Saturday, September 09, 2006

David Stall will speak at a public meeting about the TTC in Marlin, TX

Meeting Scheduled Saturday On Trans Texas Corridor Project

September 9, 2006

KWTX.com (Waco Temple Killeen)
Copyright 2006

Corrridor.Watch.org co-founder David Stall speaks at a public meeting about the controversial Trans Texas Corridor project Saturday evening in Marlin.

The meeting is from 6:30 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. Saturday at Marlin High School.

The Texas Department of Transportation signed a contract in April 2005 with the Cintra-Zachry consortium for planning on the project, the most ambitious highway construction effort since the Eisenhower administration launched the effort to build an interstate highway system.

The $184 billion plan ultimately calls for a 4,000-mile network of transportation corridors that would crisscross the state with separate highway lanes for passenger vehicles and trucks, passenger rail, freight rain, commuter rail and dedicated utility zones.

Designers envision a corridor with six separate passenger vehicle lanes and four commercial truck lanes; two high speed passenger rail lines, two freight rain lines and two commuter rail lines and a utility zone that will accommodate water, electric, natural gas, petroleum, fiber optic and telecommunications lines.

Cintra, which is an international design and development firm, and the San Antonio-based Zachry Construction Corporation, have agreed to provide $7.2 billion for construction of the first six segments of the project, the governor’s office said.

Cintra will spend $6 billion to build a four-lane toll road on the corridor and will pay the state $1.2 billion in return for the exclusive rights to operate the toll road for 50 years.

The meeting Saturday, organized by Independent Texans, is intended to be a follow up to the series of public meetings organized earlier this summer by the Texas Department of Transportation.

TxDOT held 50 hearings on the project around the state to give residents a chance to ask questions and register opinions about the Interstate 35 leg of the massive transportation project.

Opponents turned out in substantial numbers at many of the hearings in Central Texas.

Linda Curtis, the founder of Independent Texans, will also talk about solutions and changes that would give residents a chance vote on such major projects in the future.

The 10-mile-wide study area for the Central Texas leg of the project runs generally along and slightly east of Interstate 35, state transportation officials announced in April as they released a 4,000-page draft environmental impact study that identifies the study area.

The report narrows the study area from Gainesville to Laredo, close to Interstate 35 and metropolitan areas north of San Antonio, but centered on Interstate 35 from south of San Antonio to Laredo.

© 2006 Gray Television Group, Inc. : www.kwtx.com

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