CNN’s Lou Dobbs chronicles the progression of our government’s movement toward a merger of the U.S. with Mexico and Canada into a North American Union on YouTube here.
Category: Why Foreign Companies?
Enron whistleblower calls Macquarie toll road business model financial house of cards!
Macquarie Infrastructure Group (MIG) is a worldwide toll operator and has bid to takeover several toll projects in TX including 121 in Dallas area and 281/1604 in San Antonio. Macquarie is also tied to Rudy Giuliani. The plot just got thicker as Jim Chanos, investor who was the first to expose Enron, calls Macquarie’s business model a “house of cards” and “unsustainable.” The fact that U.S. federal and state pension funds are beginning to make their way into these infrastructure deals that are more akin to a ponsi scheme than sound investments, Macquarie’s model makes Enron look like child’s play. Read on…
PM – Macquarie Bank model cannot last: Chanos
[This is the print version of story http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2007/s1938221.htm]
PM – Wednesday, 30 May , 2007 18:18:00
Reporter: Stephen Long
MARK COLVIN: Jim Chanos was the first big US investor to expose Enron as a fraud.Tonight, he’s told PM why he thinks that Macquarie Bank is a ‘house of cards’.Macquarie’s staff have made billions by buying assets around the world and spinning them off into funds and trusts controlled by the bank. The bank collects fees all along the line.
But Mr Chanos says this economic model can’t last. His key concern is that the Macquarie Bank funds pay their shareholders not out of income they earn, but from borrowed money.
They continually revalue their assets, then borrow against the asset values to fund payments to investors.
He also says the structure encourages serial overpaying for assets, and that Macquarie is relying more and more on unsustainable self-dealing between the bank and its funds to make money.
This report from our Economics Correspondent Stephen Long.
STEPHEN LONG: Jim Chanos has made a fortune picking stocks that are ripe for a tumble.
He was the first big investor to say Enron was a fraud.
He’s not saying there are crooks at Macquarie Bank. Simply, that the model that’s made the bank billions is unsustainable.
JIM CHANOS: I guess the heart of our criticism of the bank is the model itself, this so-called Macquarie model.
STEPHEN LONG: The Macquarie model is now world famous. The bank scours the world buying assets, everything from toll roads to bowling alleys, and selling them into separate trusts that the bank controls.
This generates triple fees for Macquarie Bank: one for the up-front purchase; a second for selling the assets into the trust; then ongoing management and performance fees from the funds.
There’s been much discussion in Australia about whether this raises a conflict of interest.
Jim Chanos’ critique is more fundamental.
JIM CHANOS: The underlying economics, in my opinion, are flawed. Being the top bidder for these assets and then flipping them into the trusts leads to an unsustainable economic engine at the trust level. And when that breaks down all of the fees and whatever’s being paid begin to break down.
STEPHEN LONG: Macquarie’s funds pay their investors out of borrowed money and that’s one of Jim Chanos’ key concerns.
They revalue the assets they own then borrows money against the re-valuations to fund the payments to investors, a strategy that could founder when, inevitably, the period of cheap credit and asset price inflation comes to an end.
JIM CHANOS: And this is the real crux of the problem on an ongoing basis. If you look at the financial accounts of the trusts you’ll see that in almost all the cases the companies are using Australian re-valuation accounting which is legal under GAAP (Generally Agreed Accounting Principles) in your country to write up the value of the assets annually and put that through operating income and into equity.
STEPHEN LONG: And your worry then is that the payments to the stockholders are being funded essentially by debt and re-valuation not out of income.
JIM CHANOS: Re-valuating and borrowing against that stream. So you need willing lenders, you need a credit environment that looks the other way, or you need a credit environment where the people lending are just lending on reputation and not numbers.
STEPHEN LONG: The man who blew the lid on Enron has other concerns, too. He says the fee structure encourages serial overpaying for assets because Macquarie gets fees based on the size of the assets it spins into its trusts.
He says the Macquarie model relies increasingly on unsustainable self-dealing between Macquarie and its funds.
And then there’s the huge levels of debt and leverage.
JIM CHANOS: Capital gains alone in the fiscal year 2007, the year ending March 2007, capital gains alone of Macquarie flipping these types of assets into the trusts and elsewhere accounted for half, roughly half, of the pre-tax income of the bank. And that alone should be enough to call into question the quality of earnings.
STEPHEN LONG: If we came to the end of this extraordinary period we’ve been in, of cheap credit and escalating asset prices, asset price inflation, where would that lead Macquarie in terms of those capital gains?
JIM CHANOS: Well, I think that they would be greatly diminished or non-existent.
STEPHEN LONG: Although they’re perfectly legal and transparent, Jim Chanos says the techniques Macquarie Bank uses have some similarities to those used by Enron.
JIM CHANOS: Let’s just say, Stephen, I’m apparently not the first one to make those observations. That’s exactly what they appear to be doing.
STEPHEN LONG: Macquarie Bank’s boss Allan Moss says short of complete disaster, people will keep driving on toll roads no matter what.
Jim Chanos says that misses the point.
JIM CHANOS: All I would tell your listeners, Stephen, is simply just go in to the trusts, financial statements, and simply extract out the asset re-valuation number which is basically management’s guess as to how much, what the asset’s worth and just see what the cash flows look like if you take that out.
In many cases the cash flows are diminished or actually go negative. That’s the simple litmus test to the Macquarie model.
STEPHEN LONG: Well, Jim Chanos, how concerned should we be that pension funds in Australia are major investors in the Macquarie Bank trusts?
JIM CHANOS: Well, if I was a pensioneer, in your country and my pension fund accounts owned some of these trusts, I would urge the managers to look at the financial accounts closely and not just look at the yield they’re getting but look at how that yield is being received.
Is it actually from the economic output of the assets or is it from asset re-valuation which is simply writing up the paper value of the assets and borrowing the money against it.
These pension funds, which are answerable to the pensioneers in your country, if they’re comfortable with that, well, great. If I was a pensioneer I wouldn’t be.
STEPHEN LONG: Plenty of people disagree. Brian Johnson of JPMorgan is Australia’s top rating banking analyst. He says Jim Chanos will join a long line of people who’ve lost money betting against Macquarie.
BRIAN JOHNSON: A lot of money is being lost basically shorting Macquarie Bank over the years. And while the model is certainly not without risk, the fact is the size of this potential market is absolutely massive.
STEPHEN LONG: So take your pick. Macquarie is either poised to run the world or heading for trouble.
MARK COLVIN: Stephen Long.
We were told Macquarie Bank’s Chief Financial Officer, Greg Ward, would respond to Stephen Long’s story, but he is yet to call.
© 2007 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Copyright information: http://abc.net.au/common/copyrigh.htm
http://abc.net.au/privacy.htm
Expose on Trans Texas Corridor & North American Union shoots up best-seller charts
Link to article here.
‘Late, Great USA’ nation’s No. 1 non-fiction book
Expose of North American Union shoots up best-seller charts
Posted: July 11, 2007
1:49 p.m. Eastern
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
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Concern over government plans to promote integration of the U.S., Mexico and Canada is sweeping the nation, as evidenced by the dramatic response to the blockbuster book “The Late Great USA,” currently the No. 1 nonfiction and No. 1 political book in America according to Amazon.com.
The book, in which New York Times No. 1 best-selling author and WND columnist Jerome Corsi exposes the multifaceted plan to turn the U.S., Canada and Mexico into a North American version of the European Union, has shot to No. 14 overall.
Corsi has been widely featured on radio and TV recently, including a marathon interview last night on George Noory’s “Coast to Coast AM” radio show.
The U.S. government’s controversial – many say outrageous – unwillingness to enforce immigration laws and border security is, at least in part, a result of the plans Corsi exposes in “The Late Great USA.
Understanding the plan to merge the U.S., Mexico and Canada, says Corsi, is “the only context in which the current immigration travesty makes sense – and it must be stopped.” Corsi is the co-author of the No. 1 New York Times best-seller “Unfit for Command” which many credit with having cost John Kerry the presidency in the 2004 election.
Ron Paul (anti-corridor, SPP & NAU) has more cash than McCain
Here’s a presidential contender that’s opposed to the Trans Texas Corridor and all the NAFTA Superhighways, the Security and Prosperity Partnership, and the North American Union driving it (who twice introduced a resolution against them in Congress)…Texas Congressman RON PAUL, and he’s #3 in fundraising! His grassroots support cannot be underestimated. What a perfect wake-up for the establishment elite who try to pre-ordain insiders who are bought and paid for to run this country rather than letting WE THE PEOPLE run a candidate of the people and FOR preserving our Constitutional Republic! He and Duncan Hunter are the ONLY candidates talking about this. Check out Ron Paul…
Link to article here
Ron Paul Tops McCain in Cash on Hand
ShareJuly 06, 2007 1:14 PM
ABC News' George Stephanopoulos Reports: Though often regarded as a longshot candidate for president, Republican Ron Paul tells ABC News that he has an impressive $2.4 million in cash on hand after raising an equal amount during the second quarter, putting him ahead of one-time Republican frontrunner John McCain, who reported this week he has only $2 million in the bank.
In an exclusive interview taped Friday and airing Sunday on "This Week," Paul said his campaign is on a better trajectory than McCain's.
"I think some of the candidates are on the down-slope, and we're on the up-slope," said Paul.
Paul's cash on hand puts him in third place in the Republican field in that important metric, although he is well behind leader Rudy Giuliani, who has $18 million in the bank, and Mitt Romney, with $12 million.
Paul, who polls show with support in the low single digits, said his surprisingly strong fundraising is the best measure of his support.
"I think people have underestimated the number of people in this country who are interested in a freedom message," says the Republican congressman from Texas, who has strong libertarian leanings.
Click HERE to watch a clip from the interview.
ATLANTICA, Canada's NAFTA Corridor, draws citizen opposition
It should come as no surprise that citizens in Canada, like Texans, are galvanizing their opposition to their NAFTA supercorridor in the northeast from Nova Scotia into New York. They’ve figured out as we have, that it does little to benefit Canadians and has more to do with transporting cheap Chinese goods into the United States at the expense of each country’s sovereignty due to the Security and Prosperity Partnership or SPP .
Groups speak against Atlantica proposal
By Robyn Young
Halifax Daily News (Nova Scotia, Canada)
June 14, 2007
Canada’s largest citizen advocacy organization spoke out against Atlantica yesterday.
Maude Barlow, national chairwoman for the Council of Canada, was the main speaker at the talk at the Scotia Bank Auditorium, Dalhousie University.
She highlighted what she called the dangers of the Atlantica proposal made by the Atlantic Provinces Chamber of Commerce and the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies to integrate the Canada’s East Coast with the northeastern United States.
“This scheme will give the United States greater access to Canadian resources without benefiting Canadians,” she said.
Atlantica is part of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, which aims to create a common market between the Maritime provinces, Newfoundland, parts of Quebec, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire and upstate New York.
Barlow said the plan would erase border restrictions and regulations and create a huge transportation corridor to send Asian goods and energy resources to the United States.
“They’re planning this Atlantic gateway megaport,” she said.
If this happens, the council is concerned it could lead to highways through Nova Scotia as wide as 12 lanes across to carry the “mega” transport trucks to the U.S.
Scott Sinclair, spokesman for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, explained to the crowd gathered at Dalhousie that the implications of the Atlantica are far reaching.
The high-volume roadway would increase environmental damage in the form of emissions from massive transport trucks, said Sinclair.
“The largest vessels can carry up to 10,000 containers,” he said.
Along with the environmental impact, Sinclair said Atlantica will increase energy exports from eastern Canada to the U.S. at a time when Canada’s reserves of natural gas are already beginning to decline.
Dallas toll agency grabs 121 toll road from Cintra!
Link to article here.
Another multi-billion dollar deal dies for Cintra. They’re not faring too well in Texas…let’s keep it that way!
Dallas agency wins toll road
By Pat Driscoll
Express-News
June 28, 2007
The Texas Transportation Commission voted 4-1 today to let a local agency develop the Texas 121 tollway in North Texas rather than give it to Cintra of Spain for 50 years
Chairman Ric Williamson said it was the board’s first split vote.
But board member Ted Hougton didn’t cast the dissenting vote because he was opposed to letting the North Texas Tollway Authority finance and operate Texas 121.
He’s not happy because the order as written excludes the Texas Department of Transportation from helping the Dallas-Fort Worth Regional Transportation Council negotiate a contract with NTTA.
“This is part of the state highway system and I don’t think we can abdicate our responsibility,” Houghton said. “We have a role in that negotiation.”
Williamson said TxDOT’s reputation has been dragged through the mud enough over the issue in the past couple of years. State officials can watch negotiations, he said, and steer locals away from illegal rabbit holes, but that’s it.
“There is absolutely no benefit to our inserting our staff in this process to be once again blamed,” he said. “If we are in the negotiations it will inevitably fail.”
Williamson and Houghton did agree on something, and that was grousing about having to go through another dog and pony show over who develops Texas 121. Williamson said this is the third time around, and a contract with Cintra has been sitting for months ready to be signed.
“Talk is cheap,” the chairman said.
SB 792 from the last legislative session opened the latest round by invalidating a year-old protocol in which NTTA agreed not to bid on the project. Now the agency has made a bid, and the region’s transportation council recently voted 27-10 to accept the offer.
On Tuesday, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst sent a letter to Williamson to make sure he got the message.
“Local control was the legislative directive embedded in SB 792, and I feel this is the proper way to proceed with current and future transportation projects,” the letter says.
NTTA proposed paying more than Cintra in up-front cash, to be used for other area projects. But the agency also takes on the risk of traffic being lower than expected, which could mean higher tolls on its other roads.
Now NTTA has 60 days to hammer out an agreement with the transportation council and 45 days after that to come up with the money. If officials can’t do that, then TxDOT can sign with Cintra.
Look for links below as reports come in.
• Cintra statement
• TxDOT statement
• State Sen. John Carona’s statement
• State Sen. Robert Nichols’ statement
• Toll Roads News assessment
• Reuters report
• Fort Worth Star Telegram report
Williamson's spin on SB 792: "The moratorium doesn't affect TTC-35"
Link to article here.
Get the impression TxDOT is just begging for a lawsuit or for the Legislature to stop them from continuing work on the Trans Texas Corridor TTC-35? The legislative intent was clear…it was to halt the TTC pending further study. The people of Texas are in an ALL OUT WAR against this Governor and his minions at TxDOT who are really a front for Cintra.
Toll boss clarifies moratorium
By Pat Driscoll
Express-News
June 27, 2007
A construction contract for a Trans-Texas Corridor toll road from Austin to Dallas could be ready within two years, and a new moratorium law wouldn’t stop it, state officials said today.
SB 792 bans leasing of many new toll projects for two years, the state’s preferred way to finance its border-to-border TTC network, but the restriction does not apply to TCC plans along Interstate 35, said Texas Transportation Commission Chairman Ric Williamson.
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| Ric Williamson |
That’s because a TTC-35 development contract signed in 2005 covers upcoming construction contracts, he said. And that means those projects can be built using otherwise prohibited concession agreements, which raise upfront cash in return for letting companies collect tolls for up to 50 years.
“The moratorium doesn’t affect TTC-35,” Williamson said. “I don’t know what else to say.”
State Rep. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, got an assurance read into the House record for SB 792 last month that says no construction of TTC-35 projects, except for Loop 9 around Dallas-Fort Worth, would start over the next two years.
Gov. Rick Perry’s office told her that work couldn’t start within two years anyway because environmental studies won’t be finished.
But today, in a conference call Williamson and other officials held with reporters, Texas Department of Transportation Assistant Director Amadeo Saenz said otherwise.
A big-picture environmental study for TTC-35 could get federal clearance this summer and the first second-phase studies to determine specific alignments could be finished in a year or year and a half, Saenz said.
TxDOT announced two weeks ago that they’re ready to pursue 87 toll projects statewide, including three four-lane TTC-35 tollways — one from I-35 south of San Antonio to I-10 near Seguin, a segment from Austin to Dallas and another from Dallas to Oklahoma.
Williamson said today that a construction contract could be ready within two years for the toll-road from Austin to Dallas.
But that doesn’t mean the state will sign the contract right away, he said, not without giving lawmakers a chance to weigh in at the 2009 legislative session, when TxDOT itself and the ability to enter into concessions come up for sunset reviews.
“We’ll be very judicious about that kind of stuff,” he said.
Feature: Giuliani's Trans Texas Corridor ties explored
An article in this month’s issue of Manufacturing News tells of Giuliani’s ties to Cintra and Macquarie (partners and two of the largest, most expensive toll companies in the world), and, hence, his connection to the Trans Texas Corridor. We’ve been shouting this from the rooftops and now it’s starting to get traction.
Link to view the PDF of the front page story here.
Public toll entity knocks out Cintra on 121 deal in Dallas!
Link to article here.
I wouldn’t exactly get giddy over this, but it’s a MAJOR step in the right direction. Senator Florence Shapiro fought to give public tolling entities (versus private, foreign companies like Cintra) the first dibs on toll projects, but the problem is, now they’re using up front concession fees (as was added last minute without public debate to the Governor’s private toll moratorium compromise bill, SB 792, allowing public agencies to use this sort of market based tolling on PUBLIC projects, just like the private companies would) which translates into the HIGHEST POSSIBLE TOLLS.
Market based tolls mean the poor chaps using the toll road will be funding the rest of the region’s roads since now the users will be paying tolls high enough to cover the concession fees (a sum of money determined by a “third party” appraiser who decides how much the road is worth on Wall Street and how much money they can get away with charging) and not just the actual cost of building the road and retiring the debt. The concession fees, the money over and above the cost of building the road, will then go to fund the rest of the region’s road projects at the expense of the users of a single highway while everyone also continues to pay the gas tax for roads!
What NO ONE is reporting or talking about is the fact that 16 miles of this 26 miles project is already BUILT AND PAID FOR with GAS TAXES and DOESN’T NEED TO BE TOLLED! This is why they’re calling 121 the “crown jewel” of toll projects. It’s so lucrative because all but 10 miles is PAID FOR. They’re going to reap about $100 billion in new toll taxes over the next 40-50 years simply to build one 10 mile stretch of road!
NTTA gets OK for 121 toll project
State board must still approve deal
11:01 AM CDT on Tuesday, June 19, 2007
The North Texas Tollway Authority won the strong support Monday of local officials charged with deciding who will build the lucrative but controversial State Highway 121 project.
The Regional Transportation Council voted 27-10 to recommend that the state reverse course and award the contract to the tollway authority – and not to the Spanish construction firm Cintra.
The decision marks a reversal from last winter when the Texas Department of Transportation had tentatively awarded the contract to Cintra, which had beat two other private bidders with a promise to pay the state government nearly $3 billion for the right to collect tolls on the 26-mile road for the next 50 years.
“It’s probably been the toughest decision that I’ve had to make in the 10 years I have been on this committee,” Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley said just before casting his vote for NTTA.
Mr. Whitley said the authority’s bid promised even more up-front money to the state than Cintra.
“If we go with Cintra, we do leave money on the table,” he said. “We leave money on the table up front, we leave it on the table in the payments over the 50 years. … So, sure it is a risk, but this the crown jewel of toll projects in the state, and maybe even in the country.”
The Texas Transportation Commission is expected to render a final decision on the project at its June 28 meeting in Austin.
Over the last two weeks, Cintra had tried again and again to underscore the risks it said were inherent in the NTTA bid. The authority offered more money up front, Cintra said, but it did so at a risk of increased toll rates in the future if traffic volume forecasts are not met.
Many of those casting the 10 votes in favor of Cintra seized on those arguments, and on analyses by the Texas Department of Transportation and global accounting firm Price Waterhouse Coopers that reached similar conclusions.
“We cannot gamble on this,” Denton County Commissioner Cynthia White said. “We have to go with what is a for-sure deal. Cintra comes out ahead against NTTA, and that is the cold hard facts. Theirs is the only proposal that guarantees a [financial] return to the region at the end of the contract.”
NTTA chairman Paul Wageman had countered earlier in the day, however, that council members should go with the bid by the entity they know best, and with the project that paid the biggest amount of money up front.
“In the end, I think it was that our proposal was a superior financial deal, and because of our track record in this region,” a smiling Mr. Wageman said after the vote.
Jose Lopez, the president of Cintra’s North American operations, said the bidding process was fair. But he said his company’s proposal was clearly better.
“We will just have to wait and see what the TxDOT commissioners have to say, since they are the ones that have the final say,” Mr. Lopez said. “We respect the decision by the RTC, but we still are certain that our proposal was better, way better, for the region.”
The Texas Transportation Commission’s five members, all appointed by Gov. Rick Perry, are not bound by Monday’s vote.
That worries state Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, who attended Monday’s vote.
Ms. Shapiro noted that the two Transportation Department’s representatives on the Regional Transportation Council voted in favor of Cintra’s bid. Last week, TxDOT’s chief financial officer said his department would recommend Cintra for the contract – if commission members asked for an opinion.
“That’s probably pretty indicative of what they’re going to do on the 28th,” Ms. Shapiro said. “I am very concerned about it and intend to be there to listen and to watch and to see how it’s handled.
“The commitment that … [Texas Transportation Commission members] made – and I heard it with my own ears – was that whatever the region decided was what they would move forward with. This was overwhelming, 27-10, and I think that is a very strong message to take to TxDOT.”
Bill Hale, one of two TxDOT employees on the council, said he expects Texas Transportation Commission Chairman Ric Williamson to give great weight to Monday’s vote.
“That’s what he has said in the past they intend to do,” said Mr. Hale, the top engineer on TxDOT’s Dallas-area staff.
Mr. Hale, who voted in favor of awarding the contract to Cintra, said he will now support NTTA’s involvement in the project.
Ms. Shapiro’s concern reflects the mood of many state lawmakers.
The transportation commission gave Cintra preliminary approval for the Highway 121 contract in February. Immediately, lawmakers reacted angrily to the prospect of signing a lease with a foreign company to operate toll roads that will span generations. And they quickly pressured the RTC to invite the NTTA to submit a bid, paving the way for a rival to Cintra.
“It is exactly what I had hoped would happen,” Ms. Shapiro said. “We gave them the opportunity today, but they had to perform and they had to produce. And they did.”
Fort Worth City Council member Wendy Davis said that if the contract ends up with NTTA, North Texas may lose out on private investment in the future.
“What we are going to do today is not just going to impact our decision on Highway 121, but I can assure you that it will impact our ability to attract private businesses in the future,” she said. “If I was Cintra, I would learn a valuable lesson. And that lesson is that no matter how many steps are put in place to make sure the process is fair, the deck is going to be dealt in such a way that favors” a public entity such as NTTA.
Still, Richardson City Council member John Murphy, who voted for NTTA, encouraged his colleagues to feel good about the vote, no matter which side they favored.
“This is about the future and the future has changed for us,” Mr. Murphy said. “Not long ago we were at a point where we were saying, ‘Oh my gosh, where are we going to get the money to build roads?’ Now, we’re saying instead, ‘Show us the money.’ “
More on the battle over 121 here.
Let the TTC land grab begin…Seguin residents brace for eminent domain abuse to benefit Cintra
Link to article here.
Highway 130 begins push for property
SEGUIN — The property acquisition process for the fifth and sixth segments of the State Highway 130 toll road is getting under way.
Seguin, Fentress, Luling and Lockhart area landowners, businesses and residents who live or work in the pathway are now being notified.
Frank P. Holzmann, the SH 130 project manager for the Texas Department of Transportation, Dennis L. Sedlachek, vice president for right of way for the SH 130 Concession Co., and Jessica Schenk of Tate/Austin public relations were in Seguin on Friday to announce the process that will eventually clear the way for construction of the final two phases of the roadway.
SH 130 Segments 5 and 6 will link IH-10 to the highway that will connect a point north of Lockhart to Georgetown. The final two segments will be about 40 miles long, and will connect to IH-10 east of Seguin, in the vicinity of the Department of Public Safety’s weigh station.
A partnership of the Zachry American Infrastructure and Cintra companies will be responsible for design, construction and operation of the toll road, which is expected to offer a low-traffic connection from the Seguin area to the northern central Texas sector, providing relief from traffic on a congested IH-35. The two companies established the SH 130 Concession Co. to design, build and operate the toll road in Travis, Caldwell and Guadalupe counties.
TxDOT will oversee all right of way acquisition and relocation procedures, and the state will be the record titleholder to all right of way acquired for segments 5 and 6 of SH 130.
“We’ve got agreements signed to begin the right of way acquisition process,” Holzmann said.
O.R. Colan Associates contracted to aid in acquiring all of the necessary property rights for the project in the name of the state.
Schenk said the firm has opened an office in Lockhart and communicated with property owners who will be affected by the toll road’s pathway. Out of 309 property owners who were notified by mail about the acquisition phase, 47 parcels are in the Luling area, and 29 parcels have been identified in the Guadalupe County/Seguin area.
Sedlachek said SH 130’s fourth segment should be complete by the end of the year.
Segments 5 and 6 will begin construction in 2009, and should be complete by summer or fall of 2012.
“My job is to see that property owners are treated fairly and equitably, and treated in a professional manner,” Sedlachek, who serves on the city of Pflugerville’s planning and zoning commission, explained.
“We are going to do our very best to keep the communication open. Every property owner will be treated individually to make the transition as comfortable as possible,” Schenk said.
O.R. Colan Associates is sending a right-of-way acquisition organizer kit to property owners that includes an introductory letter, an informational brochure, a “State Purchase of Right of Way” booklet, a “Relocation Assistance” booklet and a notice that they will soon be contacted personally by a representative who will discuss the acquisition and relocation processes and address any concerns a property owner or tenant may have.
Landowners and tenants then will be contacted by surveyors, appraisers, relocation agents and environmental experts.
Sedlachek said the SH 130 route was chosen to affect property owners as little as possible.
“We’ve received some feedback. Some say hurry up so we can move on, and others say we’ve been here for years and we don’t want to be affected. We try to speed up the process for the willing, and go into eminent domain proceedings if they do not want to talk to us,” Sedlachek said.
He said highly trained and certified state property appraisers will determine the fair market value for any property that is acquired for the toll road project.
The total length of SH 130 is 91 miles. Segment 5 begins north of Mustang Ridge and will drop 12 miles down to F.M. 1185 in Lockhart.
Segment 6 connects from F.M. 1185 to IH-10, a distance of about 28 miles. It will provide direct connections to State Highway 45, which is under construction and will be completed by 2010, and to U.S. 183 north of Lockhart.
The new roadway will not affect any existing roads. Current project cost is $1.35 billion, which Zachry/Cintra will bear and recover their costs through toll collections.
Allen A. Armstrong is the contact person at O.R. Colan Associates for affected property owners who want more information about the acquisition proceeding. His office is located at 1001 W. San Antonio St. in Lockhart, and the telephone number is 1-866-933-4672.
The general public can find information about the toll road by visiting www.mysh130.com.