TTC talks --
Corridor meeting comes to Bellville

January 26, 2008

By Staff and Wire Reports, Brenham Banner-Press

Austin County residents get their chance Monday to comment on a massive “superhighway” that could be coming through their county.

And if the public meeting in Bellville is anything like those already held by the Texas Department of Transportation, it will include hundreds of angry property owners lining up for a chance to lambast the proposed project, called the Trans Texas Corridor.

Gov. Rick Perry first proposed the TTC six years ago. If completed as much as 50 years from now, it would roughly parallel interstate highways with up to a quarter-mile-wide stretch of toll roads, rail lines, pipelines and utility lines. Cost of the project has been estimated at approaching $200 billion, and at 4,000 miles or so it would be the biggest construction project ever in Texas.

TTC also could require the state to acquire nearly 600,000 acres of private land, much from farmers and ranchers.

The I-69 portion of the TTC could bring it close to Washington County, although an exact route if far from certain.

One study area, called “recommended Tier II,” brings the highway through Waller and Austin counties.

Monday’s meeting in Bellville will be held at 6:30 p.m. at the Austin County fairgrounds.

Anyone planning to attend that meeting should plan on getting their early.

A meeting last week in Hempstead was so heavily attended that some people couldn’t pack into the American Legion Hall where it was held, and streets in that area were choked with cars. An estimated 800 people did manage to squeeze into the building.

After that meeting, TTC opponents said they got few answers to their concerns.

David Stall of CorridorWatch.org, formed to contest the superhighways, accused TxDOT officials, particularly Commissioner Ted Houghton of El Paso, as using the hearings as forums to “sell” the project.

“Houghton completely misses the concept of involving the public in the decision-making process,” said Stall. “He came to Hempstead to defend the commission’s decision and not to discuss the issues.”

The Texas Transportation Commission’s plan outlines 4,000 miles of superhighway corridors that crisscross the state. Four of those corridors have been identified as “priority corridors” to be constructed first, including the I-69 portion.

The town hall meetings are intended to compliment public hearings scheduled to begin next month on environmental impact studies related to the I-69 project. Those sessions, by rule, are more formal and don’t allow for the give-and-take between the people and the agency officials.