OOIDA Information Update - Texas Members
July 17, 2006

Texas truckers! The Texas Department of Transportation has begun a series of 54 public meetings to gather input about the Trans-Texas Corridor intermodal project. You are encouraged to attend or submit your comments to make sure your views are known on the project.

The corridor is the brainchild of Gov. Rick Perry. Plans call for a nearly one-quarter mile wide route that could include truck-only toll lanes, lanes for four wheelers, a rail system and utility lines to stretch across Texas from the Mexican border to Oklahoma. At least one watchdog group claims the completed project and its network of roadways could stretch up to 4,000 miles throughout the state.

The private team Cintra/Zachry is putting plans together for some of the mammoth project, which appears to lay the groundwork for an intercontinental route that would stretch to Canada. Cintra is one of the world's largest private-sector developers of transport infrastructure. It is headquartered in Madrid, Spain, with subsidiaries on three continents. Zachry Construction Corporation is based in San Antonio, TX.

The public meetings run through Aug. 10 and are scheduled in the proposed corridor areas, roughly defined as the Interstate 35 corridor and the Interstate 69 corridor.

Public-comment periods are open for both corridor phases. For a schedule of the meeting times and locations, click here.

To submit e-mail comments on the I-35 corridor, which are due by Aug. 21, click here.

To submit e-mail comments on the I-69 corridor, which are being accepted on an "ongoing basis" according to TxDOT, click here.