Trans-Texas Corridor
Encyclopedia
The Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC) was a transportation network that was discontinued in the planning and early construction stages in the U.S. State
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...

 of Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

. The network, as originally envisioned, would have been composed of a 4000 miles (6,437.4 km) network of supercorridor
Supercorridor
A supercorridor is a proposed new type of transportation infrastructure in the United States.A supercorridor uses swaths of land up to 1,200 feet wide to carry parallel links of freeways, rails, and utility lines. The freeway portions are divided into two separate elements: truck lanes and lanes...

s up to 1200 feet (365.8 m) wide to carry parallel links of tollways, rails, and utility
Public utility
A public utility is an organization that maintains the infrastructure for a public service . Public utilities are subject to forms of public control and regulation ranging from local community-based groups to state-wide government monopolies...

 lines. It was intended to route long-distance traffic around population centers, and to provide stable corridors for future infrastructure improvements–such as new power lines from wind farms in West Texas to the cities in the east–without the otherwise often lengthy administrative and legal procedures required to build on privately owned land. The tollway portion would have been divided into two separate elements: truck lanes and lanes for passenger vehicles. Similarly, the rail lines in the corridor would have been divided among freight, commuter, and high-speed rail
High-speed rail
High-speed rail is a type of passenger rail transport that operates significantly faster than the normal speed of rail traffic. Specific definitions by the European Union include for upgraded track and or faster for new track, whilst in the United States, the U.S...

. The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) intended to "charge public and private concerns for utility, commodity or data transmission" within the corridor,
in essence making a toll road
Toll road
A toll road is a privately or publicly built road for which a driver pays a toll for use. Structures for which tolls are charged include toll bridges and toll tunnels. Non-toll roads are financed using other sources of revenue, most typically fuel tax or general tax funds...

 for services such as water
Water
Water is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H2O. A water molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by covalent bonds. Water is a liquid at ambient conditions, but it often co-exists on Earth with its solid state, ice, and gaseous state . Water also exists in a...

, electricity
Electricity
Electricity is a general term encompassing a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning, static electricity, and the flow of electrical current in an electrical wire...

, natural gas
Natural gas
Natural gas is a naturally occurring gas mixture consisting primarily of methane, typically with 0–20% higher hydrocarbons . It is found associated with other hydrocarbon fuel, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is an important fuel source and a major feedstock for fertilizers.Most natural...

, petroleum
Petroleum
Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...

, fiber optic lines
Optical fiber
An optical fiber is a flexible, transparent fiber made of a pure glass not much wider than a human hair. It functions as a waveguide, or "light pipe", to transmit light between the two ends of the fiber. The field of applied science and engineering concerned with the design and application of...

, and other telecommunications services. The network would have been funded by private investors and built and expanded as demand warrants.

In 2009, TxDOT decided to phase out the all-in-one corridor concept in favor of developing separate rights-of-way for road, rail, and other infrastructure using more traditional corridor widths for those modes. In 2010, official decision of "no action" was issued by the Federal Highway Administration, formally ending the project. The action eliminated the study area and canceled the agreement between TxDOT and Cintra
Cintra
Cintra, S.A. is one of the largest private developers of transport infrastructure in the world. Its assets are fundamentally toll roads and car parks, in which it has a total investment of €16billion...

-Zachry
Zachry Construction Corporation
Zachry Construction Corporation was a construction company headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, founded in 1924 by H. Bartell Zachry. In 2008, this entity was split into two distinct companies, Zachry Corporation and Zachry Holdings, Inc....

.

In 2011, the Texas Legislature formally canceled the Trans-Texas Corridor as the invasive nature of the project was revealed.

Network

The TTC was hoped to be a multi-use, state-wide system that would have included new and existing highways, railways, and utility rights-of-way. According to the Houston Chronicle
Houston Chronicle
The Houston Chronicle is the largest daily newspaper in Texas, USA, headquartered in the Houston Chronicle Building in Downtown Houston. , it is the ninth-largest newspaper by circulation in the United States...

, on January 6, 2009, "In response to public outcry, the ambitious proposal to create the Trans-Texas Corridor network has been dropped and will be replaced with a plan to carry out road projects at an incremental, modest pace".

The network was proposed to include separate lanes for passenger and truck traffic, freight and high-speed commuter railways, and infrastructure for utilities, including water
Water
Water is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H2O. A water molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by covalent bonds. Water is a liquid at ambient conditions, but it often co-exists on Earth with its solid state, ice, and gaseous state . Water also exists in a...

, oil
Oil
An oil is any substance that is liquid at ambient temperatures and does not mix with water but may mix with other oils and organic solvents. This general definition includes vegetable oils, volatile essential oils, petrochemical oils, and synthetic oils....

, and gas
Natural gas
Natural gas is a naturally occurring gas mixture consisting primarily of methane, typically with 0–20% higher hydrocarbons . It is found associated with other hydrocarbon fuel, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is an important fuel source and a major feedstock for fertilizers.Most natural...

 pipelines; electricity
Electricity
Electricity is a general term encompassing a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning, static electricity, and the flow of electrical current in an electrical wire...

; along with broadband
Broadband
The term broadband refers to a telecommunications signal or device of greater bandwidth, in some sense, than another standard or usual signal or device . Different criteria for "broad" have been applied in different contexts and at different times...

 and other telecommunications services. Although the model corridor design incorporates all of these elements running in parallel within a shared right-of-way, more recent plans suggested that existing rail and road corridors could be used for some components of the TTC. The model corridor design also represented the ultimate build-out of a corridor section, which would not have been realized for decades, if at all, as corridor segments and components were planned to be built based on traffic demand.

The Texas Department of Transportation
Texas Department of Transportation
The Texas Department of Transportation is a governmental agency in the U.S. state of Texas. Its stated mission is to "work cooperatively to provide safe, effective and efficient movement of people and goods" throughout the state...

 (TxDOT) attempted to provide oversight for planning, construction, and maintenance while day-to-day operations would have been performed by private companies. In March 2005, TxDOT and Cintra
Cintra
Cintra, S.A. is one of the largest private developers of transport infrastructure in the world. Its assets are fundamentally toll roads and car parks, in which it has a total investment of €16billion...

-Zachry
Zachry Construction Corporation
Zachry Construction Corporation was a construction company headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, founded in 1924 by H. Bartell Zachry. In 2008, this entity was split into two distinct companies, Zachry Corporation and Zachry Holdings, Inc....

 signed a comprehensive development agreement which authorized $3.5 million of planning for TTC-35. This agreement did not designate the alignment, authorize construction, set toll rates or who collects them, and did not eliminate competition for future services. There were no contracts awarded to develop or finance any other corridor.

Corridors

There were two initial trans-Texas corridors under consideration: One would have paralleled Interstate 35 (I-35), from Gainesville
Gainesville, Texas
Gainesville is a city in and the county seat of Cooke County, Texas, United States. The population was 15,538 at the 2000 census.-History:...

 to Laredo
Laredo, Texas
Laredo is the county seat of Webb County, Texas, United States, located on the north bank of the Rio Grande in South Texas, across from Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico. According to the 2010 census, the city population was 236,091 making it the 3rd largest on the United States-Mexican border,...

 and passing the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, Austin
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...

 and San Antonio
San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio is the seventh-largest city in the United States of America and the second-largest city within the state of Texas, with a population of 1.33 million. Located in the American Southwest and the south–central part of Texas, the city serves as the seat of Bexar County. In 2011,...

. The other would have been an extension of the proposed I-69 corridor, generally following US 59, from Texarkana
Texarkana, Texas
Texarkana is a city in Bowie County, Texas, United States. It effectively functions as one half of a city which crosses a state line — the other half, the city of Texarkana, Arkansas, lies on the other side of State Line Avenue...

 past Houston
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...

 to either Laredo or the Rio Grande Valley
Rio Grande Valley
The Rio Grande Valley or the Lower Rio Grande Valley, informally called The Valley, is an area located in the southernmost tip of South Texas...

. Both of these corridors have seen large increases in freight traffic demand over the past two decades due to increased trade with Mexico.

Two additional high priority potential corridors would have paralleled Interstate 45 from Dallas to Houston and Interstate 10 from El Paso
El Paso, Texas
El Paso, is a city in and the county seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States, and lies in far West Texas. In the 2010 census, the city had a population of 649,121. It is the sixth largest city in Texas and the 19th largest city in the United States...

 to Orange
Orange, Texas
Orange is a city in Orange County, Texas, United States. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 18,643. It is the county seat of Orange County, and is the easternmost city in Texas. Located on the Sabine River at the border with Louisiana, it is part of the Beaumont–Port Arthur...

.

TTC-35

Cintra
Cintra
Cintra, S.A. is one of the largest private developers of transport infrastructure in the world. Its assets are fundamentally toll roads and car parks, in which it has a total investment of €16billion...

-Zachry
Zachry Construction Corporation
Zachry Construction Corporation was a construction company headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, founded in 1924 by H. Bartell Zachry. In 2008, this entity was split into two distinct companies, Zachry Corporation and Zachry Holdings, Inc....

, a partnership between Spanish-based toll-road developer/operator Cintra and Texas-based Zachry Construction, was awarded a $3.5 million contract to help plan the entire TTC-35 route in March 2005. The study area for Trans-Texas Corridor-35 (TTC-35) generally followed Interstate 35 from Laredo to the Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...

 border. The environmental study for the project proceeded in two tiers: a first tier that refined the study area to a 10 miles (16.1 km) wide study corridor and a second tier that selected particular alignments for the various corridor components; where all corridor components (rail, highway, and utilities) were planned to be built adjacent to one another, this corridor would have been approximately 1200 feet (365.8 m) wide.

The TTC-35 Tier 1 draft environmental impact statement
Environmental impact statement
An environmental impact statement , under United States environmental law, is a document required by the National Environmental Policy Act for certain actions "significantly affecting the quality of the human environment". An EIS is a tool for decision making...

 (EIS) was published in April 2006. The final EIS was expected originally to be submitted to the Federal Highway Administration
Federal Highway Administration
The Federal Highway Administration is a division of the United States Department of Transportation that specializes in highway transportation. The agency's major activities are grouped into two "programs," the Federal-aid Highway Program and the Federal Lands Highway Program...

 in 2007; , preparation of the final EIS was listed as "ongoing."

The draft EIS included 12 different study corridor alternatives by choosing among four variations along the route. The first variation, from Laredo to southeast of San Antonio, would have included either the current I-35 alignment until curving off to the east at a point south of San Antonio or would have followed a more direct route to the east. The study area for all alternatives continued northeast, paralleling I-35. The second variation would have either passed just to the east of the municipal boundaries along I-35 from Austin to Temple
Temple, Texas
Temple is a city in Bell County, Texas, United States. Located near the county seat of Belton, Temple lies in the region referred to as Central Texas. Located off Interstate 35, Temple is 65 miles north of Austin and 34 miles south of Waco. In the 2010 Census, Temple's population was 66,102, an...

 or further east. The third variation would have passed either to the west of Fort Worth or east of Dallas. The fourth variation was dependent on the eastern third variation and would have either rejoined the western third variation near the Oklahoma border or would have ended at the Oklahoma border near U.S. Highway 75. The draft EIS designated a recommended preferred alternative corridor running to the east of I-35 and I-35E from near Gainesville
Gainesville, Texas
Gainesville is a city in and the county seat of Cooke County, Texas, United States. The population was 15,538 at the 2000 census.-History:...

 to south of San Antonio
San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio is the seventh-largest city in the United States of America and the second-largest city within the state of Texas, with a population of 1.33 million. Located in the American Southwest and the south–central part of Texas, the city serves as the seat of Bexar County. In 2011,...

, where the corridor would join I-35 to run south to Laredo.

On October 7, 2009, TxDOT officials announced that the department would recommend the "No Action Alternative", which effectively ended the efforts to develop the Interstate 35 corridor through the TTC concept.

SH 130

State Highway 130 is a component of the Central Texas Turnpike System, much of which was thought likely to be incorporated into TTC-35. Segments 1-4 of SH 130 were built by Lone Star Infrastructure
Lone Star Infrastructure
Lone Star Infrastructure is a consortium of major highway construction contractors and civil engineering firms that was awarded a Comprehensive Development Agreement by the Texas Department of Transportation to design and build State Highway 130....

 in the Austin
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...

 metropolitan area as an eastern relief route for Interstate 35.

On June 28, 2006, Cintra-Zachry reached a $1.3 billion agreement with the state to build segments 5 and 6 of SH 130, which could have represented the alignment of TTC-35's highway component between Interstate 10 at Seguin
Seguin, Texas
Seguin is a city in Guadalupe County, Texas, in the United States. It is part of the San Antonio-New Braunfels Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 22,011; the July 1, 2009 Census estimate, however, showed the population had increased to 26,842...

 east of San Antonio
San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio is the seventh-largest city in the United States of America and the second-largest city within the state of Texas, with a population of 1.33 million. Located in the American Southwest and the south–central part of Texas, the city serves as the seat of Bexar County. In 2011,...

 and U.S. Highway 79 near Taylor, Texas
Taylor, Texas
Taylor is a city in Williamson County, Texas, United States. The population was 13,575 at the 2000 census; it was 15,191 in the 2010 census estimate. Taylors largest employers include the Electric Reliability Council of Texas , Durcon Inc, and the T. Don Hutto Residential Center, an immigration...

. According to the "Facility Plan of Finance," $412 million of financing for the project would be a federally-guaranteed loan under the Transportation Infrastructure Financing and Innovation Act, while the remaining financing would be from equity put forward by Cintra-Zachry and bank loans from private lenders. Per the agreement, TxDOT would receive between 4.65% and 50% of toll revenues depending on the performance of the facility, with a smaller share due to TxDOT if TxDOT does not authorize posting of daytime speed limits of 80 mph (128.7 km/h) or higher along the route.

The Cintra-Zachry Preliminary Financial Plan showed the expected toll revenue to be collected for Segment 5 and 6 at $14.9 billion over 50 years. The Preliminary Financial Plan for Segment 5 and 6 also showed $12.4 billion in earnings before taxes for the developer.

I-69/TTC

The second priority corridor for development was the Interstate 69 extension through Texas, which would have roughly followed the route of US 59 from Laredo via Houston
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...

 to Carthage
Carthage, Texas
Carthage is a city in Panola County, Texas, United States. The population was 6,664 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Panola County, and is situated in East Texas near the Louisiana state line.-Geography:...

; there, the national I-69 corridor would have continued northeast into Louisiana and a spur route north to Texarkana
Texarkana, Texas
Texarkana is a city in Bowie County, Texas, United States. It effectively functions as one half of a city which crosses a state line — the other half, the city of Texarkana, Arkansas, lies on the other side of State Line Avenue...

 would have continued along US 59 to Interstate 30. The original national plan for I-69 also included two spur routes to the Rio Grande Valley
Rio Grande Valley
The Rio Grande Valley or the Lower Rio Grande Valley, informally called The Valley, is an area located in the southernmost tip of South Texas...

 following US 281 and US 77; Texas was also studying a connection between the I-69 corridor near Laredo and Corpus Christi
Corpus Christi, Texas
Corpus Christi is a coastal city in the South Texas region of the U.S. state of Texas. The county seat of Nueces County, it also extends into Aransas, Kleberg, and San Patricio counties. The MSA population in 2008 was 416,376. The population was 305,215 at the 2010 census making it the...

 known as the "Port to Port Corridor". South Texas officials have pointed out that the Rio Grande Valley is the largest metropolitan area to not have an Interstate Highway system.

Texas' portion of I-69 was originally planned to be developed as a traditional Interstate highway (with a mixed-use freeway component only), as it is being developed in other states, but was rolled into the Trans Texas Corridor concept soon after the latter's announcement due to their substantial overlap in purpose and scope. However, on June 11, 2008, TxDOT announced they planned to limit further study of I-69 to existing highway corridors–U.S. 59, U.S. 77, U.S. 281, U.S. 84, and SH 44–outside transition zones in the lower Rio Grande Valley, Laredo, Houston, and Texarkana. TxDOT also announced it was reverting to building I-69 as a standard 4-lane freeway instead of a multi-modal corridor as previously envisioned under the Trans-Texas Corridor concept. The latest plan called for adding a second carriageway
Carriageway
A carriageway consists of a width of road on which a vehicle is not restricted by any physical barriers or separation to move laterally...

 and eliminating at-grade intersections along US-59 and US-77 in rural areas, with tolled bypasses around major cities and towns along the I-69 route.

According to the Deep East Texas Council of Governments, I-69 is a "future NAFTA Superhighway
NAFTA superhighway
The NAFTA superhighway is a term sometimes used to refer to certain existing and proposed highways. The beliefs associated with this appellation have been characterized as a part of theories of a conspiracy to undermine U.S...

". It will enter the U.S. from the Mexican state of Tamaulipas
Tamaulipas
Tamaulipas officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Tamaulipas is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 43 municipalities and its capital city is Ciudad Victoria. The capital city was named after Guadalupe Victoria, the...

.

Other potential corridors

Texas officials identified several other possible TTC corridors in the long-range plan. Interstate 10 through the southern part of the state, Interstate 20 from east of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex to I-10 near Midland
Midland, Texas
Midland is a city in and the county seat of Midland County, Texas, United States, on the Southern Plains of the state's western area. A small portion of the city extends into Martin County. As of 2010, the population of Midland was 111,147. It is the principal city of the Midland, Texas...

, along an extended Interstate 27 through western Texas, and a new terrain corridor along the northern Texas border paralleling sections of Interstate 30  from the Arkansas
Arkansas
Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...

 line at Texarkana
Texarkana, Texas
Texarkana is a city in Bowie County, Texas, United States. It effectively functions as one half of a city which crosses a state line — the other half, the city of Texarkana, Arkansas, lies on the other side of State Line Avenue...

 to Fort Worth
Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth is the 16th-largest city in the United States of America and the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas. Located in North Central Texas, just southeast of the Texas Panhandle, the city is a cultural gateway into the American West and covers nearly in Tarrant, Parker, Denton, and...

, US-287 from Fort Worth to Amarillo
Amarillo, Texas
Amarillo is the 14th-largest city, by population, in the state of Texas, the largest in the Texas Panhandle, and the seat of Potter County. A portion of the city extends into Randall County. The population was 190,695 at the 2010 census...

, and Interstate 40 from Amarillo to New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...

.

As alternatives to California seaports

One component of TTC-69 could have been part of a freight corridor that stretched from ports on the Pacific coast of Mexico to the Great Lakes
Great Lakes
The Great Lakes are a collection of freshwater lakes located in northeastern North America, on the Canada – United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total surface, coming in second by volume...

. Depending on the level of traffic on that route, opponents argued that it would draw shipping traffic away from U.S. ports in California (Los Angeles and Long Beach) in favor of Mexican seaports.

Criticism

American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 author and conservative
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...

 activist Jerome Corsi
Jerome Corsi
Jerome Robert Corsi is an American author, political commentator and conspiracy theorist best known for his two New York Times bestselling books: The Obama Nation and Unfit for Command...

 vehemently opposed the Corridor and wrote a book called The Late Great USA, the coming merger with Mexico and Canada.
In 2002, the TTC was estimated to cost between US$
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....

145.2 billion to $183.5 billion to complete the entire 4000 miles (6,437.4 km) network. Some criticisms have focused on the enormous width of the corridors. The planned system, if built out to its fullest extent, could have required about 584000 acres (2,363.4 km²) of land to be purchased or acquired through the state's assertion of eminent domain
Eminent domain
Eminent domain , compulsory purchase , resumption/compulsory acquisition , or expropriation is an action of the state to seize a citizen's private property, expropriate property, or seize a citizen's rights in property with due monetary compensation, but without the owner's consent...

. Environmentalists
Environmentalism
Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements...

 were concerned about the effects of such wide corridors and private land owners have expressed concerns about property rights.
Opponents also alleged that noise from the TTC would be of such a high volume that it would render the area within one mile (1.6 km) of the corridor uninhabitable by humans, at least during periods of peak traffic on all components of the corridor (freight and passenger rail, truck lanes, and passenger lanes) if they are colocated and built to full capacity.

According to TxDOT documents released in June 2002, "Governor Rick Perry wrote Transportation Commission Chairman John W. Johnson on January 30, 2002 to outline his vision for the Trans Texas Corridor. The governor asked the three-member commission to assemble the Texas Department of Transportation’s top talent to create and deliver a Trans Texas Corridor implementation plan in 90 days."

In spite of public complaints–and both the 2006 platforms of the Texas Republican and Democratic parties opposing the plan–Governor Rick Perry
Rick Perry
James Richard "Rick" Perry is the 47th and current Governor of Texas. A Republican, Perry was elected Lieutenant Governor of Texas in 1998 and assumed the governorship in December 2000 when then-governor George W. Bush resigned to become President of the United States. Perry was elected to full...

 continued to support the TTC.

The TTC had the strong support of the Perry-appointed five-member Texas Transportation Commission, which was headed by the governor's close friend and former state legislative colleague, Ric Williamson
Ric Williamson
Richard F. Williamson was the chairman of the Texas Transportation Commission and a former Democrat-turned-Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives...

, until Williamson's sudden death from a heart attack on December 30, 2007. It was also supported by State Representative Mike Krusee
Mike Krusee
Michael J. “Mike” Krusee is the departing Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives from District 52, based about Round Rock in Williamson County...

 of Williamson County
Williamson County, Texas
Williamson County is a county located on both the Edwards Plateau to the west, consisting of rocky terrain and hills, and Blackland Prairies in the east consising of rich, fertile farming land, The two areas are roughly bisected by Interstate 35...

, who was the chairman of the House Transportation Committee.

In the 2010 gubernatorial elections, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson ran several attack advertisements regarding the TTC as Perry's attempts to expand government and take land from the average Texan. Ultimately, the advertisements did not have a great effect as Hutchinson bowed out following her loss in the Republican primary.

Financing

To help pay for building the roads and rails, the highways would have been partially financed through private investment. The investors would have then operated the highways as toll road
Toll road
A toll road is a privately or publicly built road for which a driver pays a toll for use. Structures for which tolls are charged include toll bridges and toll tunnels. Non-toll roads are financed using other sources of revenue, most typically fuel tax or general tax funds...

s.

Based on The Cintra-Zachry Preliminary Financial Plan (TTC-35 Development Agreement, Exhibit C) funding the TTC-35 Corridor awarded to Cintra-Zachry showed that 22%(1) of the initial infrastructure costs were shown to be funded with equity provided by Cintra-Zachry. The other 78% was to be provided by bank loans or bonds arranged by Cintra-Zachry. Based on then-current federal regulations these bonds could have been tax-exempt. It was also noted in the financial plan that Cintra-Zachry expected to have 12% return on investment for their equity partners. The 12% return was after taxes, which would have been approximately equivalent to 16% before taxes. The plan called for paying off the bank loans and the bonds prior to retiring the equity as shown in cash flow diagrams of the Preliminary Financial Plan (TTC-35 Development Agreement, Exhibit C). With usual bond financing there is a 3:1 ratio between total fees collected and value of capital infrastructure built. With TTC-35 the ratio was in the order of magnitude of 13:1. So while TTC-35 committed to construct $8 billion in infrastructure Cintra-Zachry expected to collect $114 billion in toll revenues as shown in the preliminary plan. A report by the Texas State Auditor estimated the toll to be collected for TTC-35 to be $104 billion or more, confirming the order of magnitude of tolls collected.

See also

  • International Mid-Continent Trade Corridor
    International Mid-Continent Trade Corridor
    The International Mid-Continent Trade Corridor is a supercorridor linking highways in Mexico, the United States, and Canada. The North American SuperCorridor Coalition promotes and lobbies for further development of the corridor...

  • Interstate 69
  • North American SuperCorridor Coalition
    North American SuperCorridor Coalition
    150px|right|"NASCO project logo depicting the three associated countries' flag iconography as a singular element."The North America's Corridor Coalition is a non-profit organization that seeks to develop an international multi-modal transportation system along the International Mid-Continent Trade...


External links

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