Who Are The Roads For, Texans or Cintra?

CorridorWatch.org asks who are Texas roads for? Are they there to serve a public need or provide a source of public and private revenue? Seems that increasingly our roads are looked as revenue sources provided by profiteering highway operators. CorridorWatch.org isn't along in this concern.

"TxDOT's understanding of the new CDA approach to road building is that local branches of government and the Legislature are no longer part of the process . According to the TxDOT view, once an agreement is made with a private partner, TxDOT and the provider alone are empowered to makes decisions concerning road alignments. This is a staggering change from the way we have historically made these decisions. These projects are too important to not allow the citizens to participate through their various voices in government. This is a fundamental issue of the separation of powers and checks and balances in the system. I have had the unique honor of serving the citizens of Fort Worth and Tarrant County as county judge, state senator and now mayor of Fort Worth. What I have learned through serving in these various capacities is that this fundamental issue of separation of powers should not so casually be cast aside. Every level of government has a unique perspective, which serves to express the complex voice of our citizenry."

– Ft. Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief
(Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, June 18, 2006)

 

"The Governor did ask us to move quickly and as I have a personal relationship with the Governor, I can speak with [for] him in this regard. Once the Governor decided that this is where we needed to head, he wanted to remove it from the political flow of the state, he wanted it to become policy as opposed to politics, and that was one of the reasons he asked us to move so fast, and we've done an admirable job"

– Chairman Ric Williamson, Texas Transportation Commission meeting
(June 27, 2002).