Link to press release here.

Best quote in the press release….“Texas is the coldest market.” You bet it is…we can’t afford foreign-controlled toll roads at 3-4 times the price of FREEways! This shift to privatization and tolling is 100% about greed, the highway lobby, and politicians thinking they can blame someone else for raising taxes 20-100 times more per mile than we pay in gas tax. With gas prices lowering our standard of living at an alarming rate, it’s past time to end this disastrous policy of tolling freeways.

RED HOT DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION MARKETS BEGIN TO COOL

WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, May 21, 2008 -/E-Wire/– Design and construction markets related to environment, infrastructure, and facilities began to slow their rate of growth in 2007, and growth rates are expected to decline still further in 2008, according to the 20th annual State-of-the-Industry Report delivered by management consultants Farkas Berkowitz & Company to an invitation-only conference of CEOs from leading architectural, engineering, and construction firms.

Designers for transportation, power, water quality, remediation, and facilities in the U.S. enjoyed, in aggregate, a robust growth rate of 12 percent in 2007, down slightly from the phenomenal 15 percent growth rate of 2006. Alan Farkas, Managing Director of Farkas Berkowitz & Company, explained that the volatile power engineering market masked a more significant growth rate decline. He explained, “Excluding power engineering, the aggregate growth rate of the remaining segments in 2007 were half that of 2006, declining from a 14 percent growth rate in 2006 to a 7 percent growth rate last year.”

Farkas Berkowitz & Company forecasts that the five infrastructure markets in aggregate will grow 5 percent in 2008 and 7 percent in 2009. “We expect the current economic slowdown to affect all major markets, but the timing and significance will vary,” said Mr. Farkas. He noted that preliminary estimates of first quarter 2008 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate was 0.6 percent, unchanged from the 0.6 percent rate of growth in the 4th quarter of 2007. The slowdown in growth coupled with the housing crisis, rising fuel prices, and the disruption in the municipal bond market will result in a slowing of growth in design markets related to transportation, water quality, and remediation. The slow rates of growth will be partially offset by the still rapidly growing design markets for power and non-residential facilities. Moreover, the U.S.-based design firms doing business abroad will continue to see more robust rates of growth from international projects. Mr. Farkas pointed out, “Longer term, infrastructure needs should bolster strong design and construction markets well into the next decade.”

Transportation, Engineering and Construction

Farkas Berkowitz & Company estimates that the transportation engineering market grew 4 percent to $9.8 billion in 2007. Mr. Farkas noted, “This was the second consecutive year of declining growth rates. We saw the growth rate peak at 12 percent in 2005, decline to 7 percent in 2006, and we expect the rate of growth in this design market to decline further in 2008 and 2009. We look for a 2-3 percent growth rate this year and no growth in 2009.”

Exhibit 1 U.S. Transportation Engineering Market, 2006-2009 ($ Billions)

Source: Farkas Berkowitz & Company Actuals based on ENR Top 500 Design Firm Survey

Mr. Farkas went on to point out that a shrinking highway and bridge market in 2008 and 2009 would offset growing rail, aviation, and ports and harbor segments. Highway construction increased 7 percent in 2007. According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s annual value of construction put in place, the construction market has increased 30 percent over the three years 2004-2007. However, Mr. Farkas noted, “Unfortunately, construction costs have increased more than 30 percent since 2004. Therefore, real dollar investment in this important asset class actually declined over the three-year period.”

Farkas Berkowitz & Company estimates that the engineering market for highways and bridges will contract by 5 percent in 2008 and contract another 5 percent in 2009. “We have the highway equivalent of ‘the perfect storm.’ We could call it ‘the perfect pile-up.’ A confluence of political and economic forces will subject this market to extraordinary pressure.” The report quotes experts who forecast a $3 – $4 billion deficit in the highway trust fund, which could result in a cut back in obligations of $16 billion in federal FY 2009. The firm forecasts that we will see another significant delay in the re-authorization of the Federal law, now due to expire on September 30, 2009. Meanwhile, high gasoline prices are causing motorists to cut back on driving, resulting in a decline of revenues flowing into state highway trust funds.

Mr. Farkas explained, “Given the growing importance of local and state sources of highway funding, we find that the outlook varies considerably by state and region. We look for strongly growing markets on the West Coast and most of the Southwest.” The report notes that the hottest state market is California, thanks in large part to funding from the self-help counties. The coldest market is Texas, where spending on highway capital improvements is expected to decline from $5 billion in 2006 to less than $3 billion in 2008. Florida and Georgia were also cited as relatively weak markets.

Public-private partnerships and toll roads will be a positive force in the marketplace over the coming years, but neither funding mechanism will have a significant impact this year or next. The firm believes that public-private partnerships, particularly for greenfield projects, will be increasingly favored, and the development of toll roads, especially for arterial highways, will help over time to narrow the funding gap.

Farkas Berkowitz & Company estimates that the transit engineering market grew at an 8-10 percent growth rate in 2007, showing a steady acceleration from an estimated low single digit rate of growth in 2005. The freight rail market seemed to slow for engineers in 2007, but the firm predicts bright long-term prospects. “The cost advantage that railroads have over trucking, with a better than three-to-one fuel efficiency rating, will continue to allow freight rail to broaden its market from one of hauling raw materials to transporting containerized consumer goods.” explained Mr. Farkas.

Turning to the aviation market, construction on airports grew 14 percent in 2007. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that most of this growth is accounted for by terminal construction, while work on runways and taxiways remained virtually unchanged from 2006. The firm estimates that design work for airports increased 5 percent in 2007, equaling the growth rate in 2006. Mr. Farkas reported that firms serving this market expect strong double digit growth in 2009 and 2010. Farkas Berkowitz & Company, however, is projecting a 5-10 percent growth rate this year and next. As Mr. Farkas explained, “With jet fuel costs increasing 70 percent in the last 12 months, the pressure on airfares is too strong to ignore. As airfares increase, we expect passengers to cut back on travel. As passengers cut back on travel, some airport authorities will delay their expansion plans.”

The firm reports that engineers serving ports and harbors enjoyed their fifth consecutive year of growth greater than 10 percent. In 2007 firms benefited from the conduct of due-diligence studies to support a change in terminal ownership, with more terminals now in the hands of international shippers, port operators, and private equity funds. “We look for growth in the engineering market to slow in 2008 to about 5 percent, but then increase in 2009 and beyond as ports, particularly in the Southeast and the Gulf Coast prepare for the widening of the Panama Canal,” said Mr. Farkas.

Link to article here.

In the highest pricetag fetched for an American toll road to date, Abertis, a Spanish toll road giant, along with Citigroup will pay the state of Pennsylvania a whopping $12.8 billion for the right to empty the pockets of Pennsylvanians with interest and private profits for the next 75 years! Pennsylvanians can expect BIG, FAT toll hikes to pay back such a stunning sum.

Citi tops bidding for Pa. Turnpike
A Citigroup unit and Barcelona’s Abertis Infraestructuras submit a $12.8B bid to lease the Pennsylvania toll road for 75 years.
CNN/Money.com
May 19, 2008
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A Spanish company and a unit of Citigroup Inc. teamed up to submit the largest bid for the right to lease the Pennsylvania Turnpike for the next 75 years.

Barcelona-based Abertis Infraestructuras, Abertis investor Criteria CaixaCorp of Spain and Citi Infrastructure Investors offered $12.8 billion, beating their nearest competitor by $700 million, Gov. Ed Rendell said Monday.

Rendell described himself as “strongly in favor of it.” But the Legislature must approve any deal, and one leader in the Democratic-controlled House said he was not impressed with the bid.

“To be quite candid, the number is less than overwhelming,” said Majority Whip Keith McCall, D-Carbon. “It’s certainly not dead on arrival, but it’s something we do need to discuss with the entire caucus.”

The Democratic governor has pursued the plan to have a private entity operate and maintain 500 miles of the turnpike system to raise billions for Pennsylvania’s transportation needs.

The lease deal would let the operator increase tolls 25% in January, and then by 2.5% or an amount equal to consumer price inflation after that. The turnpike’s operating revenue was $608 million in the fiscal year that ended last May.

Rendell predicted the Abertis and Citi (C, Fortune 500) deal would generate an average of $1.1 billion a year in the first 10 years – income from the investment of the lump-sum lease payment – for roads, bridges and mass transit.

If the deal goes through, the state would almost certainly abandon a plan to introduce tolls to Interstate 80 that would be expected to generate about $500 million a year. The tolls were the primary component of a law passed last summer that is expected to produce about $940 million annually for transportation needs.

Repealing those tolls has become a priority for many people and businesses along the highway, as well as the lawmakers who represent them.

Abertis directly manages more than 2,000 miles of toll roads in other countries; it also manages a toll bridge in Puerto Rico and airport facilities in California, Florida and Georgia.

The Abertis-Citi bid is good through June 20, but the bidders said they intended to be flexible since legislative action in the next month is not likely.

“We’d like to see it done this fall,” said Citi Infrastructure Investments partner Michael B.G. Froman.

Rendell said the two losing bidders were teams consisting of Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Transurban Group of Australia; and of the Macquarie Infrastructure Group of Australia and Cintra of Spain. Goldman-Transurban’s final bid was $12.1 billion; Macquarie-Cintra’s was $8.1 billion.

Link to article here.

Macquarie is the same company who bought dozens of Texas newspapers in the path of the Trans Texas Corridor (to control the criticism of the project to be sure), was a bidder on the Hwy 121 “crown jewel” of Texas toll roads and the US 281 & 1604 toll roads, and is a partner with Cintra on toll projects all over the world, including the Indiana Toll Road and Chicago Skyway. Rudy Giuliani has ties to Macquarie, and the Bush Administration hired Macquarie’s division director to be the DOT’s Chief Counsel. It also owns the Virginia toll road where they doubled the toll rates, and it’s business model has been criticized by the same guy who first spotted Enron’s dubious tactics. Now they want to lease the Austin Airport in another public private partnership (PPP) deal to maximize the airport’s revenues and rip-off the taxpayers.

Macquarie circles airport in Texas
David Nason, New York correspondent
The Australian
May 08, 2008

THE Macquarie Group’s airport ambitions in the US have spread to Texas, where its infrastructure division is in talks to lease all or part of the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in the Texas capital, Austin.

A Macquarie spokesman confirmed yesterday that discussions with Austin officials were under way but stressed they were at a “very preliminary stage”, with no formal proposal for an ABIA takeover on the table.

According to some projections, leasing ABIA to a private operator could earn the city of Austin $US500 million ($526 million) annually.

The airport play comes as Macquarie and its Spanish toll roads partner Centra await a decision on a proposed 75-year lease for the Pennsylvania Turnpike, one of the US’s busiest highways.

At least three consortiums have submitted bids with Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, who is expected to select his preferred operator sometime in the next week.

Mr Rendell wants to channel the lease payments — possibly as much as $US18 billion over the life of the lease — into Pennsylvania’s ageing highways, bridges and mass transit systems. But he is facing opposition from legislators, voters and his own Turnpike Commission.

Opposition to airport privatisation in the US is also expected to be strong, especially if foreign companies are involved.

Under a Federal Aviation Administration pilot program introduced in 1966, US airports can be exempted from federal administration, but until now only Chicago’s Midway Airport has actively pursued privatisation.

The program allows for up to five US airports to be leased to private operators, but the hurdles are many, including approval from the FAA and from 65 per cent of airlines using the airport.

Macquarie, which already operates airports in Sydney, Tokyo, Brussels, Copenhagen and Bristol in England, is one of six companies to have lodged a proposal with Chicago officials.

It now sees a second opportunity in Austin, where the push for privatisation is driven by federal laws that compel the city to spend airport revenues at the airport while other city-operated businesses such as Austin Energy and the Austin Convention Centre return their profits to the city.

Austin city councillor Brewster McCracken told the Austin Business Journal he was opposed to privatising public assets but regarded the airport as a separate issue because it provided no revenue to the city’s general fund.

ABIA’s total operating revenue for the 2007 fiscal year was $US81.9 million with $US17 million of that going back into the airport’s capital fund.

Austin-Bergstrom is a former US Air Force Base 8km outside Austin that was only opened to civilian traffic in 1999, to replace a smaller airport. Last year, it serviced almost 8.9 million passengers, a record.
Globally, the Macquarie Group has some $US200 billion invested in infrastructure and it has targeted the US as its major infrastructure growth area.

Body: And for good reason. In a report last week, the US Urban Land Institute and Ernst & Young said US transportation infrastructure investment was lagging far behind that of most other developed nations and that greater acceptance of public-private partnerships was the only practical answer.

It estimated the annual shortfall in funds for US transportation needs at a staggering $US170 billion, a figure that would rise sharply with the forecast population growth of 90 million over the next 35 years.

The report said vehicle miles travelled in the US had increased 95 per cent since 1980 while road capacity had increased only 3 per cent.

It said 24 per cent of US roads were in poor to mediocre condition and more than 25 per cent of bridges were structurally or functionally deficient.

Macquarie and Cintra already jointly own and operate toll roads in Illinois and Indiana.

Last month, electronic tolling started on the Indiana Toll Road with drivers using the automatic system getting their tolls frozen at current rates until 2016.

A spokesman for the Indiana Toll Road Concession Co, which operates the toll road, said the spirit of the toll freeze was to look after local users.

But in 2006, Macquarie Infrastructure Group chief executive Stephen Allen told investors in New York that the real advantage of automatic tolling was that people tended to think tolls were cheaper when they had an electronic tag.

“I call it the ‘mobile phone effect’,” Mr Allen said at the time. “How many people out there know the cost of a call on your mobile phone? Well, it’s very expensive, I can assure you of that.

“It’s the same thing with (electronic) tags. You go through, you hear the beep, you don’t think about it. You pay your bill once a month. It’s amazing how reaching into that pocket to get that three bucks seems a lot more painful than hearing that beep.”

Link to article here.

Undoing America’s Ethanol Mistake
By Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison
Published in Texas Insider: 04-30-08

The Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman once said, “One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results.”

When Congress passed legislation to greatly expand America’s commitment to biofuels, it intended to create energy independence and protect the environment.

But the results have been quite different. America remains equally dependent on foreign sources of energy, and new evidence suggests that ethanol is causing great harm to the environment.

In recent weeks, the correlation between government biofuel mandates and rapidly rising food prices has become undeniable. At a time when the U.S. economy is facing recession, Congress needs to reform its “food-to-fuel” policies and look at alternatives to strengthen energy security.

On Dec. 19, 2007, President Bush signed into law the Energy Independence and Security Act. This legislation had several positive features, including higher fuel standards for cars and greater investment in renewable energies such as solar power.

However, the bill required a huge spike in the biofuel production requirement, from 7.5 billion gallons in 2012 to 36 billion in 2022.

This was a well-intentioned measure, but it was also impractical. Nearly all our domestic corn and grain supply is needed to meet this mandate, robbing the world of one of its most important sources of food.

We are already seeing the ill effects of this measure. Last year, 25% of America’s corn crop was diverted to produce ethanol. In 2008, that number will grow to 30%-35%, and it will soar even higher in the years to come.

Furthermore, the trend of farmers supplanting other grains with corn is decreasing the supply of numerous agricultural products. When the supply of those products goes down, the price inevitably goes up.

Subsequently, the cost of feeding farm and ranch animals increases and the cost is passed to consumers of beef, poultry and pork products.

Since February 2006, the price of corn, wheat and soybeans has increased by more than 240%. Rising food prices are hitting the pockets of lower-income Americans and people who live on fixed incomes.

While the blame for higher costs shouldn’t rest exclusively with biofuels — drought and rising oil costs are contributing factors — the expansion of biofuels has been a major source of the problem.

The International Food Policy Research Institute estimates that biofuel production accounts for between one-quarter and one-third of the recent spike in global commodity prices.

For the first time in 30 years, food riots are breaking out in many parts of the globe, including major countries such as Mexico, Pakistan and Indonesia.

The fact that America’s energy policies are creating global instability should concern the leaders of both political parties.

Restraining the dangerous effects of artificially inflated demand for ethanol should be an issue that unites both conservatives and progressives.

As a recent Time cover story pointed out, biofuel mandates increase greenhouse gasses and create incentives for global deforestation.

In the Amazon basin, huge swaths of forest are being cleared to meet the growing hunger for biofuels.

In addition, relief organizations are facing gaping shortfalls as the cost of food outpaces their ability to provide aid for the 800 million people who lack food security.

The recent food crisis does not mean we should entirely abandon biofuels.

The best way to lower energy prices, and reduce our dependence on foreign oil, is to accelerate production of all forms of domestic energy.

Expanding biofuels while refusing to take other measures, such as lifting the ban on oil and natural gas production in Alaska and the Outer Continental Shelf, is counterproductive. We should be tapping into a broad portfolio of energy options, including clean coal, nuclear power and wave energy.

The key is increasing energy supply. By taking these measures, we can enable biofuels to be part of the energy solution, instead of contributing to the energy problem.

Congress must take action. I am introducing legislation that will freeze the biofuel mandate at current levels, instead of steadily increasing it through 2022.

This is a common-sense measure that will reduce pressure on global food prices and restore balance to America’s energy policy.

As the Senate debates this issue, we must remain focused on the facts.

At one point, expanding biofuels made sense for America’s energy security. But the recent surge in food prices has forced us to adapt. The global demand for energy and food is expected to rise about 50% in the next 20 years, and the U.S. is well-positioned to be a leader in both areas.

That will require a careful, finely tuned approach to America’s farm products.

By freezing the biofuel mandate at current levels, we will go a long way to achieving that goal.

Senator Hutchison chairs the Senate Republican Policy Committee and is representing Texas in her third full term in the Senate.

Link to article here.

Texas Farm Bureau supports transportation alternatives
Southwest Farm Press
Apr 25, 2008

Texas Farm Bureau offered several viable transportation and funding alternatives to the proposed Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC) in meeting Texas’ future transportation needs during testimony before the Senate Transportation Committee.

“Let me assure you, as an industry we absolutely support and recognize the need for building and maintaining roads in Texas,” said Texas Farm Bureau State Director Tom Paben. “We feel this can be accomplished within the current framework of the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT).”

“However, there is a need for redirection, as well as a review of the current priorities of the agency,” Paben added, noting several concerns about the TTC project raised in a report commissioned by Farm Bureau and conducted by professors at Baylor Law School. He also said Farm Bureau believes that the recent Draft Environmental Impact Study (DEIS) of I-69 “is fatally, flawed,” and would not stand up to judicial scrutiny.

Paben, who represents 15 counties potentially affected by the massive TTC transportation project, said the first option for new highway and road construction, when possible, should be use of existing rights-of way and routes.

“In many cases, using entirely new routes would impact irreplaceable farm and ranch land,” Paben said. “If new right-of-way is needed, at a minimum, landowners should have reasonable access to their property.”

The cattle, corn and hay producer said members of the state’s largest farm organization supported funding alternatives, including indexing and/or increasing the gas tax, to finance new road construction. Paben suggested bonding could also help build roads across Texas.

“Recent articles suggest the Cintra-Zachry Consortium stands to make billions of dollars from the TTC,” he said. “If they are able to do so, then why can’t the State of Texas? It seems those kinds of revenues could certainly go a long way in funding Texas roadways in the future.”

Although Farm Bureau does not support tolling existing roads, Paben said the organization does not oppose the use of tolls to fund construction of new roads.

The Farm Bureau testimony suggested the state focus on transportation projects that will help the “impending stress” on traffic ways—using existing routes—in the Golden Triangle, where it is estimated 60 percent of the state’s population will live in the next 30 years.

The testimony also recalled Farm Bureau’s support of legislation by Senator Steve Ogden to utilize the existing state highway “trunk” system.

“We believe the trunk system comprised of improving current state highways, and constructing by-passes and loops, could greatly relieve traffic flow in our metropolitan centers,” Paben said.

The farm leader noted Texas Farm Bureau members support the need for new and better roads in Texas.

“We are an industry no different from any other and need to move our products throughout the state,” he said. “…if building highways is to be a profit center, then let those highways be built by Texans for Texan taxpayers.”

Link to article here. Notice to entice drivers into the big daddy government system of vehicle tracking/monitoring through electronic toll tags, they delay your rate hikes. Note that truckers don’t get any mercy. Their rates will double, tag or no tag. Don’t think that cost won’t get passed on to you sand I. Considering truckers began boycotts over gasoline prices, this makes their plight to stay in business even tougher!

Toll Road rates rise

Electronic passes get drivers shorter lines, no hikes till 2016

By Angela Mapes Turner

The Journal Gazette

April 2, 2008

Angela Mapes | The Journal Gazette

Cash customers on the Indiana Toll Road, shown Tuesday near the Ohio line, will now pay $8 to travel across the state, up from $4.65. ITR Concession Co., the road’s operator, urged customers to begin using i-Zoom, an electronic toll-collection system, to save over cash rates.

For more
• To see a full toll rate schedule for the Indiana Toll Road or learn more, visit
www.getizoom.com or call 1-888-496-6690.

ANGOLA – Drivers paying cash Tuesday on the Indiana Toll Road got something extra with their change and receipt – a brochure advising them to save up to 75 percent on tolls by using an electronic pass.

Savings sounded like a good idea to Jenny Krouse of Fort Wayne who already had two financial factors on her mind Tuesday morning as she headed with her daughter to Sandusky, Ohio: High gasoline prices and Indiana’s 1 percentage-point sales tax increase.

Higher tolls were the icing on the cake.

For the first time since 1985, tolls for cars and other two-axle vehicles rose at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, from $4.65 for the entire length of the road to $8. But car drivers using i-Zoom, an electronic toll-collection system, did not see the rate increase – and they won’t until 2016.

Vehicles with three axles or more, regardless of whether they use i-Zoom, also saw increased fees.

When Gov. Mitch Daniels’ administration agreed to the 75-year lease of the Toll Road to a Spanish-Australian consortium in 2006, a provision for increasing the toll rate was included. The consortium formed ITR Concession Co., paying the state $3.8 billion to collect all the highway’s toll revenue until the lease ends.

At the James Whitcomb Riley Travel Plaza just east of Interstate 69, the last travel plaza on the Toll Road before drivers reach Ohio, regular unleaded gasoline was $3.69 a gallon Tuesday morning. But like Krouse, many travelers were also focused on the toll increases.

Bothering Elkhart resident Paul Selman almost as much as increased tolls was the fact that the small tickets being printed out at toll booths didn’t include a toll rate schedule. Selman, headed east to see his granddaughter, had read in his local newspaper that prices were going up, but he wanted to know exactly what he’d pay.

“I’m very frustrated with that,” Selman said.

Including the prices on the tickets is just a small kink in a process that otherwise has gone smoothly, a representative of the Toll Road’s operator said Tuesday.

The toll rate schedule had to be removed to accommodate both an old system of card readers that used bar codes and a new one that uses magnetic strips, spokesman Matt Pierce said.

All but a few of the old card readers have been phased out, so when the bar code is removed, it will be replaced by the toll schedule – likely within two weeks, Pierce said.

The increased revenue from the toll increases will mainly be used for operating expenses, including health care for employees and diesel for snowplows and maintenance vehicles, Pierce said.

“We’re also looking at the needs of the shareholders,” he said.

Indiana’s Toll Road rates had been among the lowest in the nation. A trip about the length of the Indiana Toll Road on the Pennsylvania Turnpike costs a car about $11, according to a calculator on the road’s official Web site. A similar 159-mile trip on the Ohio Turnpike – from the Westgate plaza to the Strongsville/Cleveland exit, for instance – is $7, according to another calculator.

At a rest stop near Angola on Tuesday, Michigan truck drivers Jack Chapin, Gerrit Haaksma and Jack Hoffius took a break on their way to deliver vehicles to Indianapolis. He doesn’t like the idea of paying a toll in any case, but Haaksma said he hopes the money will be put into improving the Toll Road, which he called one of the worst he’s driven. Hoffius and Chapin agreed.

The truck drivers said they wouldn’t rule out taking an alternate route such as U.S. 20, which runs through the heart of Angola, if it seemed cheaper or more efficient.

That worries Angola Mayor Richard Hickman. Many in the city lobbied against toll increases when they were proposed in 2005, and Hickman said the traffic has not decreased in that time.

Hickman said his mother counted 21 trucks in 20 minutes Monday while looking out the window of Hickman’s home on U.S. 20 east of the city. Both the speed and the volume of traffic concern city officials, although police have increased some patrols and the Indiana Department of Transportation has begun monitoring truck traffic.

“We still have concerns, because the traffic has not gone down,” Hickman said.

But Steuben County Commissioner F. Mayo Sanders doesn’t believe the toll increases will cause more traffic on U.S. 20. He hopes the lower i-Zoom price rates – which come with a promise of lines three times shorter than cash lanes – will entice drivers to stick to the Toll Road.

Link to article here.

I-35 ‘threat’: Fraser: TxDOT ‘playing games’ with its funding, has money to complete planned projects
by Tammy Leytham – Telegram Staff Writer
Published April 2, 2008

The Texas Department of Transportation has the money to complete Interstate 35 projects and “there’s no need to even slow down on that project,” said state Sen. Troy Fraser, R–Horseshoe Bay.
The assertion came a day after Bell County commissioners discussed an e–mail from a TxDOT official that indicated projects to widen I–35 from two to three lanes through Bell County could be in danger.

“The funding situation is so serious that all work to expand I–35 through the Waco district may come to an end or at the very least be significantly delayed for years unless both the state and federal transportation funding forecast can be changed . . . , ” said the memo from Richard Skopik, Waco District engineer.

Fraser said that “memo is what I would refer to as a veiled threat.”

No road projects have been canceled, Fraser said, adding that legislators had a meeting with TxDOT about three weeks ago to discuss funding.

“We believe they have the funding,” Fraser said. “They have the ability to sell bonds, which would give them sufficient money.”

Those bonds include a short–term financial boost, Proposition 14, which provides $1.5 billion in funding through fiscal ’09.

In addition, Proposition 12 bonds, which were approved by voters in 2007, provide $5 billion in bonds for highways.

That money will have to be used on current projects, Fraser said.

“The money could not be used for the Trans–Texas Corridor,” he said.

Fraser said he believes TxDOT is “playing games in order to promote the Trans– Texas Corridor.”

As a result of concerns about the use of funds, the Legislature has ordered an audit of TxDOT.

“We believe they have sufficient revenue. That is the reason for the audit,” Fraser said. “They not only have the money for I–35, but the loop (363) project as well.”

The state audit of TxDOT is ongoing, he said.

In Skopik’s e–mail to Bell County commissioners, he wrote, “A total of 10 to 14 lanes through Central Texas are predicted to be needed in 2025 to properly address growing congestion . . . This is the very reason TxDOT feels strongly that a parallel corridor of some type is needed, long term, to truly address this matter.”

Fraser said he “absolutely” believes the indication of lack of funding by TxDOT for I–35 widening is connected to the Trans–Texas Corridor.

“TxDOT is intent on building the corridor,” said Fraser, who added he is not a fan of the project.

Ken Roberts, TxDOT spokesman, said funding allocations from the federal government that in years past have been reliable have been cut.

Roberts said such cuts coupled with material, transportation and fuel costs have made the budget tight.

Link to article here.

PREMEDITATED MERGER
Mexican official says NAFTA includes superhighways
‘Transportation linking the United States, Mexico and Canada is key to the future’
By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2008 WorldNetDaily
March 18, 2008

While President Bush and other U.S. officials have derided fears of a NAFTA superhighway as merely conspiracy theory, a Mexican transportation expert contends the trade agreement includes plans for a network of international ship, rail and truck connections to deliver consumer goods from China and the Far East to Mexico, the U.S. and Canada.

“Transportation linking the United States, Mexico and Canada is key to the future of NAFTA,” Eduardo Aspero, president of the Mexican Intermodal Association, told a recent luncheon sponsored by the Free Trade Alliance San Antonio.

In transportation economics, the term “intermodal” refers to the ability to move a container by crane to different modes of transportation, including ship, truck and railroad, without having to unpack or repack the container.

“It was interesting how the NAFTA transportation network so vehemently denied by the U.S. government was alive and well in Aspero’s speech and openly discussed in San Antonio,” said Terri Hall, founder of the San Antonio Toll Party.

WND reported President Bush, while attending the third annual summit of the Security and Prosperity Partnership meeting in Quebec last August said in an internationally televised press conference that those who believe the SPP might lead to NAFTA superhighways or a North American Union are “conspiracy theorists.”

Hall, who attended Aspero’s San Antonio speech, is a political activist whose website, TexasTurf.org, is dedicated to fighting the Trans-Texas Corridor and the expansion of toll roads in the state.

Aspero focused on plans by the Chinese firm of Hutchison Ports Holdings to develop the deep-water Mexican ports of Lazaro Cardenas and Manzanillo, on the Pacific Ocean south of Texas, to bring containers from China into North America.

As WND has reported, Hutchison Ports Holdings is paying billions of dollars to deepen Mexican ports such as Lazaro Cardenas and Manzanillo in anticipation of the arrival of post-Pamamex mega-ships capable of holding up to 12,500 containers currently being built for Chinese shipping lines.

WND also has reported how the U.S. southern border is being blurred for the benefit of global trade, with the official website of the Mexican northeastern state of Nuevo Leon disclosing plans to extend the Trans-Texas Corridor south through Monterrey to connect with Pacific ports in Mexico.

Aspero noted that currently 400,000 containers a year are being transported by truck and rail from Mexican ports on the Pacific into the U.S.

“The purpose of ports such as Lazaro Cardenas is to facilitate the cost-efficient transportation of container goods from Asia into the United States,” he explained.

“Lazaro Cardenas is the new hope for intermodalism in Mexico,” Aspero said, noting that Lazaro Cardenas is Mexico’s deepest port at 49 feet, capable of accepting virtually any cargo ship in the world.

“Aspero noted that the largest markets for the Chinese-manufactured goods are at the center of the United States and in the Northeast,” Hall said.

“He was trying to explain why multi-national corporations engaged in global trade continue to pressure the Bush administration,” she continued. “Their goal is to cut loose American longshoremen on the West Coast in favor of the cheaper Mexican labor that can get goods into the interior of the United States through the southern route from these Mexican ports on the Pacific.”

Aspero also argued the Automated Manifest System (AMS) put in place by U.S. Customs in 2002 is a key development in North American intermodal transportation.

“AMS allows cargo from Asia to go through Mexican ports virtually without any physical inspection,” he explained. “AMS pre-clears cargo at the point of origin, not at the border when the container enters the United States.”

Link to article here.

Road bloc: Anti-corridor groups apprise locals of ways to ‘jut say no to TTC’
By STEVEN ALFORD
The Lufkin Daily News

Monday, March 17, 2008

Plots by Communists to infiltrate America. The disintegration of borders and rural areas. Citizens mobilizing and rising up against government agencies and big business.

It all sounds like the plot for a summer blockbuster, but those were some of the topics addressed in a “How to Fight the TTC Workshop” held Monday at the Pitser Garrison Civic Center in Lufkin. The conference focused on informing citizens and local government officials how they can unite in trying to stop the proposed Trans-Texas Corridor 69 project.

Andy Adams/The Lufkin Daily News (ENLARGE)

Reuben Grassl of Shiro, Texas, asks a question during a ‘How to Fight the Trans-Texas Corridor’ workshop held Monday at Pitser Garrison Civic Center in Lufkin.

The TTC, a new grid of superhighway being proposed by the Texas Department of Transportation, would crisscross the state and connect Texas with the rest of the nation in a thoroughfare that would take large trucks and heavy traffic off of local roads and place them into one, fast-moving highway. But with a budget at an estimated $145 billion to $183 billion, many organizations are questioning if the money could be spent elsewhere. The potential confiscation of 584,000 acres of privately owned Texas land doesn’t have environmentalists too pleased, either.

“There is a rogue agency out there that isn’t listening to you and what you have to say,” said Dan Byfield, president of the American Land Foundation, one of the hosts of Monday’s workshop. “If you form your own committees, you can force TxDOT to work with you and let them know how you feel.” Byfield gave a step-by-step process on how activists could form a sub-regional planning commission and circumvent local government committees altogether in a continued grass-roots effort to stop the TTC.

The conference was hosted by the American Land Foundation, the Stewards of the Range, and Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom, with the heads of all the organizations giving seminars on topics ranging from community coordination and organization, to detailed legalities that groups can utilize to fight TxDOT and possibly stop the construction of the Trans-Texas Corridor.

“This plan has not considered the environmental impacts on our communities,” said Hank Gilbert, director for TURF, and the program’s moderator. “The more community involvement, the louder the community voice, and the more the state government will be forced to take notice.”

One of the bigger underlying issues at hand was that the TTC would be the first step toward a unification of Canada, America and Mexico in an effort to create a “North American Union” similar to the European Union, which could even maintain its own currency, the Amero. In its final realization, the highway would begin in Chinese-controlled ports in Mexico and run all the way up through Canada, basically dissolving any ideas of borders or searchable cargo.

Standing Ground, a newsletter printed by the ALF that was distributed at the conference, touched deeper on the subject: “This treatise is the blueprint for the North American Union… which would signal the destruction of America as we know it by merging the United States, Canada and Mexico into a single economic and political entity… Once only considered a conspiracy theory, the NAU is dangerously close to reality, with timetables set for partial completion in this decade.”

Attempts to reach a TxDOT official for comment Monday afternoon were unsuccessful, but TxDOT’s Web site, www.keeptexasmoving.com, states that because of the corridor, “drivers will face less congestion, businesses will have more reliable transportation networks, users will have more choices, including rail and transit, and more job opportunities will arise due to new and improved trade and transport corridors.” All of that sounds good on paper, opponents said Monday, but it remains fishy in the eyes of the various organizations gathered at Monday’s meeting.

With the deadline for proposals from developers to orchestrate the project being pushed back to March 26, there is still time for advocacy groups to let TxDOT know how they feel. Opinions may vary about the TTC, but one Texan landowner who asked not to be named said, “If TxDOT tries to come and take my land, they’ll find me waiting on the porch with a loaded gun.”

On the Web: www.amland.us, www.stewards.us and www.texasturf.org.