Trans Texas Corridor Renamed, Not Dead

The Texas Department of Transportation announced on January 6 that the Trans Texas Corridor is dead. We don't think so. A familiar plant along Texas roadways is the prickly pear cactus. It sports the most beautiful flowers when in bloom, but the most wicked thorns imaginable. In periods of drought, cattle often eat the fruit, seeking water stored there, only to suffer the miseries of having the awful thorns stuck in their lips and tongues, becoming costly to the owners. The plants' blooms are beautiful, but they are still cactus.

So it goes with the Trans Texas Corridor (TTC), the first leg of a planned superhighway meant to bring Chinese goods into the United States via Mexican ports — bypassing more expensive American ports and workers. (See "Express Route to Poverty" in our October 15, 2007 issue.) On January 6, Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) Executive Director Amadeo Saenz issued a statement for Governor Rick Perry's beleaguered transportation project and declared the TTC "dead." After facing a very hostile public when the last legislative session failed to kill the project, TxDOT offered a revamped vision for the TTC, including a new proposal entitled Innovative Connectivity in Texas/Vision 2009, outlining updated guidelines for development of the TTC. The document describes the evolution of the original TTC plan, and how the "new" plan will be better — but it simply promises new blooms among the dangerous thorns of the original TTC plan.

[...]

Texas/Vision 2009 is really a new name for an old nemesis. TxDOT has merely decided to put the original name to rest. According to the Dallas Morning News, Governor Perry offhandedly confirmed this from Iraq on the day of the announcement, "The fact of the matter is that we don't really care what name they attach to building infrastructure in the state of Texas. The key is that we have to go forward and build the infrastructure so that the state of Texas and our economy can continue to grow." He noted that the most important part of the plan to him, its reliance on private capital to help finance toll roads, remains a key priority and an approach he expects will be continued: "We'll continue to use all the tools available to build the infrastructure."
_______________________________________________________________