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Texas wants future highways to be 'supersized'
Texas is planning to use private investment to give the State a new core network of "super highways" that will be run entirely on tolls.
An international consortium led by the Madrid-based Cintra Group has just started contract negotiations with the Texas Transportation Commission for the first phase of what could be a $US 175 billion project spanning 50 years.
"This is an historic change in the way major transportation assets are built and paid for in Texas," said Ric Williamson, the commission's chairman. "Private investment, not taxpayer dollars, will be where we look first for funding."
An earlier media statement from the Texas Department of Transport (TxDOT) said the aim of the negotiations was to set the framework to plan, develop, design, construct, finance, maintain and operate the new infrastructure.
The vision is to create a network of super highways - the so-called Trans-Texas Corridor - that will cris-cross the State and provide 6400 kms of segregated lanes for trucks and hazardous cargoes as well as provision for passenger vehicles, railways and utility - including pipelines for oil, gas, water and communication cables.
The main reason for the huge project is Texas' own growth rate - and the fast growing road traffic between the US and Mexico generated by Nafta - the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Existing highways are already congested and the State Government wants to build the corridor to both remove Nafta trucks from existing state highways - and ensure that growing cargoes of hazardous materials bypass the main urban centres.
But the project is not without critics - both from environmentalists and from farmers who stand to lose large tracts of land. Some cities and towns are also concerned that the corridor bypasses will cost them business.
The initial proposal from Cintra is for an investment of $US 6 billion to build a 450km toll road between Dallas and San Antonio and have it operating by 2010.
No timetable has yet been published for other sections of the Trans-Texas Corridor but the Department has said it will incorporate existing roads as well as provide new highways.
Each super highway will be about half-a-kilometre wide with six separate lanes for passenger vehicles, four dedicated lanes for trucks, two high-speed railway tracks, two freight rail lines, and two commuter rail lines. There will also be a "dedicated utility zone".
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