Texas Farmers Furious Over Superhighway

[babylonsister]

Found this here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=1726563


Texas Farmers Furious Over Superhighway


http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2006/07/20/294741-texas-f...


Leroy Walters has survived many a threat on the farm that has been in his family for 120 years — droughts, hailstorms, tornadoes, grasshopper attacks.

But now he sees a manmade danger on the horizon: a colossal, 600-mile superhighway that will plow clear across the state of Texas, perhaps cutting through Walters' sorghum and corn fields, obliterating the family's houses and robbing his grandchildren of their land.

-snip-

That kind of fear and anger among farmers and other landowners across the Texas countryside could become a political problem for Republican Gov. Rick Perry as he runs for re-election in November.

It was Perry who proposed the Trans Texas Corridor in 2002, envisioning a combined toll road and rail system that would whisk traffic along a megahighway stretching from the Oklahoma line to Mexico.

The Oklahoma-to-Mexico stretch would be just the first link in a 4,000-mile, $184 billion network. The corridors would be up to a quarter-mile across, consisting of as many as six lanes for cars and four for trucks, plus railroad tracks, oil and gas pipelines, water and other utility lines, and broadband cables.

-snip-

Cintra-Zachry is paying $7.2 billion to develop the first segment. For that, it will get to operate the road and collect tolls for years to come. It is part of a growing privatization trend in the United States.

A week ago, Strayhorn picked up a $6,500 campaign donation and endorsement from the Blackland Coalition, a group of anti-corridor farmers who work the rich black soil of central Texas.
-snip-

[sonias]

1. Well they can join us in our opposition - Here's DVO on TTC

http://dvo4txag.blogspot.com/
NO to the Trans-Texas Corridor!

NO to greed! NO to cronyism! NO to land grabs! NO to corruption! NO to arrogance! NO to double taxation! NO to foreign control of Texas highways! NO to Rick Perry's tolling plans! NO TO THE TRANS-TEXAS CORRIDOR!

"As for the Trans Texas Corridor... Van Os said he will do everything he can to block the project, which he called an 'exercise of incredible arrogance' and an 'attempt to take away farmers' land so a private corporation can collect tolls.'" Wise County Messenger, July 16, 2006

Fellow Citizens of Texas, we can stop the Trans Texas Corridor. We have to pool our votes on November 7 and fire the out-of-touch, silk-stocking crowd in Austin who think public office is an invitation for hogs to come to the trough.

I'm Texas-born and Texas-bred and I love my State. I'm not going to put up with a bunch of arrogant politicians and bureaucrats tearing up hundreds of thousands of acres of good Texas farmland so they can cater to the greed of fat cats who gave huge campaign contributions.

The Attorney General of Texas is supposed to be the People's Lawyer but the incumbent, Greg Abbott, is a partisan Rick Perry mouthpiece. He won't lift a finger to save the people of Texas from the Trans Texas Monstrosity but I will.

As Attorney General I'll fight this land grab 'til hell freezes over, then I'll fight it on the ice. Text

They should be giving David their money not c4n3p.

Sonia

[johncoby2]

2. They reap what they sow.

They wanted Perry. They got Perry.

Live with it, but not where you currently live.

This issue CANNOT be solved with hearings. They need to get out and vote.

[Sailing]

3. What's funny is that...

with rising oil prices, railroads will become far more efficient, costwise, to move stuff, than trucking. They will build this superhighway and then it will become an huge unused waste of land and money. Let's face it, trucking grew only because oil was cheap. That won't be the case in the years to come. I guess NAFTA has to continue its reign of destruction.

[StellaBlue]

4. This stuck out to me

"The corridors would be up to a quarter-mile across, consisting of as many as six lanes for cars and four for trucks, plus railroad tracks, oil and gas pipelines, water and other utility lines, and broadband cables."

Sounds like a great terrorist magnet. :shrug:

[Sailing]

5. Ooo, good point

considering the amount of commerce that would go through there.

OK, so now we need 10 ft high concrete walls along the entire stretch, barbed wire, video surveillance, etc, etc. Hmm, costs are going up. LOL

[babylonsister]

6. They're obviously planning for population expansion.

But at what cost?