A Positive Look At TTC

[GadeRoss]

A POSITIVE LOOK AT TTC

Once known as the Trans Texas Corridor (TTC), this tollroad has been renamed

Perry's SuperCollider 2005

Taxpayers and residents in the state of Texas are debating an issue concerning the proposed construction of SuperCollider 2005 or Trans Texas Corridor (TTC) with the state governor and our state representatives.

Our legislature can't understand why residents aren't thrilled with this new tollroad proposal...after all, they are all as happy as a hog, belly deep in slop.

Although most residents of the state are not as educated or intellectual as our esteemed governor they have discovered a few minor problems with his newest SuperCollider project aka Trans Texas Corridor.

It seems that the SuperCollider will be built by a foreign company named Cintra, that will be getting the all of the proceeds from truck and car tolls, gas stations, motels, fast food joints, side roads, freight lines, electric companies, water companies, oil companies, bus lines, fiber optic companies, telephone companies, and signage. I'm sure that when they realize that people will need to stop and use the restrooms they will also receive the toll on pay toilets.

Because they weren't sure how this would be received by us hard-nosed Texans, our governor has agreed to let Cintra set a vehicle cap and if that number of vehicles doesn't use the road then our tax dollars pay the difference until they start making a profit and as many people as there are at this time that are opposed to this SuperCollider, it probably won't ever make a profit. But however it works out, for the next 70 years after the tollroad is built Cintra gets all the money. I heard they have hired a truck line just to haul their money from the SuperCollider to the port where they can ship it back to Spain.

In Texas, we believe everyone has a right to make a fair profit and our governor is no exception...in fact he has agreed to maintain this SuperCollider for the 70 years, so they don't have to worry about expensive maintenance. Since TXDOT has said they won't be building or maintaining any more roads for Texas anyway after this SuperCollider gets built, they will have plenty of free time.

Texans aren't going to begrudge these foreigners, (who have invaded a sovereign state) a little profit, but they are getting a little peevish about having their houses and barns bulldozed and their farms and ranches confiscated by the state. Seems like a small thing to get upset about but there are always a few people who will gripe about the smallest things. In fact, some of these unreasonable people are also whining about the way they are being compensated from the state. They think they should get cold hard cash for their land instead of getting a minuscule interest in this SuperCollider that won't pay a dime for about 30 years, if it pays then. Some folks just have no patience. There has been some talk of swapping land for this project for the land that the state confiscated a few years ago to build the 1st Super Collider project that went belly up before it was completed.

Personally, I think having the state divided up into tiny little separate pieces might be fun. It will be like living in the east where a state is not even as big as one of our counties. Just think how much fun it will be trying to figure out how to get from one section of Texas to the other when none of these sections will have any local access roads or on ramps. We could drive for days looking for an on ramp...like a perpetual treasure hunt. How exciting!

We have been told that our legislature has spent our state into bankruptcy and that we can't afford to build any more decent roads and we all feel bad for them...we know they did their best. Especially those poor, misunderstood representatives that voted for this Super Collider Project but couldn't understand it or didn't have time to read the bill. They shouldn't feel bad, we didn't elect them to read those boring bills and look out for the good of the residents...we elected them to party and socialize and hob nob with the elite. We never expected them to read and understand reams of legislation, lookout for the welfare of the Texans who elected them to office, or even to understand it. Most voters just go to the polls and close their eyes and vote...no one really cares whether the person running for office is one that you can depend on to represent their district's views and opinions...right?

My feeling is that this Super Collider is just misunderstood. It has some really good aspects, such as the fact that it will help get the pollution out of the cities and into rural Texas where it belongs.

It will cause the cost of our utilities, water, oil prices and freight costs to skyrocket and all the money circulating around has got to be better than just sitting in our bank accounts drawing interest or paying house payments, taxes, car payments or school tuition.

Because it will be fenced on both sides it will keep native wildlife it one section, with limited food supplies, isolated from other sections so they can imbreed and get smaller and punier until finally they get so small and weird that they don't eat much of anything anyway or just disappear completely. All that wildlife had way too much freedom anyway.

Water runoff from rains on this quarter mile of asphalt will form huge new gullys and washes where there were none before, thereby exposing miles of Texas lanscape we have never seen before.

Rural Texans will be exposed to the exciting sights and sounds of the cities as they are lulled into peaceful slumber each night by the sound of multiple 200mph trains whizzing by and motorists honking their horns and by loud motors and absent mufflers on 100,00 pound trucks from Mexico.

What an experience awaits us in the not so distant future! I can hardly wait to see if it is lighted. We won't have to stare up into the sky looking at tiny stars like we've always done, we can just look toward the horizon and see miles and miles of bright glaring headlights and enormous outdoor bulbs.

Some folks believe that runways for aircraft should be incorporated into this SuperCollider. By doing that, Cintra could have a monopoly on ALL of our modes of transportation, instead of just cars, trucks, rail, buses and trolley. Maybe our Legislature will add that to the next bill they pass at 2:00 in the morning.

It's hard to believe that some people object to the amount they will be charged by Cintra to drive over this futuristic monstrosity of a road. Estimates are that we will ONLY pay $120 dollars each way from Dallas to San Antonio... at least until the rates change and Cintra will decide when a rate increase is warranted, not the state. The rates double on a regular basis on the other tollroads Cintra has built so for the next year or so look what a bargain we are getting.

This new SuperCollider will also solve our problem with illegal aliens sneaking across hundreds of miles of Texas/Mexico border. Now they will be able to load up in an air conditioned trailer of an 18 wheeler or climb aboard one of the rail cars and arrive in Texas in style. Since it will become so convenient we might as well invite the Terrorists to enter the US the same way. Much easier access this way and it eliminates all that sneaking around and crawling through the rivers. We won't need our border patrol so we can fire all of them and save that money too. How convenient can you get? If this system works for Texas, aliens may just stop trying to cross the border in New Mexico and California and just ride the tollroad exclusively.

I have heard that some trucks might not want to use this fine SuperCollider, but our state legislature was on the ball and saw this one coming. They propose to ban all trucks, especially trucks carrying hazardous waste from any of the existing interstate roads. How insightful! That will FORCE them to use this huge tollroad. I don't understand why trucks would object to the toll charges as they will pass them on to the consumer anyway.

I can hardly wait for this SuperCollider to be built! Can you imagine? A quarter mile+ wide road that winds its way into every corner of the once pristine Texas landscape. Thousands of miles of massive power lines, oil storage tanks, lift stations power stations...all bordering a quarter mile wide asphalt roadway with traffic driving 90+ mph. Truly a Texas sight to behold.

It has been said for ages that "Everything is bigger in Texas" and this SuperCollider is the epitome of that. A huge slab of asphalt covering thousands of once productive acres of Texas, built especially for a few select Texas legislators who got campaign money from Cintra, designed to benefit a Spanish Company, Cintra for 70+ years. But wait...in less than 50 years this SuperCollider will be worn out and obsolete...

Never fear, by then we will have paved over Texas from one end to the other, from border to border and even though we won't be able to produce crops or livestock as we have in the past, we will always attract tourists who want to gaze out at our beautiful asphalt slabs and breathe in the exhaust of millions of non compliant vehicles from Mexico.

People of Texas should rise up and welcome Perry's SuperCollider 2005. This is called progress and we should welcome it with open arms. Too long has Texas been known as the state with the freedom of wide open spaces and stars shining bright in the unpolluted clear night sky. It's time we were known as the state that built futuristic roads 50 years before their time, confiscated land that Texans earned by their toil, sweat and hard earned cash and was on the cutting edge when it came to figuring out how to tax its residents into oblivion and bankrupt the state at the same time.

Good work governor and representatives, you managed to cover everything.

[kirbyaustex]

I love it Max!

[kjb434]

max?

[LTAWACS]

I warned you about republicans.

[kjb434]

I still hope you guys know that a facet of the TTC is a median with dual rails to be used for freight and passenger service.

This will eventuall link all major cities with rail service. The station would on the outskirts of the city like an Airport.

Just a thought.

Also, toll partnerships in Virginia and New Jersey were brainchilds of Democrats if you want to bring it down to the immature level of bickering about political parties. To me that is a non issue.

[RedScare]

Seems to me, they could just put in the rails and skip the rest.

Adding one extra lane each way on the major interstates between the cities will add all of the extra capacity we need for decades.

Houston, Dallas, Austin and San Antonio contain 13 or 14 million people, and outside the cities, 4 lanes (2 each way) of highway do a credible job of moving people around. 3 lanes would be all we need. This plan proposes adding TEN additional lanes to the 4 interstate lanes...a bit of overkill, doncha think?

[kirbyaustex]

I love it Max! is from an episode of The Simpsons when Homer changes his name to Max Power (he got it from a hairdryer). Marge doesn't like it, but Bart goes with it, and says "I love it Max!" It means basically that I agree.

The thing is, the rail portion will not happen. They will say that it is planned, but

it's not gonna happen. When it comes time to build, it'll get pushed back for this reason or that reason. Build the rail first, then we'll talk.

[pineda]

Very thought provoking indeed! Thanks for submitting this to the forum.

[kjb434]

Remeber the TTC is a phased concept. First phases wouldn't be wider than four lanes and a center median wide enough for dual rail. The rail won't be built yet though.

The ten lane cocept would occur for many years because of the obviouse reasons you've sited. There are active planes to six lane all interstates between major population centers. It is being built in phases as we speak.

[Kirzania]

I'm sure that when they realize that people will need to stop and use the restrooms they will also receive the toll on pay toilets.

Hold the phone. "Pay toilets?" Do they charge by the flush or by the square?

Once known as the Trans Texas Corridor (TTC), this tollroad has been renamed Perry's SuperCollider 2005

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Does anyone else see the humor in that name or is it just me? "SuperCollider 2005" I think I laughed for a good five minutes.

Either way, the TTC (I'll never call it anything else) is beneficial to someone like me, who travels to Houston from Lexington, KY every summer and has to avoid 59 Texarkana-Houston like the plague. (There's only so much you can order at a Dairy-Queen that consitutes as "food.") I can't wait for that leg of the TTC to finish up. I don't mind the extra 45 minutes going Texarkana-Dallas-Houston via 45, but a straight shot would be nice.

However, I agree with Gade; let's just put up a huge "Illegals - U.S. this Way -->" sign for the end/beginning of I-69 into Laredo/Brownsville to Mexico.

[sevfiv]

59 from houston to texarkana is quite awful...

but dairy queen ain't so bad! hehe

[RedScare]

You'd pay $120 just to avoid a Dairy Queen? And who said the TTC through Texarkana wouldn't have DQs all the way up it?

What pissed me off was the statement that if it doesn't make money, we pay the difference. What's the use of a toll road if the taxpayers pay for it anyway?

[gnu]

59 from houston to texarkana is quite awful...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I never had a problem with 59. It's divided highway most of the way.

Well....except the cops writing speeding tickets between Lufkin and Nacodoches.

[sevfiv]

the road is fine - the scenery just gets dull after a while...and for what seems like forever, imo

[Kirzania]

You'd pay $120 just to avoid a Dairy Queen? What pissed me off was the statement that if it doesn't make money, we pay the difference.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

:confused: Where is the $120 coming from? Have they posted how much the toll would be?

Hm. Well, I'm sure the pay toilets would really help. Ok, so $.50/sq and average 4 sq/person. So $2/person on average. I don't know about y'all, but figure you'll need to stop at least three times in a four hour stretch, so that's $6. And then figure at least 20,412 vehicles on a four-lane highway each day with at least two people per car: that's 40,824 so a total of $244,944. That's just the toilet paper and that's just for one rest area. Imagine the possibilities! As for me, I'll just bring a beer bottle or two.

I never had a problem with 59. [...]Well....except the cops writing speeding tickets between Lufkin and Nacodoches.

You mean going from 75 to 35 mph every "quaint Texas town" for 4 very long hours doesn't bother you?

[sevfiv]

Well, I'm sure the pay toilets would really help. Ok, so $.50/sq and average 4 sq/person. So $2/person on average. I don't know about y'all, but figure you'll need to stop at least three times in a four hour stretch, so that's $6. And then figure at least 20,412 vehicles on a four-lane highway each day with at least two people per car: that's 40,824 so a total of $244,944. That's just the toilet paper and that's just for one rest area. Imagine the possibilities! As for me, I'll just bring a beer bottle or two.

LOL

i'll be on the side of the road...

[kjb434]

Tolls will probably similar to the Florida Turnpike which is about $20 for the entire road (long drive).

The official rest areas will probably be just like the ones on the Florida Turnpike also. It will be a rest areas in the median or on the side that has a gas station, restraunts, FREE bathrooms, and maybe a gift shop. These facilities are like a mall food court on the inside and the businesses pay rent to the toll authority. This was done because on much of the Florida Turnpike there is absolutely nothing and there are very few exits. Sound familiar like the TTC. A separate government entity runs that turnpike kind of like HCTRA.

The TTC is only bold in the size of the concept and in its consolidation of many modes of transportation and utilities into a common right-of-way. The only reason it gets as much attention and problems now than the Florida Turnpike got is because of the groups that exists to oppose it.

Let me re-iterate. The TTC is not anything new in cocept. The newest thing is involving a private business but that is primarily to save money. Florida has relinquished much of the control of the Turnpike to private companies to manage with the toll authority having oversite. Sounds very familiar with the TTC.

Florida is making money and saving money by having some private business control it. The a large part of the revenue is from not Floridians using it such as trucks and tourist. The TTC will see much of the money from tolls come in from trucks which pay at least twice if not three times what a car would pay. The cost of paying this toll to transport companies will save them in the time by being able to drive steadily at 70-80mph without having to slow down.

[gnu]

You mean going from 75 to 35 mph every "quaint Texas town" for 4 very long hours doesn't bother you?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well it could be worse. Corrigan is really the worst bottleneck.

You do actually loop around the larger towns.

It's not bad enough for me to need the TTC anyway.

[YakuzaIce]

Does anyone know how most pay toilets work? I would think it is something where you pay a dollar and the door is locked for 5 minutes(or some other amount of time) and you can leave at any time then, but there is a thirty second warning bell and a five second, then have a button that can give another thirty seconds if you are not ready yet, or put in more money. Do any work like this?

[Kirzania]

Right. Same idea as the WV Turnpike and the PA Turnpike. PA's about $20 end to end (500-some miles, I think). How does Florida compare? Seems like if other states can do it and it works (and if Florida's making money off their turnpikes) why shouldn't Texas? /agree kjb A state-crossing turnpike is nothing new. People just need something to get angry about.

... a gas station, restraunts, FREE bathrooms, and maybe a gift shop.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Free bathrooms? Blast, foiled again. Oh well, maybe we can start a Texas Tamarack.

[kjb434]

I've driven the entire Florida Turnpike and it wasn't bad at all. A little deslate in most places.

I've stopped and ate lunch and enjoyed the free bathrooms. I got some gas.

It was setup very efficiently too.

[GovernorAggie]

I've used the Ohio and Indiana Turnpikes and they also had the same things. I think on Illinois tollways each of the "rest areas" is called an Oasis.

[pineda]

Trans-Texas Corridor eye-opening informational website

[kjb434]

There's a lot of misleading information on that website. They really stretch the truth to further their agenda.

[dp2]

Trans-Texas Corridor eye-opening  informational website

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The author of that blog is either an idiot or a liar, or both. The biggest reason for moving to toll roads like the TTC is because they will be primarily privately financed, thus reducing the amount of state dollars needed to build roads. The author believes that we should spend more money to improve schools(never mind that many of the districts with the highest spending per pupil are the worst performers). Well if the state brings in X amount of taxes, it has X amount to spend. If less of X is spent on roads, then more of X is available to spend on schools or whatever. Basic math, usually learned as a child when one gets an allowance.

Not that facts or logic ever get in the way of these whiny zealots.

[pineda]

You may not agree whole-heartedly with the blog author's perceptions of their reality, but I found the most interesting part of the blog to be the right-hand side of the page where the author has amassed a file of newspaper and online reports of the TTC. One of the ones I particularly liked (with an embedded mp3 file in it from Zachry in San Antonio) is listed here:

San Antonio Lightning

My favorite line was the Zachry mouthpiece near the end of the piece where she claims, "The Attorney General isn't the last word" when it comes to releasing the Cintra documents that are using state and federal funds. Love that!

[GovernorAggie]

Hate to say it, Pineda, but she's right. As Kelo has shown us, the Supreme Court is the last word.

On a side note, I've heard accounts of people who have been around the Supreme Court justices and they stated that some of them "believed that they were God". I could see that--the final word on the most controversial issues in the world's most powerful country.

In mentioning Kelo, I wonder how much the reps in Austin have tied their hands regarding the TTC considering how fast they were falling all over each other to respond to the Supreme Court ruling to gain political brownie points.

I keep saying that Texans' "Lone" Star mentality regarding government is what is going to kick all of us individuals in the rear someday if we don't wise up and realize that a little more gov't power in the right places could be better in the long run. I'm talking about more power on the local level, especially with land use decisions--like actually having county land use powers for once, and re-doing some of these home-rule laws. After all, our own land is the one material possession that Texans value most. If we don't, the day will come when Austin will be ordering us around in Houston--and they'll be within their rights. In our zeal to limit government to the least bit possible, we will have also denied valuable representation and given Austin free reign over the rest of us. If you think that the TTC is bad, just wait until there are 40 million Texans with 25 million of them living in Houston and the Metroplex alone--and we want to do something about our city but Austin says no because it goes against their agenda. We want to increase the density of development along I-10 and 290 to the Waller County line, but Austin says no because Waller County doesn't want it.

Where do I get this from? The zoning enabling act--any power that the local governments don't take goes back to the state level by default.