Trans-Texas Corridor

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The Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC) is a transportation network in the planning and early construction stages in the U.S. state of Texas. The supercorridor, as planned, would use swaths of land up to 1,200 feet (365 m) wide to carry parallel links of tollways, rails, and utility lines. The tollway portion would be divided into two separate elements: truck lanes and lanes for passenger vehicles. Similarly, the rail lines in the corridor would be divided among freight, commuter, and high-speed rail. Services expected to be carried in the utility corridor include water, electricity, natural gas, petroleum, fiber optic lines, and other telecommunications services. The legislation enabling the Trans-Texas Corridor allows passenger vehicular speed limits of up to 85 mph (140 km/h).^[1]

1 Corridors
- 1.1 TTC-35
2 Criticisms
3 Funding
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Corridors

There are two initial TTC corridors under consideration: One would parallel Interstate 35, from Gainesville to Laredo and passing Dallas, Austin and San Antonio. The other would be an extension of Interstate 69, from Texarkana past Houston to either Laredo or the Rio Grande Valley.

[edit] TTC-35

Trans-Texas Corridor-35's (TTC-35) proposed alignment generally parallels Interstate 35 (I-35) to the east. There are currently 12 different alternatives for the route from Laredo to the Oklahoma border north of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. There are four variances along the route, the first is from Laredo to San Antonio. One alignment uses the current I-35 alignment, then curves off to the east, south of the San Antonio. The second alignment follows a more direct route to the east and joins the first alignment southeast of San Antonio. The corridor will continue to the northeast, paralleling I-35 to the east. A second variance has a western alignment that passes close to the Austin area, with the eastern alignment off to the east of Austin. The third variance has one alignment passing to the west of Fort Worth and the other passing to the east of Dallas. The final variance is actually a variance of the alignment that circles around Dallas to the east. The western alignment rejoins I-35 near the Oklahoma border and the eastern alignment ends at the Oklahoma border near U.S. Highway 75.

On June 28, 2006, Cintra-Zachry, the TTC developer, reached a $1.3 billion agreement with the state to build segments 5 and 6 of SH 130. The Cintra-Zachry Preliminary Financial Plan (TTC-35 Development Agreement, Exhibit C(Trans-Texas Corridor)) shows the expected toll revenue to be collected for Segment 5 and 6 at $14.9 Billion over 50 years. The Preliminary Financial Plan for Segment 5 and 6 also shows $12.4 Billion in Earnings before Taxes (EBIT) for the Developer. SH 130 is widely expected to serve as the TTC segment through the Austin area.

[edit] Criticisms

The system has been criticized for a number of reasons. Among the most significant is the fact that the TTC will be extremely expensive. Additionally the system will require about 9,000 square miles (23,300 km²) of land to be purchased or acquired through the state's assertion of eminent domain. Environmentalists are concerned about the effects of such wide corridors, and private land owners have expressed disgust at the idea that their land may be seized and in turn be sold in exclusive agreements to other developers in order to help pay for the transit links.^[2]^[3]

Ironically, while Governor Rick Perry is supportive of the plan, the Republican Party of Texas 2006 platform opposes the Corridor. ^[4]

[edit] Funding

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To help pay for building the roads and rails, the highways will be partially financed through private investment. The investors will then operate the highways as toll roads. The current 4,000 mile (6,400 km) plan has a projected cost of about US$183 Billion.

Based on The Cintra-Zachry Preliminary Financial Plan (TTC-35 Development Agreement, Exhibit C(Trans-Texas Corridor)) funding the TTC-35 Corridor awarded to Cintra-Zachry shows that 22%(1) of the initial infrastructure costs are shown to be funded with equity provided by Cintra-Zachry. The other 78% is provided by bank loans or bonds arranged by Cintra-Zachry. Based on current federal regulations these bonds can be tax exempt. It is also noted that in the financial plan Cintra-Zachry expects to have 12% return on investment for their equity partners. The 12% return is after taxes so it means approximately 16% earning before taxes. The plan calls for paying off the bank loans and the bonds prior to retiring the equity as shown in cash flow diagrams of the Preliminary Financial Plan (TTC-35 Development Agreement, Exhibit C(Trans-Texas Corridor)) With usual bond financing there is a 3:1 ratio between total fees collected and value of capital infrastructure built. With TTC-35 the ratio is in the order of magnitude of 13:1. So while TTC-35 commits to construct $8 billion in infrastructure Cintra-Zachry expects to collect $114 billion in toll revenues as shown in the preliminary plan. The recent State Audit, by the Texas State Auditor estimated the toll to be collected for TTC-35 to be $104 Billion or more confirming the order of magnitude of tolls collected.