AUSTIN – The Texas Department of Transportation has ended the
Trans-Texas Corridor, Gov. Rick Perry's embattled plan to build a
toll-road network across the state.
The agency said earlier this
year it was scaling down the project and dropping the name "Trans-Texas
Corridor." Now, transportation officials say it's dead. Transportation
Commissioner Bill Meadows told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram of the decision in a report posted online Tuesday.
The news comes a day after Perry's Republican primary opponent, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison,
secured the coveted endorsement of the powerful Texas Farm Bureau – a
vocal opponent of the corridor and a group that has been at odds with
Perry over eminent domain and private property rights. Farmers and
ranchers did not like the corridor plan because of the private land it
threatened to take.
Today, transportation officials are expected
to announce they have decided against building the TTC-35, a key part
of the corridor that was to parallel Interstate 35 between Dallas-Fort
Worth and San Antonio. The development contract with a private company
is being terminated.
"The reason that's being given for the no-build option is that people don't want it," Meadows said.
The
Trans-Texas Corridor was originally pitched as an innovative way to pay
for congestion improvements and reduce truck and train gridlock in
metro areas. But opponents seized on several components of the plan,
including the amount of private property necessary to build the roads,
the impact of tolls on Texans' pocketbooks and the infusion of foreign
influence in toll investment.
In January, state officials
announced the Trans-Texas Corridor was essentially dead, in large part
because of public outrage and a backlash from state legislators who
felt the Transportation Department had overstepped its bounds.
Planning
for the corridor had nevertheless quietly continued. A consortium led
by Cintra of Madrid, and Zachry Construction of San Antonio had
prepared a master plan, and a detailed environmental study of the
TTC-35 corridor was under way.
Meadows said that was all ending.
"Formally, absolutely, TTC-35 is dead. We are canceling the contract with Zachry," he said.
The Associated Press