”

“Well, that would be long, long term,” Fox repeated.

Fox noted the FTAA plan had been thwarted by Hugo Chavez, the radical socialist president of Venezuela.

“Everything was running fluently until Hugo Chavez came,” Fox commented. “He decided to combat the idea and destroy the idea.”

Fox explained that he and Bush intended to proceed incrementally, establishing FTAA as an economic agreement first and waiting to create an amero-type currency later – a plan he also suggested was in place for NAFTA itself.

“I think the process to go, first step is trading agreement,” Fox said. “And then further on, a new vision, like we are trying to do with NAFTA.”

Fox’s reply to the CNN viewer was captured in a clip posted on YouTube.com. CNN posted video of the interview but did not include the segment with questions from viewers.

Last week, WND reported BankIntroductions.com, a Canadian company that specializes in global banking strategies and currency consulting, is advising clients the amero may be the currency of North America within 10 years.

Coin designer Daniel Carr has issued for sale a series of private-issue fantasy pattern amero coins that have drawn attention on the Internet.

WND also reported the African Union is moving down the path of regional economic integration, with the African Central Bank planning to create the “Gold Mandela” as a single African continental currency by 2010.

The Council on Foreign Relations has supported regional and global currencies designed to replace nationally issued currencies.

In an article in the May/June issue of Foreign Affairs, entitled “The End of National Currency,” CFR economist Benn Steil asserts the dollar is a temporary currency.

Steil concluded “countries should abandon monetary nationalism,” moving to adopt regional currencies, on the road to a global “one world currency.”

WND previously reported Steve Previs, a vice president at Jeffries International Ltd. in London, said the amero “is the proposed new currency for the North American Community which is being developed right now between Canada, the U.S., and Mexico.”

A video clip of the CNBC interview in November with Jeffries is now available at YouTube.com.

WND also has reported a continued slide in the value of the dollar on world currency markets could set up conditions in which the adoption of the amero as a North American currency gains momentum.

Perez's stint as toll-road front man

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Link to article here.
Perez’s stint as toll-road front man
By Pat Driscoll
Express-News
October 10, 2007

Richard Perez, selected as the new president of the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, is one of the most effective toll-road advocates around.

webPerez.jpg
Richard Perez

As chairman of the Metropolitan Planning Organization for the past two years, Perez was a tenacious fighter for some 70 miles of planned toll roads. Yet, I never saw him try to bully anyone. He was dogged but always a gentleman.

Those are powerful qualities.

Perez skidded into the toll controversy in August 2005, just two months after starting his second term on City Council and taking over as MPO chairman, when he helped beat back demands for an independent study of local toll plans.

Toll critics soon made Perez a top target for his “deplorable behavior AGAINST the PEOPLE.”

Over the next year, Perez found himself looking for a new MPO director, admonishing a state transportation official in a public meeting, contemplating potential impacts of high gas prices on future toll roads and digging in against cries to revert a U.S. 281 toll plan back to a gas-tax only plan.

Perez left the MPO last May with as much clamor as ever. An effort led by Mayor Phil Hardberger to keep him on the board, which included a sudden policy change, drew shrieks from critics and the mayor soon dropped the idea.

But now Perez is back in the spotlight, and he’ll likely be a strong spokesman for toll roads.

State surplus $1.5 billion more than expected…more money for roads

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Link to article here.

State surplus grows by $1.5 billion
Much of the money already committed
By Jason Embry
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Wednesday, October 10, 2007Texas collected more in taxes last year than expected, Comptroller Susan Combs said Tuesday.

The state ended the 2007 budget year Aug. 31 with an $8.5 billion surplus, which was $1.5 billion more than Combs projected in January.

“State sales and use tax collections, which registered a 10.9 percent increase over fiscal 2006, have proved particularly robust, propelled in large part by vigorous activity in the mining, construction, manufacturing and trade sectors,” Combs said in a letter Tuesday to Gov. Rick Perry and legislative leaders.

The additional surplus amounts to about 1 percent of the state’s $151.9 billion budget for 2008-09.

Some of the extra money will go to so-called contingency appropriations, which are items in the two-year state budget that lawmakers said they would fund if the state collected extra money.

For instance, $242 million will go toward a state employee pay raise of 2 percent per year for the next two years, although Combs had assured lawmakers that the money for the raise would be there.

Another $300 million is headed to the Texas Department of Transportation for road-building.

Transportation Department spokesman Randall Dillard said that final decisions about how the money would be used have not been made, but he said it would “help offset skyrocketing inflation.”

Highway construction costs have increased 62 percent since 2002, Dillard said.

Combs spokesman R.J. DeSilva said agency officials were still crunching numbers Tuesday to see how much of the new money was already committed and how much will be left over.

Whatever is left will be added to the $2.5 billion that lawmakers left unspent this year so they’d have it for the budget they’ll write in 2009.

That extra money could help in a couple of ways. For one, Combs has said that growth in state sales-tax collections is expected to slow in 2008 and 2009 as compared with the robust growth of the past few years.

Also, it could help if the state’s new business tax, which companies will pay for the first time next year, brings in less than expected.

“How the money should be spent will depend on the next session of the Legislature,” House Speaker Tom Craddick said. “However, I am much more comfortable having $1.5 billion more than expected than $1.5 billion less.”

TxDOT spies on citizens, hides SECRET cameras to collect data

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If have to ask ourselves if we just leaped into some Orwellian nightmare when we read this…twice in ONE WEEK we hear of the government (in Maryland and now Texas) monitoring its citizens with cameras on highways. In MD, to catch people with expired registration, in Texas to collect information about people’s driving habits, either way, NO ONE ASKED US!

It’s one thing to be out and about in public, it’s another to be spied upon while going about our daily lives! TxDOT has been hiding cameras in orange barrels along I-35 in Austin and I-10 in San Antonio. They’re taking pictures of people’s license plates and then mailing them a survey asking questions like:

1) The trip’s origin and final destination
2) How often the driver makes the trip
3) How long a driver stayed at my destination before returning

Link to the Austin story here. Link to Houston Chronicle story here. Link to Express-News article with map of camera locations here.

State recorded license plates for transportation study
10/10/2007
By: News 8 Austin Staff

State officials say cameras tucked into orange barrels videotaped the license plates of thousands of drivers on Interstate 35 as part of a transportation study.

Critics of last month’s study questioned whether it invaded motorists’ privacy.

But a Texas Department of Transportation spokeswoman says the study is vital to transportation planning and was not meant to sneaky.

The state contracted Alliance Transportation Group to conduct the study.

The company mailed about 150,000 surveys to homes explaining that their license plate was randomly recorded. It asks questions such as the trip’s destination and purpose, and the number of people living in the home.

Transportation Department spokeswoman Gaby Garcia says about 3,000 people have responded since the survey was mailed out three weeks ago.

She said the information won’t be shared or sold and will be securely disposed of.

The department plans similar surveys next year in the Houston, Galveston, Beaumont and Port Arthur areas. Garcia says drivers will be notified ahead of time.

Austin motorists DOUBLE CHARGED on tollways

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Link to AP article here. Interesting how this “glitch” didn’t cause under-billing, and the article says the double billing could still happen, just less frequently. How comforting…

DOUBLE BILLING is also occurring in Tyler, TX. See the news story here.

Equipment glitch causes double-billing on Austin toll roads
Associated Press
October 9, 2007

AUSTIN – About 50,000 vehicles have been double-billed on Austin-area tollways because of faulty equipment, Texas Department of Transportation officials said.

The agency said Monday that the problem has occurred about one out of every 600 times a car passed one of the tolling points since charging began in January.

The agency has adjusted its equipment and software in the past few weeks to stop the problem, although it could still occur at a less-frequent rate, like once every 2,000 toll transactions.

Officials said the charges will be reversed for any customers who have been double-billed.

“We will reverse all of them,” said David Powell, the department’s director of turnpike information technology and toll operations.

Powell said the problem occurred at tolling plazas where the overhead flat-panel antennae were out of adjustment, causing faulty communication with electronic toll tags on car windshields.

If the antenna is not aimed correctly, it can read the tag on one car while believing that it is communicating with a car in a different spot. Then, those cars that have already seen debits to their tag accounts might be photographed by the equipment at a different spot and charged again.

Powell said a number of antennae were out of adjustment, but the one causing the most problems was on the westbound center lane at the Lake Creek toll plaza on Texas 45 North.

He said the antennae could have been installed incorrectly or knocked out of adjustment during construction.

Trans Texas Corridor I-69 SECRET meeting in Fort Bend

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In this article, Transportation Commissioner Ted Houghton repeatedly refers to Texans’ FREEways as “assets” as if the PUBLIC’S highways are theirs to sell to the highest bidder on Wall Street! To make matters worse, they’re holding a SECRET, CLOSED DOOR meeting to discuss the next controversial leg of the Trans Texas Corridor, TTC 69. Also noteworthy, businesses, ie – the Chamber of Commerce, are invited to the table, but NOT the taxpaying public whose community will be paved over by this corridor! How is this getting “community feedback?” Secrecy and involving multi-national corporations has become standard operating procedure for these trade corridors.

TURF’s Board member, Hank Gilbert, is mentioned in the article.

Link to article here.

Oct. 8, 2007, 4:26PM
 Trans-Texas Corridor talks include Fort Bend officials
 Committee formed by state Transportation Commission

By ZEN T. C. ZHENG
 Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

A controversial plan to create an interstate highway from the Texas-Mexico border to Texarkana is gaining momentum in Fort Bend County as local leaders are set to begin meeting in two weeks to brainstorm on how the project should be carried out in this area.

Ted Houghton, Texas Transportation commissioner, who was in Rosenberg Wednesday to promote the project, will be in Sugar Land Oct. 26 to discuss the Trans-Texas Corridor-69 proposal with the 24-member group formed by the commission.

‘Transportation crossroad’

Houghton said the project, which would turn Fort Bend and its vicinity into a “transportation crossroad,” would enable fast cargo deliveries to various ports with rails or truck lanes and increase mobility for passengers with high-speed toll lanes generally along U.S. 59.”We need to bring in the money to create economic opportunities,” Houghton said at the annual Fort Bend Regional Infrastructure Conference sponsored by the Rosenberg-Richmond Area Chamber of Commerce.

However, the project has drawn opposition from environmentalists, property-rights proponents and those who see the corridor as part of a proposal to create a North America Free Trade Agreement highway to connect Mexico to Canada through the U.S. heartland.

Meeting closed to public

The group to meet on Oct. 26 at Sugar Land City Hall comprises county judges, mayors of cities along the proposed route, leaders of area chambers of commerce and various ports including those of Houston, Freeport and Victoria, and representatives of metropolitan planning organizations. Members are mostly from the Fort Bend, Wharton and Victoria areas.Houghton told the Chronicle Wednesday that the meeting will be closed to the public and media.

He said the group, one of six formed in the project area from Brownsville to Texarkana, will have the opportunity to help tailor the project to “local needs.”

“It’s a positive thing. We are letting these regions plan it out,” Houghton said. “We hope by mid-next year, the group will come up with some recommendations to tell us what they would like to see built.”

The Interstate 69 project is part of the proposed Trans-Texas Corridor network at least seven years in planning by the Texas Department of Transportation and supported by Gov. Rick Perry.

1,200-foot wide corridors?

The network is conceived as a cross-state road system of new and existing highways, railroads and utility rights of way. It would have separate lanes for passenger and truck traffic, freight and high-speed commuter rails, as well as infrastructure for utilities including water, oil and gas pipelines, electricity and telecommunications services. One revenue option to support the network would be toll fees.I-69 would generally follow the U.S. 59 footprint with a section along U.S. 77 from Texarkana to three possible terminals along the Texas-Mexico border: Brownsville, McAllen and Laredo.

Another major component of the network, Trans-Texas Corridor-35, would run along Interstate 35 from Denison to the Rio Grande Valley. Two other possible routes would run along Interstate 45 from Dallas to Houston and Interstate 10 from El Paso to Orange.

According to Gaby Garcia, a spokeswoman for the state transportation agency, each of the two proposed major corridors would stretch about 600 miles and cost $12 billion only for the road portion, excluding rails and utility infrastructure.

Houghton said that critics’ assertion that the corridors would be 1,200 feet in width is not true. However, he said the exact width couldn’t be determined until a definitive plan is shaped with sufficient local input.

County judge’s endorsement

Houghton said he and Fort Bend County Judge Bob Hebert “had a great conversation” about the project during a private meeting.While asking Houghton to present a “fine print” of the plan, Hebert said he supports the project.

“I’m excited about it. We need the road,” Hebert said Wednesday.

However, some local community leaders deplore what they perceive to be a lack of awareness among Fort Bend residents about the Trans-Texas Corridor concept.

The county’s Democratic Party on Sept. 29 brought Hank Gilbert, a Tyler rancher who lost his race for Texas commissioner of agriculture last year, to Sugar Land to rally support for his crusade against the project. Event organizer Jenny Hurley said about 50 people attended the meeting.

Grand Parkway not a part?

Some opponents of a state plan to extend the Grand Parkway as a toll road from U.S. 59 south and then east to link Texas 288 are concerned that the expansion project could be part of the I-69 project. But, Houghton dismissed that notion.However, former Texas Transportation Commissioner John W. “Johnny” Johnson in 2000 told the Chronicle that I-69 was being proposed to pass north and west of Houston, merging with segments of the Grand Parkway, including the stretch between the Katy Freeway and U.S. 59. Johnson also said the proposed Grand Parkway segment south of U.S. 59 could be used as a continued truck route from I-69 to reach the Port of Houston via Texas 288 and Beltway 8.

“A Beautiful asset”

Calling U.S. 59 “a beautiful asset,” Houghton said tracing I-69 along U.S. 59 would mean less additional land needed for the project, thus having less impact on the community along the route.”We have already the asset. Now we’re trying to enhance the asset,” he said.

With the project, U.S. 59 at all its intersections would be turned into overpasses, he said.

Houghton said project planners have been examining a variety of ways to fund the project. However, funding remains a difficult task, he said.

“We have looked at everything possible,” he said.

The state’s goal is to begin construction on the project in two to three years and have it completed within five to 10 years, Houghton said.

Pro-toll Perez to replace Krier as San Antonio Greater Chamber President

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Link to article here.

He’s BAAAACCCKK…Former Councilman and MPO Dictator #1 (Sheila McNeil, his successor, is Dictator #2, see why on YouTube), and pro-toll lap dog Richard Perez has been tapped to be the new San Antonio Greater Chamber of Commerce President. Tolling authority Chair and ex-Mayor Bill Thornton is growing a Pinnochio nose for calling Perez “honest and straightforward.” For anyone who witnessed Perez’ lawless behavior as Chair of the MPO, they know what a tall tale Thornton is telling!

We agree with Thornton’s wish that Perez stay in this position a long time….because Perez has no political future in this town. His contempt for the people on the toll road issue will not soon be forgotten! What’s also telling is that two politicians served on the search committee. Why not businessmen? Because the Greater Chamber is the arm of government and vice versa. Whenever government needs to slip a tax hike or bond package past the voters, the Chamber delivers. Whenever the Chamber needs state-run monopolies like toll roads, government delivers (to Zachry, of course). To them, it’s a beautiful thing. Yep, this is the PERFECT job for Perez…..he loves to kiss the ring.

From the Express-News….
The Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce’s board announced this afternoon it has chosen Richard Perez as its new president and CEO.

Perez brings a new dimension to the chamber, said Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, who served on the search committee.

Perez topped the list of a stellar pool of candidates for the chamber job, said Bill Thornton, former mayor of San Antonio and a member of the selection task force.

“That tells you that Richard Perez was just a catch to serve in this new capacity for San Antonio,” Thornton said.

Perez is the perfect guy for the job because he has always been honest and straightforward, he said.

“He’s steadfast in doing what’s right for our community,” Thornton said.

Perez is young, bright and capable, he said.

“I hope he stays in this position for a long time,” Thornton said.

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Oh pleeeez….
To see Perez’ history of heavy-handed tactics as MPO Chair where he had a history of blocking agenda items, cutting off any anti-toll debate, and putting citizens’ to be heard dead last, read below:

• Perez railroaded a change to MPO bylaws to allow himself to be re-appointed to the MPO Board after term in office was up.
• Perez voted AGAINST reverting 281 back to FREEway instead of tollway.
• Perez abuses his power at MPO to get sidewalks just for his neighborhood.
• Perez delays citizens’ request for gas price study, makes Adkisson jump through special hoops.
• Perez stonewalls citizens request for independent review of toll plans.