Trans-Texas Corridor
Fact Sheet
from www.governor.state.tx.us
The Trans-Texas Corridor is new way to move commuters and cargo,
remove hazardous cargo from city centers, reduce air pollution, and
expand economic opportunity. It is a major project that ensures needed
infrastructure gets built sooner and cheaper. Like any major
infrastructure project, it generates a lot of questions, and even
criticism, that warrant a response. This fact sheet addresses some of
the major arguments against the Corridor with the facts.
Contention: The Corridor is too big.
Reality: The Corridor will be developed over the next 50
years as our transportation needs continue to increase. Because it is
financed by a market-based toll system, no segment will be built until
the need arises. I-35, the most congested Corridor in the state with
immediate needs, will be built first.
Contention: The Corridor costs too much.
Reality: The Corridor will be financed by tolls to build
additional infrastructure without a tax increase. Unlike gas taxes
which drivers are forced to pay, whether to pay a toll is a choice
that every driver makes. For those that don't want to pay tolls, the
existing interstate system will continue to be available
toll-free. The first segment of the Corridor, as agreed to in a
comprehensive development agreement with Cintra-Zachry, will require
no tax dollars up front for construction, while ensuring a $7.2 billion
private investment in the Corridor. And, the purchase of rights-of-way
will be much cheaper than the corresponding number of lane miles added
to the existing infrastructure system because the price of real estate
adjacent to that system is much more expensive.
Contention: The Corridor will harm schools and local
governments by removing taxable land from the tax roles.
Reality: Under any scenario, the state will need to purchase
land to build more roads over the next 50 years. Considerably less tax
value will be removed by buying undeveloped agriculture-exempt land to
build the Corridor than expanding our current system by purchasing the
expensive retail and commercial development adjacent to our existing
roads. Additionally, state law requires that any development on
Corridor land, such as a gas station, utility or railroad is subject to
local property taxes, even though it is on state right-of-way.
Contention: The state will use eminent domain to take
private land.
Reality: Under any scenario, the state will need to purchase
land to build more roads over the next 50 years. The 5th amendment of
the U.S. Constitution, and state law, require the state to pay fair
market value when purchasing private land for public purposes. If a
landowner doesn't believe an offer to purchase is fair, the law
provides they can appeal to special commissioners, and even a district
judge, who will decide what is fair.
Several other protections exist in state law to ensure that
landowners are fairly compensated. Landowners may retain the
development rights of any property purchased by the state, and state
law also allows landowners to accept an equity interest in the road
rather than a cash payment for their land. Landowners whose land is
severed by the Corridor are required to receive damages caused by the
severance, including inaccessibility.
Contention: Huge amounts of private land will be taken by
the state through eminent domain for superhighway, train, and utility
rights-of-way.
Reality: Over the next 50 years, the state, railroads, and
utilities, will all need to purchase private land for expansion. By
using the Trans Texas Corridor to combine many of these rights of way
into one corridor, less total land will be needed. The Corridor will
ultimately result in the purchase of less public land than would
otherwise be needed to keep up with growth, and all the needed land
will be purchased during one process, instead of on a piece-meal basis,
as we need to build out infrastructure one project at a time.
Contention: The private companies helping to build the
Corridor will have the ability to condemn private property.
Reality: This is false. Only the government and common
carriers have the power of condemnation.
Contention: The Corridor will allow the state to condemn
land and build restaurants, hotels, golf courses, and chemical
refineries.
Reality: State law only allows the condemnation of Corridor
land for transportation purposes. Condemnation for any other purpose
is illegal.
Contention: Roads will be cut off by the Corridor, making it
harder to move around.
Reality: Just as when the interstate system was built, roads
will be connected across the Corridor. State law requires the Texas
Department of Transportation (TxDOT) to restore any road it alters to
accommodate the construction of the Corridor.
Contention: The federal government has agreed to allow the
first segment of the Corridor proposal to proceed before environmental
studies are even completed.
Reality: This is false. Not one inch of the Corridor can be
built before a full environmental study is completed and signed off on
by the Federal Highway Administration.
Contention: Land will be bisected with as much as a ½-mile
wide path forcing landowners to drive many miles to reach the other
sides, as they will have limited access.
Reality: A fully built-out Corridor is projected to be
roughly twice the width of the interstate highway system, not
½ a mile wide, and most Corridor segments will be even less than
that. As with other highways, TxDOT will work hard to make sure that
the routes for the Corridor are between properties, rather than
bisecting them. When a property is bisected, TxDOT will do everything
it can to minimize the impact on the property owner, including
reconnecting severed roads, providing crossovers, and constructing
limited access roads. Where appropriate, wildlife and livestock
crossings may be included. As mentioned previously, state law requires
that landowners who suffer inaccessibility because of the Corridor, be
paid damages.
Contention: A foreign company will own Texas land if chosen
to help build the Corridor.
Reality: The land and roadway of the Corridor will be owned
by the State of Texas, just as with any other state road. The state
has an obligation to make the best deal it can for Corridor financing
regardless of the address of the bidders, and the fact is, private
investors are willing to invest billions of dollars in Texas
infrastructure that will create thousands of jobs for Texans.
Contention: When acquiring land for the Corridor, TxDOT will
get water and mineral rights.
Reality: When TxDOT purchases or condemns land for highways,
it does not buy the mineral rights, only the surface. State law
prohibits the pumping of groundwater on Corridor property except for
incidental on-site use.
Contention: The Corridor isn't needed. Rather than build new
parallel corridors, we should just expand our existing roads.
Reality: In developed areas, the cost of expanding our
interstate system is prohibitive. Just to add one extra lane in each
direction of I-35 would cost billions of tax dollars and decades of
construction. By building a new parallel tolled Corridor, we can build
more road, build it in a fraction of the time it would take to expand
I-35, build it for less money, build it with little or no tax dollars,
and allow for new rail and utility lines as our state continues to
grow. The state will continue to make necessary improvements and
expansions to I-35, but we can't count on that aging highway to meet
all of our future needs.
However, in the states' more rural areas it makes much more sense
to expand the existing roadway, rather than build a new parallel
corridor. In these areas, the lack of development adjacent to the
highway makes it more cost effective to purchase land next to the road
for additional lanes. Parallel corridors will not be needed in these
areas.
Contention: There is no public input into the Corridor
process.
Reality: To date, there have been over 700 public meetings
on the Corridor. Many more will take place over the next several
years. Keep up with the public hearing schedule and other Corridor
info at: www.keeptexasmoving.com
Contention: Corridor contracts are negotiated in secret.
Reality: The elements of the proposed Corridor have been
made public since its unveiling in 2002. The negotiation process by
nature requires private discussion, because proprietary information
must be protected in competitive situations. This is true in other
public negotiations, and certainly in the private sector. Corridor
documents, including proposals, may be viewed on the above website.
Contention: The Trans-Texas Corridor legislation included
several new kinds of condemnation authority to take private land.
Reality: The Trans-Texas Corridor legislation contained no
new condemnation authority. The same Constitutional and statutory
protections control eminent domain law. No property can be condemned
without an order by a state district judge, and the owner being paid
fair market value.
Contention: The Corridor will be restricted access that
won't allow vehicles to get on and off it.
Reality: The private investors in the Corridor want to
ensure they are repaid for their investment. The best way to do this
is to make the road as attractive as possible to drivers so that they
will pay to use it. The road must be easily accessible to drivers and
popular destinations, or drivers will not use the road, which means it
will tie in to our current infrastructure system at many points. A
transportation system with no access serves no purpose. There must be
access from the Corridor to small towns and rural areas.
The frequency and location of entrance and exit ramps will be
determined as a project is being designed. It is impossible to do that
level of design work now, because a route hasn't been selected
yet. However, state law requires the Corridor to intersect with all
interstate highways, U.S. Highways and state highways. It also
requires the state to work with local officials and study traffic
volume, circuity of travel for landowners, and access for emergency
vehicles when determining which farm-to-market roads, ranch-to-market
roads, county roads, and city arterials to connect to the Corridor.
Contention: A private company will control the toll rates in
the Corridor and can charge very high tolls to use it.
Reality: Because the Corridor will be parallel to our tax
funded roads, it must be competitively priced. If toll rates are set
too high, drivers will not use the Corridor and will simply use the
tax road. State law requires TxDOT to approve the methodology for
setting toll rates including toll increases, penalties for
non-payment, and any changes.
Contention: The Corridor is just a bigger interstate.
Reality: The Corridor plan will allow Texas to improve the
interstate concept with features like separate lanes for cars and
trucks, passenger rail between Texas cities, and 85 mph speed limits.
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