[sustran] FW: [Tr2000] Texas- State is on road to new highway era

[Daryl Oster]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: t2000 at hammond-vowels.com [mailto:t2000 at hammond-vowels.com]
> Sent: Friday, December 17, 2004 2:13 PM
> To: Tr2000 at yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [Tr2000] Texas- State is on road to new highway era/¡Yo Quiero
> 407?
> 
> 
> Note to Greater Toronto Area readers, Cintra is involved in the Highway
> 407
> consortium....
> 
> 
> Subject: Texas- State is on road to new highway era
> 
> State is on road to new highway era
> 
> Web Posted: 12/17/2004 12:00 AM CST
> 
> Patrick Driscollh
> San Antonio Express-News
> 
> The Texas Transportation Commission selected a construction consortium
> that includes a San Antonio firm Thursday to build the first leg of the
> Trans Texas Corridor -- launching what officials called the nation's
> most important highway project since the 1950s.
> Trans Texas Corridor
> # First leg of the 50-year project will: Take 10 years to complete.
> # Cost $6 billion.
> # Provide a four-lane toll road from San Antonio to Dallas.
> Still to come, sometime after 2025:
> # Toll lanes to the Mexican border.
> # High-speed passenger rail service between San Antonio and Dallas.
> 
> The group, led by Cintra of Spain, will build and operate the corridor's
> first segment of toll roads from Dallas to San Antonio.
> 
> Zachry Construction Corp. will partner with Cintra on the 10-year
> project, the first phase of a 50-year venture promising greater mobility
> for drivers and profits for the operator.
> 
> Cintra will invest $6 billion over the next decade to construct the
> four-lane toll road and relocate some Union Pacific tracks to the east
> of San Antonio and Austin.
> 
> Toll lanes to the border, high-speed passenger rail between San Antonio
> and Dallas and new freight tracks from Austin to Dallas are expected to
> follow sometime after 2025.
> 
> "Today's action by the Texas Department of Transportation will go down
> as one of the most significant days in the history of transportation,"
> said Gov. Rick Perry, who compared the project to the interstate highway
> system launched during the Eisenhower administration.
> 
> The highway department, after signing a contract with Cintra within the
> next two months, will pay $3.5 million to refine plans over the next
> year or two -- but not a penny more.
> 
> In fact, Cintra will pay the state $1.2 billion by 2014 for the right to
> operate the toll system. And the firm will shoulder the risk of bonds to
> fund the work.
> 
> Perry, who unveiled his dream of the Trans Texas Corridor almost three
> years ago, joined commissioners as they listened to Cintra officials lay
> out the terms of the deal.
> 
> "We've just seen the future and it is here," he said. "This is powerful,
> powerful stuff."
> 
> But there will be a price to pay for the massive project.
> 
> The Trans Texas Corridor is huge and costly. The $184 billion endeavor
> is eventually supposed to crisscross the state with 4,000 miles of
> 10-lane highways and rail lines in swaths up to a quarter-mile wide.
> 
> Officials will have to charge tolls to finance bonds and pay for
> operations and maintenance. They'll also have to confiscate farmlands
> and wildlife areas.
> 
> "This is just one of those things that is painful and there's not an
> awful lot we can do about it," said commission Chairman Ric Williamson.
> 
> Motorists now pay from 10 cents to 20 cents a mile to use toll roads in
> Houston and Dallas, and Cintra says that will be a starting point to
> decide its fees on the route it will build along Interstate 35.
> 
> Cintra will have to rely on traffic congestion on I-35 to drive
> frustrated motorists to its toll lanes.
> 
> As a result, Texas will likely limit expansion of the interstate --
> probably to six lanes -- to ensure a lucrative market for the company.
> 
> "They need to have an expectation that they can get a profit,"
> Williamson said. "And we shouldn't be ashamed of that."
> 
> Besides, Williamson added, the Transportation Department couldn't afford
> to do much more on I-35 anyway.
> 
> However, the state can use the $1.2 billion rent from Cintra for other
> projects on or near I-35. Ideas include passenger and freight rail
> lines, and truck routes to connect the Port of Corpus Christi, the Rio
> Grande Valley and Laredo.
> 
> The first segment of the corridor would link to Texas 130, now under
> construction, extending it from Lockhart to Seguin east of Austin. Work
> could start in about a year.
> 
> "Get it done so that the people of San Antonio can hook up and get
> going," Perry said.
> 
> Toll lanes along Interstate 10 east of San Antonio and along Southeast
> Loop 1604 could be completed in 15 years.
> 
> The local Alamo Regional Mobility Authority may consider picking up
> parts of those sections.
> 
> "It is something we're gong to have to look at," said Tom Griebel,
> director of the authority.
> 
> Cintra, which competed against Fluor Enterprises Inc. of Sugar Land and
> Trans Texas Express of Dallas to win the project, is one of the largest
> toll-road construction companies in the world, currently involved with
> 17 jobs.
> 
> Zachry Construction is a 15 percent partner on the project.
> 
> Family-owned Zachry was founded in 1924 in Laredo to build highways but
> later diversified and moved to San Antonio. Recent work includes Dallas'
> light-rail system, power plants in Puerto Rico and the rebuilt U.S.
> embassy in Moscow.
> 
> Transportation Commissioner Hope Andrade of San Antonio said a new age
> has dawned in Texas.
> 
> "We've certainly proven that TxDOT has a new way of doing business," she
> said. "The governor has made Texas proud, and we appreciate his vision."
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> pdriscoll at express-news.net
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Online at:
> http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA121704.1A.corridor_sele
> ct.14aed698.html
> 
> 
> 
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