Texas Department of Transportation Commission Meeting

City Council Chambers
Civic Center Plaza
El Paso Texas

9:00 a.m. Thursday, February 24, 2000 Regular Meeting

COMMISSION MEMBERS:

DAVID M. LANEY, Chair
ROBERT L. NICHOLS
JOHN W. JOHNSON

DEPARTMENT STAFF:

CHARLES W. HEALD, Executive Director
HELEN HAVELKA, Executive Assistant, Engineering Operations

PRESENTERS:
El Paso County Judge Dolores Briones
Horizon City Mayor Tom Ruiz
El Paso Mayor Carlos Ramirez
Senator Eliot Shapleigh
Representative Joe Pickett
Secretary Anchondo (See attachment)
Maribel Chavez 

PROCEEDINGS

MR. LANEY: It is 9:06 a.m. and I would like to call the meeting of the Texas Transportation Commission to order. Good morning. I want to welcome all of you to our February 24 meeting here in El Paso. It's a pleasure to be here and a pleasure to have all of you with us.

If any of you are planning on speaking and have not signed the yellow card designating the fact that you're going to speak and the item that you'd like to speak about, please do so. That's your ticket to the microphone.

For the record, public notice of the meeting containing all items of the agenda was filed with the office of the Secretary of State at 10:20 a.m. on February 16, 2000. Again, we're pleased to be here in El Paso, and it's a custom at our transportation commission meetings to have each of the commissioners who have something to say -- and sometimes we don't have much to say, but usually we do, given a microphone -- we do give ourselves an opportunity to have each of the commissioners raise any topics they'd like and discuss any matters they'd like on the front end.

So I'd like to open it to that first and begin with Johnny Johnson.

MR. JOHNSON: Thank you, David. It's great to be in El Paso and it's great to see this many people before the commission. I think it reinforces --  and I've said this before -- the interest, the local interest that people have in transportation and mobility issues.

And sometimes we take for granted just what local opinion is, but I think this reinforces and embellishes in our mind that transportation/mobility projects are probably the most important thing that a community deals with. And I want to thank you for being here, and thank you for your interest.

MR. LANEY: Thank you, Johnny. Robert Nichols.

MR. NICHOLS: I also echo what Johnny said. The hospitality of El Paso is great. It's always friendly. I think it's wonderful that you invited us to have our commission meeting out here. Yesterday was a good day. We went and opened -- did a ribbon cutting on the new travel center in Anthony, we took a bus tour of projects around El Paso with a number of city people and the mayor, and had dinner with the district employees last night. A lot of exciting things happening.

And the comment I would like to bring out that relates and affects the El Paso area has to do really, Mr. Chairman, with the funding related to the TEA-21 federal funding program. A lot of you all may remember that the TEA-21 funding program was supposed to guarantee the state of Texas 90 cents on the dollar for the federal dollars that we send to Washington to come back to Texas.

That funding had two components. One component was funding by formula, for which Texas is doing very well. The other portion of the funding relates to the U.S. Department of Transportation discretionary portion of TEA-21, for which we anticipated that Texas would get a fair share. What we're concerned about is a pattern of funding related to that discretionary fund program seems to have an  unfair imbalance towards the state of Texas, which you need to be aware of.

Several of the programs that we have filed for, one was the border and corridor program for NAFTA, it was a special fund for NAFTA in that program, and had $140 million to be distributed to the state of Texas. We went through and identified a large number of projects, very good projects, some in the El Paso area, that we submitted.

We put in that submission a large portion of state leverage into that, so that only a small portion of those funds to make those projects a reality had to come from the discretionary fund. When the numbers came in out of the $140 million, which Texas is   one of the leading states affected by NAFTA, we only got $14 million. The state of Arkansas got $12 million.

Another example was on the recent Interstate program, where the discretionary fund was supposed to come in and go to the states based on rehabilitation and maintenance of the Interstates that need to be brought up due to heavy wear and tear, Texas unquestionably has more miles of Interstates than any other state in the United States, yet we did not even rank in the top 10 in that funding program, and it seems to be going through consistently like that.

t is not something we have control of, but the U.S. Congress does, and we wanted to bring that to your attention and urge you to encourage your federal members to look into that.

With that, it's good to be here. Thank  you.

MR. LANEY: Thanks, Robert. We can't emphasize that enough. You all can have an enormous impact over the ultimate return, basically, on our investment in transportation in this country. It is now dropped from about 90.5 cents on the dollar, which is our target, down to the low 80s because of our inability to retrieve these dollars that Robert Nichols just referred to. So if you can bring to bear some level of pressure on your congressmen, they may be able to help. I think they are very much aware of it and are already working hard. But if they hear from you, it will help.

I'd like to make a few remarks and I'd like to go into a little more detail on matters of format than I usually do simply because of the importance, I think, of our meeting here in El Paso for the agency and for El Paso and the El Paso District. As you -- and many of you have been with us yesterday and this morning -- as you have heard, we are delighted to be here. This is a great city, a great district, and I think a terrific relationship between Texas' only transportation agency and it's westernmost point in the state, and the western entry to and exit from the state and a critical cog in the overall relationship in connection with trade in Mexico.

I want to reminisce for a moment, though, if you will indulge me. Five years ago the context here was dramatically different than it is right now. NAFTA had just barely become effective and the trade and traffic volumes that we now see and experience on a daily basis was then, for all of us, only wishful thinking. And as the saying goes, you got to be careful what you wish for, because it has come true in spades, and it has threatened on occasion -- I don't think in El Paso, but in a couple of other places -- to overwhelm us.

Secondly, five years ago, your court of inquiry was in full swing and full fury, targeting at that point at least some of TxDOT's finest and most dedicated career state employees with criminal prosecutions. That was not, as you all know, the finest and most shining hour of the relationship between TxDOT and this community. And I'm glad, I believe, to believe that that chapter in the relationship is behind us.

Finally, five years ago, almost to the day, but not exactly -- better almost to the month -- I became chairman of the transportation commission and assumed the commission publicly and privately committed to a program that would be responsive to our border transportation challenges as no prior commission had ever been. And my first visit as a commissioner was to a border district, and over the past five years I have traveled to our border districts more than to any other districts of the state, and have spent more time with border legislators and representatives than those of any other part of the state.

This heightened focus was not accidental, and it's a focus not simply on our transportation challenges, but those of the Mexican side of our border. As I've said on a number of occasions, our work along our side of the border not only addresses economic opportunity and economic development and mobility on our side of the border, but dramatically affects the same concepts and issues on the Mexican side of the border.

Our border is not one-sided, and we are very much a part of the Mexican economy on the Mexican side of the border and they are very much a part of our economy as well. The two go hand-in-hand and will rise and fall, I think, to a great extent together.

Anyway, the concentrated focus, I think, has had tangible results, not the least of which is that two other commission members, as they came on, basically became every bit, and will remain, I am confident, every bit as committed to a continued focus on the border and border transportation challenges as the commission that preceded their arrival.

And also, we have now adopted and begun to implement a Border Trade Transportation Initiative that even this morning Commissioner Nichols referred to as historic in proportion. And I absolutely agree with him, and I believe Johnny Johnson does, as well.

A word about that. There has been quite a bit of what I would call wailing and moaning about the initiative and that it overstates our committed investment of $2.8 billion -- that's the number we use -- and that our commitment is not being basically implemented quickly enough and that our commitment is not reliable. Suffice it to say, first of all, that criticism is not new to TxDOT and always has a variety of the most interesting types of motives.

But as long as our commission, our senior administration and our border district engineers, together representing, I think, probably the most concentrated collection on transportation expertise with respect to border issues anyone can muster anywhere in this state, as long as that group sees absolutely eye to eye as to our intended results and the quality of our commitment that the numbers are accurate and that the commitment is reliable, then you can count on the fact that we will stay our course and what we have committed to the border you will see basically rolled out over the next few years.

I think perhaps more telling in a private way is on several occasions I've been asked privately, and occasionally publicly -- and I never dare to answer -- what I would like for the legacy of my term as chairman to be. And my response is simple in the first instance, and that is whatever the results of the last five years of efforts are, they will play themselves out no matter what my desires are.

But I am absolutely certain of one thing, that there is no project development initiative begun anytime during the last five years at TxDOT or the commission that will have an impact more beneficial, more lasting, or more pervasive for any region of the state or lives of more Texans than our Border Trade Transportation Initiative. That legacy is one that anyone would wish for if they were on the commission, and I hope that that's the case. But I am as certain of that as anything else during the last five years.

Finally, leadership in transportation in Texas means, by necessity, the willingness and ability to work constructively with TxDOT and together with TxDOT to actually achieve results. You have a few leaders in this community that compare favorably with the best of transportation leadership anywhere in the state, and they are leaders that you should be proud of. To those who made the lives of TxDOT officials and the lives of commissioners over the last few years a lot easier, my deep, deep appreciation.

I mentioned at the outset that the commission meeting in El Paso today brings full circle the efforts begun, I believe, five years ago. It also brings closure to some extent for me personally, and I am very proud to have been a part of the border effort, and I am also very proud of what I know will be the extraordinary results that will begin to appear in years to come.

I also need to emphasize one fact as I close here -- two issues. One is that closure is a beginning. I hope it's the beginning of a new relationship between this part of the state and TxDOT. I truly believe it is. And I think we've got a lot going for us if we continue to work closely together.

I also need to remind you that there are a lot of things that you will want and you will want faster and bigger and more of that are simply not available due to the limited resources we have available to us. Nonetheless, that being said, the concentration of investment that we have committed over the next few years is unlike anything we have done anywhere else in the state, and will likely not ever be repeated again anywhere in the state.

So I think we all have something to be thankful for and to look forward together arm in arm on, so I appreciate your indulgence in letting me reminisce a little. But I think we've got a great start of a great relationship, and I can't imagine a better start than a commission meeting here in El Paso.

That being said, as I began, we are pleased to be here in El Paso. We hold a number of our monthly meetings out of the Austin area so we can get sort of a sense of exactly what's going on, and we got a great sense of it yesterday. We were toured by a bunch of projects, we had a ribbon cutting at the new travel and information center in Anthony, and there is a lot going on and a lot more to go. But it's to our great benefit to be here, particularly considering the hospitality and the energy all of you have put into introducing us to what's going on in El Paso.

We hope our visits and meetings also give you a sense of what goes on at the commission and how we conduct business when we do it in Austin, and very few of you get to see that. But that is the purpose of our being here.

Now, I would like to move on and remind everybody one more time if you haven't had a chance to sign up on these yellow cards, I would encourage you to do so. We'll be hearing from quite a few people this morning, and we're looking forward to getting going, so let's get started.

We're honored to have several esteemed members of the local community here, and I believe that the county judge, Dolores Briones, begins the  presentation. And it's delightful to see you here, even though we can barely see you behind that dais, because this is a fellow alumnus. We were in the same college -- not at the same time. I wish I was at the same time.

JUDGE BRIONES: Only my hairdresser knows for sure.

MR. LANEY: Welcome, Judge.

JUDGE BRIONES: Thank you very much. Good morning and welcome to El Paso. We are delighted to have you here. Bienvenidos, and I hope that already you feel that nuestra casa es su casa, our home is your home. Thank you for coming to El Paso and muchas gracias for all of the support you have given our region. I say this as chair of the transportation policy board on behalf of our metropolitan planning organization and all of the families of far West Texas. I'd like to say that we think regionally here.

I know from having joined you at breakfast this morning that you have enjoyed the ribbon5tting ceremony at the new and wonderful visitor center, and the dinner last night with our local TxDOT staff and, I might add, which is headed by Maribel Chavez, who is a real asset to our regional family in this area.

I trust that you also had the opportunity to admire the wonderful Franklin Mountains and our wonderful desert -- I like to refer to it as our purple mountain majesty -- that form this unique, dynamic and binational and tristate river valley. Welcome again to this part of the U.S.-Mexico border. As we do in our home, we want our community to reflect the very best that we have to offer. We always put our best foot forward for our residents, our guests, and for those that are merely the pasada -- and I hope this does not include you all -- passing through.

As you know, for many travelers we are the front doors to Texas and to Mexico. For many, the El Paso metropolitan area is the first and last impression they have of Texas as they travel Interstate 10. We strive to make sure that impression is a positive one. And your partnership has made it possible for us to make tremendous strides.

In particular, the Paso Del Norte border region thanks you for the NAFTA-related transportation project funding totaling $560 million over 10 years. This funding represents a significant boost to our transportation infrastructure plans. With this support, we can move many projects into priority one. At the same time, we are looking toward the future to make key improvements to our transportation system in order to accommodate the incredible boom in international trade that the Paso Del Norte region is experiencing. From an institutional perspective, your support and advice in the restructure of our MPO has been very valuable and well taken.

I am pleased to announce that we have made significant changes that will facilitate and expedite the work of the MPO. Among those changes are the following. The new technical advisory committee now includes private sector representatives as well. The project selection committee has been restructured to allow more involvement from all of the cities and townships in our region. The MPO will be settling into its new home on March 18.

Appropriately, it will have an address on the Gateway, symbolizing our efforts to move commerce and people between the far reaches of the American continent. And the MPO is forging excellent relationships with Mexico and New Mexico as we work on cooperative projects through the borders and corridors program.

In any successful venture, all of the partner members must assume an appropriate part of the load, and as the saying goes, "Se tiene que jalar parejo," everyone has to pull their share. That applies to this partnership. We are ready to assume our part of the responsibility. We want to take this opportunity to thank you for doing your part in helping this partnership, this community achieve its rightful destiny.

I'm going to introduce Mayor Tom Ruiz of the City of Horizon and vice-chair of the transportation policy board. But first I'd like to acknowledge our state delegation members who are in attendance this morning. We have Representative Paul Moreno. Representative Manny Najera. We have Chairman Haggerty with us this morning, Senator Shapleigh, and Representative Joe Pickett, who, unfortunately, is no relation to Kirby Pickett.

Thank you. Mayor Ruiz.

MR. RUIZ: Chairman Laney, members of the commission, good morning and welcome. I'm Tom Ruiz, and it's my privilege to serve as the mayor of the town of Horizon City. And as vice-chairman of the transportation policy board, I want to thank you for being here with us today. And on behalf of the smaller communities of the region, I want to thank you for your support in improving the mobility and safety of our residents.

Many of the projects that you have approved for funding in the last four years will go a long way in helping our residents to access jobs and opportunities that exist throughout the metropolitan area. As our region grows and prospers, we want to ensure that all of our residents have the opportunity to share in the wealth. And the key to doing that is by facilitating their mobility.

Central to this effort is the thorough and expeditious completion of Loop 375. And forgive me, but as the people of the valley so often tell me, expeditious ain't near fast enough.

You have helped approach this goal by approving and funding such projects as the following. Construction of Phase 1 of the grade separation at Loop 375 at the U.S. 62 and 180, more commonly known to our local folks as the Joe Battle Road/Montana Avenue Interchange, and this benefits the community of east Montana.

You have helped with the reconstruction and the widening of the overpass for Loop 375 at Interstate 10, which is the Trans-Mountain Road overpass. That's benefitting the communities of Anthony, Vinton, and Canutillo.

You've helped with construction of four main lanes and interchanges and grade separations on Loop 375 between Interstate 10 and Zaragosa Road, benefitting the fastest growing part of the region, east El Paso.

And you've helped with priority status for the extension of Loop 375, locally known as our border highway, from Park Street to Doniphan Drive, thus benefitting the residents of the upper valley and the municipalities of Sunland Park and Santa Teresa, New Mexico.

You've helped with construction of the intersection at Interstate 10 and Eastlake Boulevard, benefitting the city of Socorro and the town of Horizon City.

You've also helped by widening from two lanes to four lanes and constructing an additional overpass at Interstate 10 and an emergency truck escape ramp for Loop 375 between Interstate 10 and Franklin Mountains State Park, thus benefitting the fastest growing segment of our transportation family, our truck drivers.

These projects all represent invaluable advancement in our transportation system that will alleviate many of the traffic congestion problems throughout our region. We are also certain that improvements will enhance the safety of the arterials that lead into Loop 375.

Now, even as we move forward with these projects, we have our sights set on the future. As we attempt to marry economic development, mobility and public safety, it will be essential to the communities in our Mission Valley to have the Border Highway extension east. The increased commerce coming to and through our communities is necessary and, indeed, welcome. However, there is a limit to what our narrow streets and roads can accommodate.

In our efforts to find ways to relieve the constipation -- I mean congestion along I-10, we are looking into the northeast parkways to provide an alternative route for truck traffic and other vehicles that are passing through our region. If we facilitate trade and economic growth in our region, it is vital that we decrease the dependence on Interstate 10. This north parkway allows us to utilize Loop 375 to develop an excellent traffic reliever.

We look forward to working with you in the near future to address these challenges. Again, I want to thank you for coming, for allowing me to speak to you this morning, and for all your support to our region.

Now it is my pleasure to introduce my good friend and the leader of Horizon City's largest suburb, the Honorable Carlos Ramirez, mayor of the City of El Paso.

MR. RAMIREZ: Good morning, commissioners. Welcome to El Paso. It cannot be said enough. As you see, we have an excellent relationship among the members of the MPO and I think you're going to see a tremendous amount of cooperation that's going to translate to effective projects coming before you in partnership.

As you know, this region has a long legacy as a north/south/east/west corridor for trade. With the advent of NAFTA, El Paso continues to be in the forefront handling 17 percent of all trade that enters the U.S. from Mexico at our ports of entry. This cannot be done without the partnership that we have with TxDOT in Austin, and particularly with TxDOT here in El Paso at the district level and Maribel Chavez, that we have an excellent relationship with them as members of our community and members of the MPO process. We are thrilled to be an integral part of this economic engine that is generating prosperity in Texas and our entire country.

As a community, we're working diligently to ensure that we capture the fruits of this economic growth and opportunity for all sectors of our community. Economic development and our quality of life are absolute priorities as we ride the NAFTA wave of the future. We are determined to grow and prosper, not just become a NAFTA truck stop. Thank you, commissioners, for helping us achieve this goal.

Just a few weeks ago you approved two key El Paso projects that you had a chance to see yesterday as part of the statewide transportation enhancement program, first the Keystone Heritage Project, which was awarded $1.4 million for the development of the 4500-year-old archeological site, including the building of a tourist visitor center, restoration of the wetlands and the setting of a wildlife viewing area, botanical gardens and hike and bike trails. You will hear testimony this morning regarding this project.

The old Engine Number 1 was awarded $928,320 to relocate the historical engine from UTEP to Union Plaza, construct a building, sidewalks, landscape, lighting, bus shell area and information kiosk. And I want to compliment the help that we received from you because I know that Representative Pickett had a long conversation with some of you all and you helped us make this project a reality, too.

The funding that the City of El Paso received through the State Infrastructure Bank enabled us to kick off the millennium with a state-of-the-art toll collection system at the international port of entry.

As we look into the future, we have a vision of managed growth to ensure that the community and all of its residents benefit from the increase in trade and commerce. To this end, we want to ensure that our transportation system facilitates economic development and good quality of life.

I want to mention two initiatives to do just that. First, as El Paso grows and prospers, we need to ensure that the oldest and most historic commercial and residential areas are involved as well. Central to this effort is the Alameda Redevelopment Project along State Highway 20. We're working very closely with all parties to make this transition.

In conjunction with efforts to relieve congestion at I-10, El Paso is working on an inner loop to feed off Loop 375. This inner loop would enable traffic headed toward the airport and surrounding industrial parks to bypass I-10 and several other congested city streets. It will facilitate the development of an efficient transportation hub.

Let me mention that your help in getting our intermodal hub is going to enhance our ability to compete on a worldwide basis by having the best transportation juncture in West Texas, southern New Mexico and northern Mexico, crucial, absolutely crucial to the continued economic development efforts that we have.

Commissioners, thank you for helping us get to where we are today. Rest assured that the state transportation dollars are well spent in El Paso, reaping benefits statewide. I sincerely hope that you have felt at home in El Paso. We look forward to visiting with you in Austin within the next couple of months. And again, bienvenidos.

JUDGE BRIONES: In closing, Chairman Laney, I do want to mention that since I've been at Stanford, before 1999, Stanford hadn't been to the Rose Bowl since I was there. Commissioner Nichols, I didn't hear a joke from you yet, but the day is young. And I want to welcome Commissioner Johnson. I understand he is the baby of the family.

What you have seen before you today and during your visit in El Paso should demonstrate to you that our commitment to transportation is felt throughout the public and private sector, bringing together tristate and binational cooperation in a way that is unique. We thank you again for being a part of this team, this partnership. We look forward to our continuing partnership and to a lengthy one at that.

I do want to invite you on your next visit to El Paso County and to this far West Texas region to use our commissioner's court chamber for your meetings. By the looks of it this morning, this region has a burgeoning passion in transportation and at the county we have more elbow room. Now, I don't mean to make reference to burgeoning or elbowing as a way of introducing the members of our state delegation who might want to address you, but if it's fitting -- I don't know.

Be that as it may, I do want to introduce the members of our state delegation and leadership who will be approaching to address you this morning. Thank you.

MR. LANEY: Thank you, Judge. First of all, let me invite to the dais Senator Eliot Shapleigh. Glad to have you here, Eliot. And let me just say, before we get off the judge's comments, that I hope the commissioners' court chambers are less expensive than I have a feeling these are going to be by the time we're finished today.

MR. SHAPLEIGH: Chairman Laney and commissioners, welcome to El Paso. We're thrilled that you're here, and I want to echo some of what you said, Chairman Laney. In this six years of your term, I believe TxDOT will have dramatically moved to meet the challenges of NAFTA in those six years.

Commissioner Nichols, as a pioneer in fair share, I can tell you we're thrilled that you're also seeking fair share for Texas at the federal level. When Texas bears the burden of NAFTA as it does today, it is only fitting that we move our donee/donor status up and that we trap every bit of funding that we can to handle this very unusual bottleneck that we find in Texas as a result of NAFTA. The border is to Texas what Texas is to the country, and with 80 percent of the nation's surface transportation coming through our ports, we need to make that a number one priority.

You know, in the legislature, we look at each session as the session of public finance of education, for example, last session. This next session, in my belief, will be around three or four main issues, and one of those is going to be infrastructure. In watching the state board of affairs committees go around the state and take testimony, the house committees soon to convene, I'm certain that infrastructure will be a major topic of discussion in the legislature this session. And I wanted to lay out some of what I see to be the challenges of what's coming.

The first and foremost is where are we going to find the money? As we go and look at polls around the state in Dallas and Houston, congestion in Houston rates as the number one or two issue, same in Dallas. Yet when we look on the other side to see if the citizens are willing to tax themselves to raise the money to address those infrastructure issues, we find a rather different scenario. Seventy percent say it's a problem, it's one of our top two. Fifteen percent say we're willing to tax ourselves to address it. I see that as being one of the challenges that we're all going to face as the session comes up in January.

And the other is what are we going to do with this NAFTA impact? Our corridor, unlike any other corridors, bare this NAFTA burden. It is a challenge and, most of all, it's an opportunity. I'm hoping that we take a very close and deep look at Senate Bill 913, because the model that we built for the border corridor in 913 with the prototype that you're developing at TxDOT will be the model that we take up and down the border.

I hope that we take the time and resources to do it right, because if we can relieve that congestion, we won't have the Dells of Texas leaving Texas, we'll have the Dells of Texas wanting to relocate further in Texas. And I hope that we can take that bill, that model. You, Chairman Laney, two years ago told me we're going to take a large set of resources and focus them on model border ports and how we get that done, and I'm hoping that 913 evolves into just that effort.

We welcome you to El Paso. We are pleased at the relationship. We're pleased at the focus of what is all our issue. When the judge says nuestra casa es su casa, I think more importantly, nuestra frontera es su frontera. These ports are your ports, and we're very pleased with the focus you've given this region and area of the state. Thank you.

MR. LANEY: Thank you, Senator. Appreciate your remarks.

Representative Joe Pickett, he always sits in the back row.

7 MR. PICKETT: Good morning. I have a -- the love I feel in this room right now with all of these comments, you're just lucky there is so much space between us or I'd be hugging every one of you.

I also must comment on what the county judge had mentioned. She mentioned Kirby Pickett. Those in El Paso didn't understand what the inside joke is. Mr. Pickett works for TxDOT. We are not related. But I do want to give him some credit, and I use the possibility of being related when it suits me. When a new TxDOT employee comes on line, I say, This is Mr. Pickett and I need this.

But Kirby, just to give you an example of the relationship, over the last several years that I've been involved with TxDOT, we had an issue out in Anthony, FM 3500, and it's been on their plans for about 10 years. And we're trying to find a way to lessen the shock to the town of Anthony on their portion of the local match. And it was Kirby Pickett who came up with the idea of changing it from an FM to a spur, and it's now a dedicated Spur 6. We're buying right of way right now.

And what that means, of course, to the people that know the technicalities is that because it's a state highway now, TxDOT is picking up the largest portion of that, and I appreciate that.

I also want to mimic some of the comments about all of the monies and the funding coming in. And I envision kind of, I don't know, a discussion between Bubba and Buford somewhere. And Bubba said to Buford, hey, Buford, what are you doing painting that barrel with spray paint? Well, Bubba, all the orange barrels in the world are in El Paso, because that's where all the construction, that's where all the money is. And I hope that's the case.

You mentioned NAFTA. In this building that you're at -- I hope you have the opportunity -- if you'll go to this side of the building and look out the window, you will see NAFTA. In fact, Mayor Ramirez has the ability to see his counterpart at the city hall in Juarez. If you look at this window here, you'll also see the effect of NAFTA on the Interstate and the railroad lines that are over there. If you look out this window over here, you'll see that beautiful depot that you toured where the train, we hope, will wind up. And finally, if you look out this window over on this side, you'll see the president of the university, Diana Natalicio, and her assistant, Richard Adauto, pushing the train down the hill to the depot. They want it out of there.

So again, I'm here to say thank you. But I do have one fear that I would like to put to you, and I did this to Commissioner Nichols when he came out  here and made the announcement at TxDOT about the increased funding, and I would like to do it to the full commission. I have no doubt about your commitment and the money and the funding coming to our community. I have none whatsoever. I've seen it happen.

You also said be careful of what you wish for, and you made comment on NAFTA. We've gotten what we wished for. But here is my fear. One of my goals, I guess, or resolutions for this year was to learn as much as I could about the TxDOT process and consultants, outside engineering possibilities. I have a fear that, with all of this money and all of the projects, that we're going to get bottlenecked and we're not going to get the work out. I need a commitment from TxDOT -- and I've gotten it individually -- but I need a commitment that you're going to find a way to get these projects out so that three or four years from now, we're not putting stuff off and we're sending money back because we couldn't get to them. And I know that the percentage of projects that are going to leave your actual control is going to be phenomenal and not what you're used to.

And visiting with Maribel, it could be extremely high. Where before, you were doing 80, 90 percent of the stuff in-house, it could be completely reversed. You could be putting out 80 or 90 percent, and I need to know how we can help, as legislators, how we can help in this community. How do we cut some of that red tape. How do we get these projects going? How do we get it out to the local consultants is also a big concern of ours and get these projects working?

So I'm not here to criticize whatsoever. I believe you. I have confidence in your words. But you, again, have said it. It's monumental. It's new. We've never had this kind of monies come before. We have never had this much volume before. We've never done this much work before. We've never had this many orange barrels before.

So again, I just ask for your commitment from you. And thank you for being here. And Wes, I do owe you a train whistle and brought it with me, and I will give it to you. With that, thank you, chairman and commissioners.

MR. LANEY: Thank you, Representative Pickett, and you have put your finger on the principal issue facing us in terms of trying to move forward with the ambition represented by the Border Trade Transportation Initiative. That ambition carries with it an enormous challenge, and the challenge, basically, is borne by our district and our district engineer. And we feel she is up to the job, and she knows that she has the resources of the commission and the department behind her, as do our other district engineers in Pharr and Laredo.

Yet we know we have an enormous challenge. I hope we don't look back some years hence and see how we got so gnarled up in the volume of investment committed to the border that we really haven't delivered what we anticipated would be delivered over the next few years. But I'm very optimistic and I think the other commissioners are as well. But I appreciate your invitation for the commitment. We believe it's there.

I also want to recognize a couple of other representatives, although I understand that they may not want to speak, but I certainly want to give them the opportunity to do so if they'd like to. First of all, a great friend of the department and someone who has been very supportive on all fronts, and that's Representive Paul Moreno. Representative Moreno, do you want to say anything?

MR. MORENO: Just thank you very much for all you've done. We really appreciate it.

MR. LANEY: We appreciate you being here this morning and appreciate the support.

Representative Norma Chavez. I don't know if Representative Chavez is here this morning -- not here this morning. Tell her she was recognized, and she owes us.

Are there any other elected officials that have not had a chance to visit? I see in the shadows someone pointing to someone. Oh, Manny Najera. Manny, are you back there?

MR. NAJERA: I just want to say thank you for being here. I think Joe and Shapleigh have done an excellent job of expressing our feelings, and thank you for everything. And we'll keep working with you.

MR. LANEY: I know you will. We appreciate your support during the last session and appreciate your being with us during the whistle-stop tour yesterday and today. Thank you very much.

MR. PICKETT: I believe Representative Haggerty is also here.

MR. HAGGERTY: Carry on.

MR. LANEY: Hiding in the back row. Representative Haggerty, my apologies for not recognizing you earlier. You've got a great team of legislators here, and I think they can be as effective as any delegation anywhere in the state. So you ought to be awfully proud of them.

Enough for love, huh, Pickett? We'll sit down with you later.

We now turn to a different event than we've really had in many commission meetings, and that is an introduction of our next presenter. And the real challenge is not the presentation but my introduction of him, and the challenge is that my introduction will be in Spanish. So bear with me, those of you who will fault me for my inabilities with sometimes your native tongues.

(The following proceedings were interpreted from Spanish to English.)

MR. LANEY: It is a pleasure to welcome the Secretary of the State of Chihuahua, Licensiado Victor Emilio Anchondo Paredes, and his staff to El Paso, Texas, and to this commission meeting.

Secretary Anchondo, we are especially grateful that you and staff have taken time from your very busy schedules to travel here and the time to develop a presentation on the subject of Chihuahua transportation initiatives. We also appreciate the support of Governor Patricio Martinez Garcia in making possible you being with us today.

I understand that your presentation will be in Spanish, and you have provided copies of the presentation in English. We appreciate this special effort by you. Meanwhile, in coordination with your staff, we will also be providing simultaneous interpretation of your presentation.

Please start when you are ready.

SECRETARY ANCHONDO:

(English translation of the presentation of Secretary Anchondo is attached as a separate document.)

MR. LANEY: Thank you, Secretary Anchondo, for such an informative presentation. It is evident that the state of Chihuahua continues to make great strides in improving the safe and efficient movement of people and commerce in Chihuahua, especially along the border with Texas.

1 We look forward to increased partnering with you and your staffs to strengthen our traditional working relationships at the border level and at the state-to-state level. Governor Bush will be especially pleased to know that this commission meeting has provided the states of Texas and Chihuahua the opportunity to seize the day by bringing our states closer together.

Please convey our sincere appreciation to Governor Patricio Martinez Garcia for the opportunity to have you with us today, and that we look forward to closer cooperation between our two states in the future.

And my sincere regrets for my poor Spanish but we are delighted to have you here. I would like to give the opportunity of the other commissioners to respond to some of the comments you've made because they square very much with our thinking on how to jointly develop some of the corridors between our two states.

Commissioner Nichols.

MR. NICHOLS: First of all, I'd like to thank you for the hospitality you afforded me when I was in Chihuahua. It was a very productive trip, and I appreciate you coming here, and we look forward very much to the cooperation between the two states. Thank you.

MR. LANEY: Mr. Johnson.

MR. JOHNSON: I, likewise, would like to thank you for the effort that you made to make this presentation. It was very informative. I'm a strong believer that both sides of the border need to mirror each other, and to be successful, our partnership in transportation mobility issues need to also be shared and mirror one another. And we look forward to working with you and the other states that border Texas to be successful in just that.

Once again, thanks so much for making an effort to be here. It was a very impressive presentation.

MR. LANEY: Thank you again, and I hope you have a safe trip back to the city of Chihuahua. Thank you. Glad to have you here.

Now we will turn to a presentation -- I'm taking it out of order, my regrets, Maribel -- but I would like to introduce and hear comments from our district engineer here in our El Paso District. This is Maribel Chavez, for which it's very comfortable to say over and over as I tour the border and rest of the state is one of our most effective and capable district engineers anywhere in the state. We're glad to have you here this morning and certainly glad we're in El Paso.

4 MS. CHAVEZ: Thank you very much, Chairman Laney, Commissioner Nichols, Commissioner Johnson, Mr. Heald. I thank you for the opportunity to appear before you this morning. I do have to warn you after last night's event, I went home and did a dry run of this thing, and it took me two hours to complete. So I'm hoping that was just a result of a long day and maybe not having my reading glasses on.

MR. LANEY: Just let me remind you, there is a limit to your presentation.

MS. CHAVEZ: I appreciate that. Please feel free to pull the plug when you need to. My presentation this morning is intended to provide you just a quick overview of the El Paso District, our organization, the programs we administer and oversee and also some of the challenges that we face.

I'd like to begin first with a discussion of some of the areas of our responsibility and our organizational structure. We, of course, are headquartered here in El Paso. We are responsible for the department's programs in Brewster, Culberson,  El Paso, Hudspeth, Jeff Davis and Presidio counties. We do have three field offices. We also have seven maintenance offices plus seven subsections, and we average about 379 employees.

Our area offices as I said, one is located here in El Paso in the west area, and for the most part oversees our more urban activities. They do oversee our construction and maintenance program. We have another area office in the east part of the city, and it oversees the construction and maintenance activities for the more rural part of El Paso County and also Hudspeth and Culberson counties. We have an area office in Alpine that oversees the design, construction, and maintenance activities in Jeff Davis, Presidio and Brewster counties.

Just quickly a picture of some of the -- for the last 10 years or so, the staffing distribution for the district. As you can see, for the most part our administration or support functions have remained constant at about 10 percent of the whole staffing. Our design and construction personnel have risen somewhat in the last 10 years and our maintenance function or our maintenance personnel has dropped some. Most of that is due to the fact that we, of course, have a mandate to contract out at least 50 percent of our work there.

We are represented in the Texas House by -- for the El Paso County by Representative Manny Najera, Representative Norma Chavez, Representative Paul Moreno, Representative Pat Haggerty and Representative Joe Pickett. In the southern portion of our district we're represented out of Alpine by Representative Pete Gallego.

We're represented in the Texas Senate by three senators, parts of Culberson, parts of El Paso and all of Hudspeth County are represented by Robert Duncan of Lubbock. Senator Eliot Shapleigh represents most of El Paso County and Senator Frank Madla of San Antonio represents Brewster, part of Culberson, all of Jeff Davis and Presidio counties. We're also represented at the federal level for El Paso County by Congressman Silvestre Reyes and for Presidio, Culberson and Jeff Davis and Brewster counties by Congressman Henry Bonilla of San Antonio.

Just quickly some of the El Paso District statistics that might shed some light on some of the challenges that we face. As you can see, the estimated '99 population for all of the six-county district is a little over 700,000. El Paso County alone has over 694,000, meaning that 96 percent of the population for the district resides right here in El Paso County.

Of the registered vehicles in '99, for the entire district we had over 400,000 vehicles, and in El Paso County, we had over 400,000 of those vehicles, which comes out to about 95, 96 percent of the vehicles in all of the district are right here in El Paso County.

The state lane miles that we maintain, the district has 3,181 lane miles. El Paso County has 1,515 of those lane miles. That's about 48 percent of the lane miles in the district are right here, also in El Paso County. The Interstate lane miles, we have 812 of those and 315 of those are here in El Paso County, which comes out to about 39 percent of the Interstate lane miles being here in El Paso County as well.

Of the vehicle miles traveled on our system, the entire district has over 10 million miles. El Paso County has over 8 million of those, and that computes out to about 77 percent of the lane miles in the entire district are right here in El Paso County.

The district has -- the area of our district is over 21,000 square miles. El Paso County is a little over 1000 of those square miles, and that computes out to only four percent of the entire area for the district. Something I hope this might illustrate for you is that, in fact, we have in the district some very rural and very urban conditions, and that, of course, presents a nice challenge for us, particularly when you're trying to get from one part of the district to the other.

On top of the distance between one side of the district to the other, we also have to face two time zones. Part of our district is in the central time zone, the other is in the mountain time zone. So sometimes I forget and call the Alpine area office only to find out they are closed and can't figure that one out. Of course, I also get those phone calls from Austin at 7:00 in the morning wanting to know where we are and why we're not open, and you guys don't understand we're on a different time zone.

We are represented -- or the El Paso area does have a metropolitan planning organization, as you've heard already. The urban study area for the most part is composed of El Paso County. We also have Sunland Park, New Mexico, within the MPO study area, and while Ciudad Juarez is not part of the board membership, we, of course, through the MPO have to coordinate and do coordinate all of our planning activities with the appropriate officials there.

Just quickly there, you can see the population counts and the annual rate of changes in our populations.

Unlike most of the other border communities, our traffic here does include large volumes of daily passenger vehicle commuters in addition to the commercial truck traffic. The maquila, or twin plant, industry has created job markets on both sides of our border. Many workers live in one country and commute to work and shop in the other.

Just quickly some numbers on the counts at our ports of entry here in El Paso County. In particular, I'd like to note the freight carriers. As you can see, for the most part we have remained consistent and, of course, consistently growing in the number of crossings at our bridges. The next chart gives you some idea of the annual percentage or growth rate in the amount of freight carriers in particular.

Of course, what that means to us and one of the major concerns that we have is safety, because of the truck traffic that we are carrying on our system. In fact, in the highest traffic count areas here in town on Interstate 10, as you can see there in '98, we've got over 191,000 vehicles on that system, and about a little over four percent of those are trucks. They are the semitrailer and multitrailer trucks.

In the rural parts of our Interstate, as you can see, one of our concerns there is that the mix of trucks versus passenger vehicles is pretty significant. In fact, 49 percent of the total vehicles are trucks. Of course, what this has meant is that we have had a major emphasis on rebuilding and rehabilitating our Interstate. In the last couple of years some of the major expenditures have been on Interstate 10. As you can see, we've spent and are currently under construction with some of these projects, we've spent over $120 million.

Also, one of the other major activities right now, major construction activities, anyhow, is State Highway 178, or better known as Artcraft. We have expended a little over $50 million on that project alone. Of course, one of the other major projects and one of the other major concerns is the completion of Loop 375, and in the last couple of years and currently under construction, we've got almost $60 million on Loop 375. Just very quickly some pictures there of Loop 375. This is the bridge crossing, the bridge over the Rio Grande on Artcraft. And some more construction work on Artcraft.

Some of the significant planning activities that we have underway, of course, we recently completed a major investment study on I-10 for the west corridor of I-10. This study did identify for us $320 million worth of roadway improvements and $46 million worth of transit improvements. What we will do is from this study look at identifying potential projects within the next year, two years, depending on the types of projects that we can produce from this study.

Also beginning in April will be another major corridor study for the eastern part of our Interstate. And again, from it, we will look at a comprehensive multimodal type study that will determine some long- and short-term transportation needs in this corridor.

Another planning initiative that you heard something about is the I-10 relief route or better known as the Northeast Parkway. Next month we will be going out with an RFP for that project as well.

In the rural part of our district, we are looking at a major planning study for the Alpine, Fort Davis and Marfa area through public hearings and public meetings out there with those folks. They are, of course, very concerned about the truck traffic that is coming through those towns, and we'll be looking at initiating this study in the latter part of this year as well.

One of the major efforts or major projects that we have underway to help us with the congestion or congestion issues in our district is the new traffic management system or traffic management center that we hope to unveil in the next month or so. This project did start in '93, and we are looking at a final completion of May of this year. We have expended $17 and a half million on this project, and of course, listed we have some of the major components of that traffic management system, the fiber-optic on Interstate 10, U.S. 54 and Loop 375, of course, the cameras, lane control signals, changeable message signs, and what have you.

One of the integral parts of our traffic management system will be the courtesy patrol that we administer. Those employees oversee activity on Interstate 10 and U.S. 54. Along with the main control center at the new district complex, we will also provide satellite stations at our 911 call center here at city hall and over at the emergency management centers. Those folks, of course, will be an integral part of this traffic management system. Just very quickly, some of the components of the traffic management center and some of our local partners that will be working with us on making this system effective and efficient.

Of course, some of the other programs that we administer out of the district and coordinate with, aside from our highway construction program, is, of course, the public transportation program. And while we don't directly deal with the urban program, I would like to mention to you that the City of El Paso does have a section 5307 urban program. They are the provider for the City of El Paso, Sun Metro.

We do, however, administer and fund several of our smaller public transit initiatives. The section 5310 or elderly and disabled program, we do have 12 providers that cover El Paso, Culberson, and Presidio counties. We also fund a section 5311 rural transportation public transit program and the provider there is El Paso County.

Another program that we administer, we do have six general aviation airports located in five of our counties, and the work there that we do with these general aviation airports is through the Routine Airport Maintenance Program, or better known as RAMP. We started a pretty aggressive campaign in '98 to encourage our airports to participate in this program.

25 We started with an initial commitment of only four airports which were participating for only about $7600. That grew to six airports totaling 54,000, and now we've got project commitments from six airports for over $75,000 and one airport grant of $50,000. And we do various types of contracts on these general aviation airports from herbicide application to fog seal, crack seal, overlays, hot mix overlays.

A couple of examples on some of the airport improvement or RAMP contracts that we've performed recently. And you might appreciate this one, Commissioner Nichols. At the Marfa airport, as you can see, that airport was about to lose its runway. I think it had more weeds than it had pavement. With one of our herbicide contracts, we did come in, and there on the far right you can see some of the results of that program.

One of the other projects that we have -- I believe we're almost finished if we're not already -- is some major improvements at the Fabens Airport. It was a pretty narrow runway. We have widened it and overlaid that runway as well.

Of course, one of the other programs that we administer is the transportation enhancement projects. Since its inception, we've completed two of those projects. We've recently let two -- we've got two in the design stage process, and last month, of course, we did approve five more enhancement projects for the district. So since we began the enhancement program, we have had 11 projects awarded to us for over $12 million.

Of course, one of the other major parts of our program and a very important part of our program is the effort at preservation of our system. So we do have a very active and very important maintenance part of our program. As I said, we are in all six counties and we also have some maintenance camps in Pine Springs and Terlingua with some of the rest areas and picnic areas there that we oversee and administer contracts on.

Very quickly, from '96 to present, we have -- our total maintenance budgets have increased. We started in '96 with about $11 million for the total maintenance allocation. We're currently at 15, 15 and a half, 15.8 million. And of course, most of that program we do, or a major part of that program we do contract out.

Also, something that I'd like to mention to you that we're very proud of is aside from our maintenance contracting, another effort that we engage in to supplement our maintenance workforce is a very cooperative program with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. We have a very active program here in El Paso County with the Rogelio Sanchez unit. They have been an integral part of our program and, in fact, that partnership is actually getting stronger.

We started working with them in '96, and they provided eight inmates and one guard to us. We are presently utilizing 33 inmates and four guards. And as you can see, they do a variety of type of work, primarily some of the intensive manual labor type work. I suspect that the cost savings that we've pointed out there to the district, I suspect that they are probably a lot higher than the 500,000 that we're looking at there, especially when you consider that that means work that our employees can concentrate on besides some of this labor intensive work.

Of course, the largest part of our program and probably the one -- the most visible of our program is the highway construction program. As you can see from '90 to present, our district letting volumes have increased, and we are predicting some pretty significant increases in the coming years. We are looking at around $100 million, a little more, in the next year or two, and in 2003, as you can see, we are looking at about $140 million letting.

We hope as much as possible to be aggressive and to, when we can, move some of those up into the 2001 and 2002 lettings. Of course, most of those projects that you see in 2003 are the more -- the bigger projects, the more complex projects, those types that require right of way acquisition and that process does take us some time.

This slide was something that quite honestly took me by surprise. When I asked this staff0 for this information, I, of course, did expect that we would be looking at higher numbers of outsourcing. We do have a pretty significant workload, and we are going to look to the private sector to assist us in getting this work out. However, I didn't really expect to see these types of numbers, to be very honest, and they do present many questions and many issues.

As you can see, in '99, $3.1 million we performed in-house of our engineering type work. We outsourced $2.7 million of that, or about 46 percent of that was being outsourced. In 2000 we're projecting that we'll do $3.3 million in-house and that we'll contract out $9.2 million, for 74 percent of our work. And as you can see in 2001, we're projecting a pretty big change. We will continue to do about $3.5 million in-house. However, we're looking to the private sector to do about $21.1 million, for about 86 percent of our work having to go out.

This percentage and this pretty significant increase in the percentage does present several issues. Of course, we'll be looking to those folks to deliver and deliver on time. Otherwise, we won't meet our lettings. The other thing is that they -- we are competing for the same workforce, the same type of folks, to do this work, which means they'll be looking to maybe even bolster their workforce.

One of my concerns is, of course, that one of the primaries that they may look to recruiting for their workforce is my shop. And I can tell you right now they are not welcome in my shop, not when they are recruiting employees.

Of course, the other thing that this presents is that this type of work does require a lot of administration, so we will be looking at not only having to do our own design work, we'll also be looking at trying to administer and oversee these contracts, and that is a significant part of our effort. We did in the last couple of months, we did hire nine young engineers. Of course, with their relative inexperience, it may take another two years or so before they're really up to par and producing at the level that we certainly hope that they can.

However, as we were hiring those nine young engineers, we had about three or four of them walking out the back door going to the private sector. So that is a challenge that we're facing and an issue that we'll have to deal with when we start looking at outsourcing these considerable amounts of work.

One of the things that we have to look at when we administer and oversee these consultant projects is that we have to have personnel that have some experience and know what it is that they are overseeing. And of course, that's a big concern if those are the folks that perhaps may be getting lured to the private sector. So that is a major concern of ours -- of mine in particular, especially when I'm the one that you're going to be looking to when the work doesn't produce or materialize.

Of course, one of the major challenges that we face also in trying to get this workload out is that we are a nonattainment area. We have been nonattainment and classified by the EPA as nonattainment since the early 1970s. We're nonattainment in three pollutants, carbon monoxide, ozone and particulate matter. One good piece of information is that we have shown some improvements in improving the conditions for all three of the pollutants. Unlike some of our friends in Houston and Dallas, we do show some improvements.

The eight-hour nonattainment status -- and this is the big issue for some of the other areas, particularly those folks that are about to be named nonattainment -- won't be an issue for us because we won't be designated -- we won't fall into the eight-hour rule. We'll continue to function under the one-hour rule.

We do face a possible conformity lapse, but it isn't until November of 2001. And of course, we also are facing another possible lapse for our MTP, and that MTP is due in December of 2000 and we are currently working on that plan.

Some of the things that nonattainment does bring to us is that, of course, we have more stringent requirements for developing our plans and our programs. We, of course, have to make some pretty significant efforts at trying to comply with the air quality requirements. What this means is that we do have less flexibility in trying to modify our plans and our programs. We don't have too much flexibility in trying to accelerate any projects, particularly if they have already been modeled in a certain year. We do have to look at what impacts this causes to conformity when we do look at either accelerating projects or worse, any project delays.

Of course, the other is the uncertainty that our planning and development takes on when the air quality requirements change due to court rulings or model changes, new regulations, and as you already know, that is something that we're all facing right now.

Of course, one of the other challenges that we face in trying to make a program happen out here particularly is the issue of local match. We have had some areas take advantage of the economically disadvantaged county program that the department administers. As you can see, we've had five applications for the economically disadvantaged county adjustment, and as you can see, in Socorro, there was a project there for a total cost of $1.5 million with the state adjustment of 46.7 percent. The state did pick up $1.1 million of that, and so on, in fact, for a total of $3.8 million on all these projects.

We have also recently taken advantage -- or the locals have taken advantage of the State Infrastructure Bank loan program. In fact, the commission did approve two of those loans for the town of Anthony and the city of El Paso, and we have two applications before the commission for the city of Socorro and the city of Horizon.

And actually, maybe I didn't set my time right earlier. But it actually does conclude my presentation, I hope less than the two hours that it took me last night. And with that, I would be glad to answer any questions that you may have.

MR. LANEY: Thank you, Maribel. That was a great presentation, and time must move faster here in El Paso because it was not two hours. Different time zone, different dimension.

Members, do you all have any comments?

MR. NICHOLS: Excellent presentation.

MR. JOHNSON: Maribel, I'd like to thank you for the effort that you've put in. We all know it's a struggle dealing with the things that you have to deal with and retainage of engineering employees in the districts, and we are hopeful that after Representative Pickett's comments, the legislative branch is aware of some of the problems that you face, the challenges that you face. And I think working together, we can make some strides to provide some relief.

Those numbers are absolutely shocking, that you're basically at capacity and you have your limits and then the percentage obviously of outside work goes up. But the dramatic effect that it went up, as illustrated in those numbers, really alerts one to the situation.

MR. LANEY: Would you make copies -- I don't care about the ones with the pictures of the roads and the overpasses -- but copies of the slides, hard copies, and get them to the members of the commission, please?

MS. CHAVEZ: Yes, sir.

MR. LANEY: We could all use them. I want to take a second and, independent of your presentation, I want to compliment and thank you and all your staff for the great organization and particularly the hospitality you all showed last night. That was really very touching and very enjoyable. It is a terrific staff that you have here in the district and we're real proud of what you do, and as Johnny said, a little disturbed about the direction things are headed.

But to some extent, the overall or the underlying policies set by the legislature with respect to numbers of FTEs and compensation structure and so forth, although we did make some headway the last go-round, anyway, we've got sort of a fence around us and we need to make do as best we can with that policy. Although I don't believe that there is a lot of thought that goes into the impact of that policy in the transportation arena, nonetheless, it's a policy that sort of gives us a starting point and the ending point, so to speak.

But I too am disturbed at seeing the direction of the outsourcing. We knew it would be big and to the extent you need to continue to push that way, as you say, it will only feed itself or aggravate itself because we will need basically more responsibility for your people to take advantage of it. And I'm very concerned about that.

Nonetheless, as I said earlier to the legislators, I'm very optimistic that we're going to somehow or other wrestle this one to the ground. And you know you have the commitment of the commission and the resources of the department behind you. To the extent that we need to innovate and figure out how to use excess capacity anywhere else in our system, let's figure out how to do it.

Thank you very much for the presentation, Maribel.

MS. CHAVEZ: Thank you.

MR. LANEY: Now I'd like to proceed with the regular business of the regular meeting. We begin with the approval of minutes of our several commission meetings. We had a number of them in January, in addition to our regular meeting, and briefing on January 27. We had a special meeting on January 18 and a joint briefing with the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission on January 20.

With respect to the minutes of those three meetings, are there any comments, questions or corrections? If not, could I have a motion?

MR. NICHOLS: So moved

MR. JOHNSON: Second.

MR. LANEY: All in favor?

(All voted aye.)

MR. LANEY: Wes, I'll turn the rest of the agenda over to you.

MR. HEALD: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Commissioners, we have a relatively short business meeting today. At this point I'd ask the division directors to move down as close as they can or be prepared to move to the front as quick as they can when they are called upon.

We'll start off with agenda item number 3(a). This is administrative rules for proposed adoption beginning with Carlos Lopez. Carlos is the director of our Traffic Operations Division.

MR. LOPEZ: Good morning, commissioners. My name is Carlos Lopez, and I'm the director of the Traffic Operations Division. The minute order before you proposes amendments to the administrative rules to establish speed zones on the state highway system. This amendment will allow TxDOT to lower speed limits for environmental considerations based on requests from the Texas Natural Resources Conservation Commission in air quality nonattainment areas. Any proposed reduction must be a controlled measure within an area's air quality plan or be part of an area's transportation conformity demonstration.

This proposed amendment allows for the establishment of environmental speed limits for both existing and those about to be designated nonattainment areas. Speed reduction of up to 15 miles per hour would be implemented for both controlled and noncontrolled access roadways. TxDOT will have final approval authority for these requests based on the criteria established in the proposed amendment.

We worked very closely with the environmental affairs division of the TNRCC and OGC during development of the package and would like to thank them for their help on this complex issue. We recommend approval of this minute order for preliminary adoption.

MR. LANEY: Thank you, Carlos. I know you worked very hard on this and my compliments for moving as quickly as you did between the last meeting and this one getting this thing ready. Comments? Questions?

MR. NICHOLS: The only comment I have is not related to the proposed rule. You have answered all my questions on that. In the advertising and comment period, there will be, I'm anticipating, I think we will have a lot of comments related to this. Are we allowing an adequate comment period, or what type of comment period are we allowing?

MR. LOPEZ: The standard comment period is about 30 days and we do have an option of holding a public hearing or not holding a public hearing. I think we'd want to see what kind of comments come in and then go to final based on those comments.

MR. NICHOLS: Thank you.

MR. JOHNSON: I want to just make the observation or reinforce the observation of the collaborative work between TxDOT and TNRCC in this area, how important it is, and also salute you, Carlos, for the work that you've done between the divisions within TxDOT. This is a very important issue and that deserves notice, not only to work with them, but also the collaborative work with TNRCC.

MR. LOPEZ: Thank you.

MR. JOHNSON: Having said that, I would make motion for approval.

MR. NICHOLS: Second.

MR. LANEY: So just a word for the record. This rule does not change speed limits. It positions TxDOT to adjust speed limits if there are essential needs for such an adjustment in connection with air quality issues and mainly in metropolitan areas. It is not a rule that changes speed limits. It simply augments existing authority. We have a motion and second. All in favor?

(All voted aye.)

MR. HEALD: Agenda item 3(b), we have two rules for final adoption, starting with 3(b)(1). Bob Jackson of the Office of General Counsel will present this.

MR. JACKSON: Bob Jackson, deputy general counsel. This minute order finally adopts nonsubstantive amendments to our organizational rules.  The amendments merely reflect recent legislative changes to our relationship with the motor vehicle board, and there were no public comments.

MR. LANEY: Motion?

MR. NICHOLS: Motion.

MR. JOHNSON: Second.

MR. LANEY: All in favor?

(All voted aye.)

MR. LANEY: Thank you, Bob.

MR. HEALD: Agenda item 3(b)(2), Zane Webb. Zane is director of our Maintenance Division.

MR. WEBB: Good morning, commissioners. Zane Webb, Maintenance Division. The minute order that you've got before you adopts amendments to Section 29.21 through 29.26 concerning sanctioning of maintenance contractors. This revision is necessary to allow the department to clarify that sanctions may be imposed on contractors that are declared in default on maintenance contracts.

The range of the sanctions will be both less and more severe than is currently allowed, depending on the circumstances. The range in sanctions will be from 50 percent reduction in bidding capacity up to a debarment of up to 36 months. Currently, the only option for sanctions is a debarment. There were no comments during the public comment period. Staff recommends approval.

MR. NICHOLS: Submitted

MR. JOHNSON: Second.

MR. LANEY: All in favor?

(All voted aye.)

MR. HEALD: Agenda item 3(c), minute orders under rule review starting with 3(c)(1). Al Luedecke, director of our Transportation, Planning and Programming Division.

MR. LUEDECKE: Good morning, commissioners. I'm Al Luedecke, director of Transportation, Planning and Programming. The minute order we bring for you today initiates a rule review process or rules concerning transportation, planning and programming division. With your approval this minute order is a notice of the intent to review these rules and accept public comments in order to determine whether the rules should be continued in their existing state and will be filed with the Secretary of State. We recommend your approval of this minute order.

MR. LANEY: Comments, questions?

MR. NICHOLS: Submitted

MR. JOHNSON: Second.

MR. LANEY: All in favor?

(All voted aye.)

MR. HEALD: Item 3(c)(2), again, rule review, James Bass, director of the Finance Division.

MR. BASS: Good morning. I'm James Bass, director of the Finance Division. Agenda item 3(c)(2) is revising our rules of the collection of state debts and the State Infrastructure Bank. The purpose of the review was to determine whether reason for each rule continued to exist. Public comments were solicited during January regarding this rule review. No comments were received. The reasons for having these sanctions continue to exist and staff recommends you readopt these rules.

MR. LANEY: Motion?

MR. NICHOLS: So moved.

MR. JOHNSON: Second.

MR. LANEY: We have a motion and a second. All in favor?

(All voted aye.)

MR. HEALD: Agenda item 4. We have two minute orders on State Infrastructure Bank loans. Again, James Bass.

MR. BASS: Agenda item 4(a), this minute order seeks final approval of financial assistance to Lavaca County for the purpose of up to $400,000 in tax  notes to fund a portion of the cost to purchase right of way for and to replace deficient, off-state system bridges throughout the county. This minute order authorizes the purchase of tax notes for the four projects that have received environmental clearance. The remaining three projects will be presented to the commission as they receive environmental clearance.

Interest will accrue from the date the funds are transferred from the SIB at a rate of four percent per year with payment in the first three years including reduced principal amounts. Staff recommends approval.

MR. NICHOLS: Moved

MR. JOHNSON: Second.

MR. LANEY: All in favor?

(All voted aye.)

MR. BASS: Agenda item 4(b). This minute order seeks final approval of a loan to the city of Rockdale in the amount of $1 million to pay for the relocation of utilities required by the expansion of U.S. 79 in the city and to pay for the installation of replacement utility lines within the project limits. Interest will accrue from the date funds are transferred from the SIB at the rate of 4 percent, with payments being made over a period of 15 years. Staff recommends approval.

MR. NICHOLS: Moved.

MR. JOHNSON: Second.

MR. LANEY: All in favor?

(All voted aye.)

MR. BASS: Thank you.

MR. HEALD: Thank you, James. Agenda item number 5, Statewide Transportation Enhancement Program. Robert Wilson, director of our Design Division.

MR. LANEY: Let me mention on this item before you begin, Robert, we have three individuals signed up to speak on this. And if those who have signed up -- if there are any more who haven't signed the yellow card, please do so -- but you will follow Mr. Wilson's presentation.

MR. WILSON: Thank you. Good morning. I'm Robert Wilson. I'm director of the Design Division. In Title 23 of the United States Code and the Transportation Equity Act for 21st Century, or TEA-21, requires that 10 percent of certain funds be used for specific transportation enhancement activities. Criteria for this program are contained in Title 43, Texas Administrative Code, Sections 11.200 to 11.205.

This program is Category 4B, Unified Transportation Plan, and is known as the Statewide Transportation Enhancement Program. The 1999 program call for candidate projects was issued on April 16, 1999. The projects were received and evaluated according to the rules in the Texas Administrative Code. By Minute Order 108065 dated January 27, 2000, you selected 126 projects at an estimated cost of $123.97 million to be approved for development in this program.

The minute order I am presenting to you this morning proposes approving nine additional projects to be added to that program at an estimated cost of $5.85 million, as shown in Exhibit A attached to the minute order. If you approve this minute order, it will effectively use the programming funds available for this program call. And staff would recommend your approval.

MR. LANEY: Thank you, Robert. Let me call now the individuals signed up to speak to this. Let me begin with Bernie Sargent signed up to speak on behalf of Keystone Park. Is there a Bernie Sargent?

Kelly Elms representing Confederate Air Force Museum.

MS. ELMS: Good morning, Chairman Laney, Commissioners Nichols and Johnson. You may remember the Confederate Air Force Museum put forth a proposal to you for TEA-21 funding to establish a display hangar to house our B-29 and our B-24. Our B-29 is the only flying B-29 in the world. That hangar would protect those historical artifacts.

But more than that, it would allow us to almost triple our educational outreach to our two outlying communities of Midland and Odessa. Currently, we see about an average of about 10,000 students every year. This hangar would allow us to triple our services to our elementary school students through aviation boot camp. 14

It would also allow us to partner with the vocational projects that are at two of our high schools in aviation training and technology, and it would also allow us to hopefully partner with one of our local community colleges with aviation training and technology.

We also provide significant tourism dollars to our area. We see about 65,000 tourists on the average and about 55 percent of those are from outside of about a 200-mile radius. So with the additional hangar space, we could offer to -- we could house even more of our World War II warbirds. We own currently about 161 that are in flying condition, and that would allow even more of those to rotate and be on display for our tourists.

Thirdly, as you know, the -- in December the FHWA announced in a ruling that this would be the one and only project call for aviation projects, so this now becomes a one-and-only situation for us. So with that information in mind, I would urgently ask you to reconsider our project for funding. Thank you.

I would be happy to answer any questions that you might have.

MR. LANEY: Before you leave, let us focus on -- we won't argue with you on points one and two. Let's focus a little bit on number three. We have as of this morning, on the basis of conversations that some of our staff has had and Commissioner Nichols has had with the head of the -- I believe he is the head of the FHWA, head of the Federal Highway Administration here in the Austin area, we've had an opportunity to visit with him and raised the question about that rule that you just alluded to and whether, in fact, it does prohibit the allocation of funds on an enhancement program to an aircraft museum or an air or flight museum, however we want to call it.

I think -- and I don't want to put words in Mr. Nichols' mouth. I think he will be able to elaborate. But my impression is pretty clear that he is very comfortable with the notion of the investment of enhancement funds in the future in connection with flight or air or aircraft museums, not in connection with runways and other aviation kinds of improvements.

So my impression is, and I believe it's a reliable one, that this is not the last chance for the Confederate Air Museum. There has been a lot of discussion among, not between, but among members of the commission and their staffs with respect to this particular issue based upon contacts made from your community to me and other members of the commission that concerned us, quite honestly.

And were it not for the information we had this morning, I think there is a great likelihood that we would go ahead and approve the enhancement that you've been -- that the Confederate Air Force Museum has asked for. But on the basis of what we've heard this morning, I think we're comfortable that you're not foreclosed from future enhancement funds, and that considering what else we might be doing in the Midland area in terms of enhancement museum funds, this is probably not the best opportunity for it. Probably the next round.

Now, I don't want to misstate what --

MS. ELMS: I'm not sure if that's good news or bad news for me.

MR. LANEY: It's a little of both, I think, as long as we're right. Commissioner Nichols.

MR. NICHOLS: I think Chairman Laney described it quite well. The meeting we had this morning with the FHWA described that although the ruling referred to may prohibit aviation enhancement type projects, the transportation museums where aviation is reflected in those museums was not included in that. And very specifically museums related to aviation would be open for enhancements, not only on this project, specific project, but other projects of this nature that the state might want to consider in the future.

MS. ELMS: Okay.

MR. NICHOLS: So the aviation museums or transportation museums were not prohibited.

MS. ELMS: Okay. All right. Thank you so much. You know, as we said in our proposal, we consider it a perfect historical complement to surface transportation. Those planes, many of them, even though they are bombers, carried personnel and cargo and fuel. And, you know, how else were we going to get it over there? Thank you so much.

MR. LANEY: Before you leave, Ms. Elms, we all agree with you, and we agree with the value of this particular project. And although I don't think I'll be around to cast my vote in connection with the decision, I do think that you can, for the record, take it to the bank, in effect, that you are not foreclosed from future applications or future funding. And if the sentiment of this commission continues into the next round, I think the Confederate Air Museum has a great shot at the funding it needs.

MS. ELMS: Thank you. I appreciate those kind words.

MR. LANEY: Joe -- and I will mispronounce your name -- Paniagua.

MR. PANIAGUA: That's close. I'll do it for you. Chairman Laney and Commissioners Nichols and Johnson, Executive Director Heald, my name is Joe Paniagua, assistant to the city manager for the City of Fort Worth. I just want to take a moment of time here to deliver a letter of appreciation from Mayor Kenneth Barr. The mayor expresses his gratitude for consideration of the City of Fort Worth's application for step funding and the selection of the projects that have been made so far by the staff and the commission, and we appreciate it. And I'm just going to deliver these letters to you.

MR. LANEY: Thank you.

MR. PANIAGUA: Thank you.

MR. LANEY: I understand Mr. Bernie Sargent has reappeared. Mr. Sargent?

MR. SARGENT: Thank you. My apology. I was following the format and I thought we were at the end, so I stepped out to call the office. My name is  Bernie Sargent, and I'm past president, current vice president of the Keystone Heritage Park Project. And on behalf of the group, I would like to welcome you to El Paso and thank you folks and everyone, including all the elected officials that have been here today, the media, and the countless hundreds of volunteers and thousands of letters of support we have gotten from around the area for supporting the Keystone Heritage Park Project in its enhancement application.

I know you took a tour out there real quickly yesterday and we've heard very favorable remarks back from you folks, and we'd like to emulate our appreciation -- I would like to emulate the appreciation of all the folks in the organization by telling you that our goal is to take the very best of similar parks, similar projects around the country that attract hundreds of thousands of tourists on an annual basis, combine those into the Keystone Heritage Park Project and build on success.

Our ultimate goal is to make El Paso and Texas proud of the Keystone Heritage Park Project and invite you back when we cut the ribbon in the next couple of years. Thank you.

MR. LANEY: Thank you, Mr. Sargent.

MR. LANEY: I think we have the recommendation -- we have the presentation from Mr. Wilson and a minute order before us with the projects on it.

MR. JOHNSON: I would make a motion to approve the recommendation.

MR. LANEY: Do we have a second?

MR. NICHOLS: Second.

MR. LANEY: All in favor?

(All voted aye.)

MR. HEALD: Agenda item number 6 is Robert's, also, approval of local financing from Denton County for a certain highway.

MR. WILSON: The next minute order I am presenting to you this morning is to authorize the department to enter into an agreement with Denton County where the county will furnish 100 percent of the funding of the construction of a frontage road and relocate a ramp along Interstate Highway 35 from north of Elizabeth Creek to State Highway 114 for a distance of approximately half a mile. This is an extension of a southbound frontage road. This project is identified in the Statewide Transportation Improvement Program.

The department will award and manage the construction project. Title 43 of the Texas Administrative Code in Section 15.56 describes criteria under which a local government may finance an approved highway improvement project. This proposed project, in conjunction with other connecting roadways in the area being constructed by others, would improve traffic circulation and reduce congestion in the area of the Texas Motor Speedway. Staff recommends your approval.

MR. LANEY: Can we have a motion?

MR. NICHOLS: So moved.

MR. JOHNSON: Second.

MR. LANEY: All in favor?

(All voted aye.)

MR. HEALD: Al Luedecke, director of Transportation Planning and Programming Division, will present three minute orders for your consideration under item 7, Programs.

MR. LUEDECKE: Commissioners, I'm Al Luedecke, director of Transportation Planning and Programming. On February 26, 1991, the Texas Transportation Commission approved Minute Order 91349 which established responsibility for the Grand Parkway Association to furnish 87.5 percent of the right of way for segment I-2 of State Highway 99. This is locally known as the Grand Parkway. This minute order also provided that the association should make a good faith effort to acquire 100 percent of the right of way, and in the event the association was unable to acquire that 100 percent of the right of way, the department would then acquire the remainder at the then estimated cost of $210,000.

Houston District, which oversees the development of Grand Parkway, reports that the association has fulfilled its obligation to make a good faith effort to acquire 100 percent of the right of way and has, in fact, received commitments for more than 80 percent of the required right of way. The district also recommends that the percentage of the right of way be adjusted in order to execute a timely construction of a portion of segment I-2 of State Highway 99 from Interstate Highway 10 east to Farm-to-Market Road 1405, a distance of approximately 9 miles. This segment is currently in Priority 1 Category 12 of the 2000 Unified Transportation Program.

The minute order we have for you today considers authorizing reducing the required percentage of right of way to be provided by the association from 87.5 percent to 82 percent of the total right of way required for Segment I-2 of the Grand Parkway. This minute order also authorizes the department to proceed with the necessary acquisition of the remaining 18 percent of the required right of way at an estimated cost to the department of $500,000.

All provisions of the Minute Order 91349 except those affected by this minute order would remain in effect, and staff recommends your approval of this minute order.

MR. NICHOLS: So moved.

MR. JOHNSON: Second

MR. LANEY: All in favor?

(All voted aye.)

MR. LUEDECKE: Item 7(b) we bring to you the second quarter program for disadvantaged counties to adjust matching funds requirements. In your books at Exhibit A, that lists the projects and the staff's recommended adjustments for each of them. The adjustments are based on the equations approved earlier for earlier proposals. There are 42 applications in 11 counties and the reduction in participation for all these projects is $2,188,043.

We recommend approval of this minute order.

MR. NICHOLS: I so move, but I want to make one comment. I know when we put this program together in the methodology of how we would handle this, there were some concerns inside the department, and I want to say that I'm very pleased with the progress and the handling of this program. I think the department has done a good job and it's well balanced, and I've had nothing but positive feedback really related to it from the field.

MR. LANEY: Thank you. We have a motion.

A second?

MR. JOHNSON: Second.

MR. LANEY: All in favor?

(All voted aye.)

MR. LUEDECKE: Item 7(c), House Bill 1, 76th Legislature, Rider 50 of the Appropriations to the Texas Department of Transportation appropriated $6 million in nonconstitutionally dedicated state highway funds to the department to purchase the rail located on rail right of way owned by the department extending from Coleman County and ending at the international border in Presidio, Texas. This rail line, formerly owned by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Company was commonly referred to as the South Orient Line.

The department acquired an interest in this right of way under the terms of a 1991 grant funding agreement with the South Orient Rural Rail Transportation District, approved by the commission under Minute Order 100061 dated September 30, 1991. This minute order authorized the expenditure of $3 million to rural rail districts for the purpose of improving or expanding transportation in those districts.

As a brief background, pursuant to minute order -- that minute order previously mentioned, the department transferred $3 million to the rail district, which used the funds as part of the price of purchasing the South Orient Line from the Santa Fe Railway Company in order to assure the availability of those assets for continued rail service. In exchange, the department acquired the rail right of way and a security interest in the installed rails, signals, switches, structures and other improvements on the line.

Part of the 1991 transaction included a to the current operator on the line, the South Orient Railroad Company, and a lease agreement between the rail district and the South Orient Rail Company providing for the company's operation of the South Orient Line and an option to purchase, install rails, signals, switches, structures, and other improvements on the line.

On June 17, 1998, the South Orient Railroad Company filed a petition with the Federal Surface Transportation Board for authority to abandon the line and was granted approval to discontinue operating trains along that line. The company still retains the ability to file for an abandonment and possibly salvage the installed rails and improvements. That would be if the circumstances warrant and authorization is obtained from the surface transportation board.

The company has however, indicated a willingness to transfer its leasehold interest, operating easements and other assets and rights relating to the operation of the South Orient Line for the sum of $9.5 million. The South Orient Line maintains rail service capability to 11 West Texas counties with the potential for reducing the impacts of heavy freight loads on the state highway system.

The line also provides one of the only five rail gateways between Texas and Mexico and one of the only eight rail gateways along the entire U.S.-Mexico border. The preservation of railroad service along this corridor provides for rural economic development and maintains regional rail transportation infrastructure necessary for future NAFTA trade and border economic development.

In order to preserve this scarce asset and control future line abandons and salvaging, it's necessary to not only acquire the installed rail and other improvements on the line, but also the leaseholder interest railroad operating easements and other rights held by the South Orient Railroad Company. With the approval of this minute order, the department may expend $6 million appropriated under Rider 50 and up to $3.5 million in other funds to acquire a leasehold interest, railroad operating easement and other assets and rights held by the South Orient Railroad Company relating to the South Orient Line and acquiring the installed rates, signals, switches, structures and other improvements on the line from the rail district.

If you concur, the executive director will be authorized to begin negotiations and to enter into agreements necessary to carry out this acquisition and the terms of this minute order. Staff believes this minute order implements requirements of Rider 50 and will provide for the continued operation of railroad service along this valuable corridor. We recommend your approval of this minute order.

MR. LANEY: Thank you. Let me make a couple of comments just to clarify some things. The minute order is permissive. There is no requirement or mandate that we spend any dollars on the South Orient, either 6 million or 3.5, and we may spend nothing. And on the other hand, we're hopeful that we can protect what we perceive to be a very valuable corridor, but there is certainly no obligation to do so. This basically authorizes us to move forward.

Do the commissioners have any comments or questions?

MR. NICHOLS: So moved

MR. JOHNSON: Second.

MR. LANEY: All in favor?

(All voted aye.)

MR. HEALD: Thomas Bohuslav, director of Construction Division, will present a minute order, that being agenda item 8(a)(1) and (2).

MR. BOHUSLAV: My name is Thomas Bohuslav. I'm director of the Construction Division.

Item 8(a)(1) is for consideration of award or rejection of highway maintenance contracts let on February 2 and 3, 2000, and whose engineers' estimated costs are $300,000 or more.

We have one project we recommend for rejection. That's in Franklin County. That project, we had two bidders, we'd like to go back and make some modifications to this project and relet it to get more competition. The staff recommends the award with the exception noted. Any questions?

MR. JOHNSON: I make a motion.

MR. NICHOLS: Second.

MR. LANEY: All in favor?

(All voted aye.)

MR. BOHUSLAV: Agenda item 8(a)(2) is for consideration of award and rejection of highway construction and building contracts let on February 2 and 3. We have three projects we recommend for rejection. The first one is in Gillespie County. That's a rest area reconstruction project. We only had one bidder on the project and it came in high. We'd like to go back and rebid and get more competition.

The second project recommended for rejection is in Reeves County, is a microsurfacing project in Reeves County. We didn't have much competition. We had one bid for that project. We'd like to go back and consider other alternative treatments to save some of our funds on that project.

And the last project recommended for rejection is in Upton County. We only had one bid we could accept on that project and it came in high, 28 percent over. We'd like to go back and advertise and try to get more competition for that project.

The staff recommends award of all projects with the exceptions noted.

MR. LANEY: Any questions?

MR. NICHOLS: I had one question. It's not about any of the specific contracts, but a generality. I notice that the estimated underrun, in other words, estimated cost of these projects versus bid, the bids came in actually overall about 13 percent less than we had estimated, and I notice the previous month or two of awards a similar pattern, although smaller, had also occurred.

So we've got a period of a heated economy and a tremendous amount of construction going on, yet the last several meetings our bids are coming in under estimate. Are we overestimating or are we getting something unique changed in the materials, like concrete prices or something, that's accounting for some of this?

MR. BOHUSLAV: In looking at the highway cost index number, that number is an index based on quantities of work in several major areas, concrete, pavement areas, hot mix. We look at the highway cost index, there is an index set in year 1987 that's 100, and today it's running about 139, for a moving average. And that tells us better whether or not unit prices are moving up as opposed to our estimates moving up.

And what I believe is occurring is the districts have moved their estimate prices up to try to catch up with the economy and that we're there now and maybe a little ahead of it in some cases. However, we are seeing increased activities from contractors, and I did talk to some contractors, in fact, the other day and what they have told us is because of good weather, they are able to pull their projects, get their projects moved out and get their payouts lower on their projects or get 50 percent of their work done on their projects, so they are having to bid more to pick up more work.

So we're seeing both increased activities, maybe some reduction in prices, but generally the highway cost index is running about the same as it had been.

MR. NICHOLS: Thank you.

MR. LANEY: When you say increased activity, that's where we see more bidders?

MR. BOHUSLAV: That's when we see more bidders, because they moved out the projects that they have already paid and their payment -- in other words, there is over 50 percent of the work done on those projects, so they need more work for future work. They are bidding more.

MR. NICHOLS: One benefit of the drought. I so move.

MR. LANEY: A motion. A second?

MR. JOHNSON: I second.

MR. LANEY: All in favor?

(All voted aye.)

MR. HEALD: Commissioners, I might add, too, that it was just a very short while ago we were very concerned about contractor capacity, and I think we were having about three and a half bids per project on the average. We saw -- I think it went on over five last month and the contractors are telling us pretty well across the state that they need more work now. So there is every indication to show that they are gearing up.

MR. LANEY: Too bad engineers don't work in dry weather.

MR. HEALD: Let's see. That brings us to item 8(b), Zane Webb, director of the Maintenance Division. And this is going to surprise you. This is the second situation we've had a maintenance contract with a second low bid.

MR. WEBB: Zane Webb, Maintenance Division. This minute order proposes acceptance of withdrawal of a bid after bid opening on a routine maintenance contract and award of the contract to the second low bidder. The lowest bidder on guardrail contract number 12991295 in Wilson County, San Antonio District, failed to execute the contract. Infrastructure Services, the second low bidder, has agreed to do that contract at the low bidder's price. The low bid is approximately 27 percent under the engineer's estimate. There are six bidders on the contract. Staff recommends approval.

MR. NICHOLS: So moved.

MR. JOHNSON: Second.

MR. LANEY: All in favor?

(All voted aye.)

MR. WEBB: Thank you.

MR. HEALD: Zane, before you leave, Commissioners, as I understand it, that second low bidder was significantly higher than the first bid. Is that correct?

MR. WEBB: $11,000.

MR. HEALD: Kind of surprising, too.

MR. WEBB: About 12 percent.

MR. NICHOLS: But he accepted the lower bid.

MR. HEALD: That brings us to item number 9, several minute orders for your consideration under routine. I will handle those and go through those until you stop me.

Starting with 9(a), Speed Zones, establish or alter regulatory and construction speed zones on various sections of highways in the state. 9(b), revision of load restrictions on various roads and bridges on the state highway system. 9(c), under Highway Designation, remove a segment of Loop 275 from the state highway system from U.S. 290 southerly to Williamson Creek, a distance of .963 miles.

9(d)(1), Right of Way Disposition, Purchase and Lease, in Brazoria County, State Highway 35, at House Street in the city of Alvin, consider the sale of two tracts of surplus right of way to the abutting landowner and the release of a surplus highway easement. 9(d)(2), Harris County, Interstate 45 at South Shaver Street in the city of Houston, consider the sale of a tract of surplus right of way to the abutting landowner.

9(d)(3), in Tarrant County, State Highway 183, west of Wilshire Drive in the city of Euless, consider the exchange of a surplus drainage easement for a new drainage easement. 9(d)(4), in Travis County, Interstate 35 at Grand Avenue Parkway, consider the sale of a tract of surplus right of way to the abutting landowner.

9(d)(5), in Wise County, U.S. 380 in the city of Decatur, consider the exchange of a tract of surplus right of way for an addition to the Decatur maintenance site.

9(e)(1), Donations to the Department. In Presidio County, U.S. 67/90, seven miles east of Marfa, consider the acceptance of a land donation. 9(e)(2), in Williamson County, U.S. 183, on Pond Springs Road between RM 620 and Travis County line, consider the acceptance of a land donation.

9(f), in Denton County, authorize the establishment of a temporary one-way traffic control from the Texas Motor Speedway along FM 156 during the race events. 9(g), under Eminent Domain Proceedings, request for eminent domain proceedings on noncontrolled and controlled access highways, and there is a list, itemized list of those.

And Mr. Chairman, that completes my portion of the routine minute orders.

MR. LANEY: Any questions? Can I get a motion for all the items?

MR. JOHNSON: So moved.

MR. NICHOLS: Second.

MR. LANEY: Motion and a second. All in favor?

(All voted aye.)

MR. HEALD: We have no need for an executive session, and we have several speakers lined up for open comment.

MR. LANEY: This begins the open comment period, Mr. Raul Rivas.

MR. RIVAS: Good morning. My name is Raul Rivas. I'm a member of EPISO. We are part of the Texas Industrial Areas Foundation. And I'm here to talk about -- Mr. Pickett was saying that there is a lot of love here. Well, there is a lot of love in our community for our school children, and our school children are still going to school through puddles of water through the middle of the street because Alameda has no drainage, has no sidewalks.

It is because we love our children that EPISO and the alliance schools initiated the Alameda project, and today we want to recognize Representative Joe Pickett and TxDOT here in El Paso for working together, and we understand that they are going to initiate some improvements around the school zones, which is very greatly needed.

But the fact of the matter is that Alameda used to be a beautiful maintained highway, and over the years, thousands of families have moved down to the Lower Valley and the highway has been completely ignored. If you renovate Alameda Street, and I know you will, but I want to make sure that you prioritize Alameda, not only for the safety of our school children, but because it will also be a plus for the quality of life here in El Paso, in our community.

And it is time that this great state of Texas improve this very ugly portion of Texas Highway 20, where we have thousands of school children. So I'm here today to remind you that we understand the importance of NAFTA, we understand the importance of traffic going through El Paso as soon as possible. But nothing could be more important than the lives and the safety of our school children. So I'm asking you,  please, to prioritize Alameda Street. Thank you.

MR. LANEY: Thank you, Mr. Rivas. We appreciate your comments. It's not the first time we've heard about Alameda, and we're aware of it. Thank you.

6 I'm not going to do this one justice.

Jerry Thiedt? If you say things badly enough, people don't recognize their names.

Michael Lynch. Welcome, Mr. Lynch.

MR. LYNCH: Thank you for your time, gentlemen. I want to mention a project in Dell City, Texas. That's Hudspeth County, the next county over. We have a new acquisition by the national park of the White Sand Dunes, and I was hoping to get your advice and guidance on how to get a road from our little town to the national park. The TxDOT people are aware of it, but I don't think we have any priority or any procedure started to get this project under way.

The national park people have said they will cooperate and build to what you folks might build, and so we might get two miles for one if the national park does their part and the state does their part.

Hopefully, I can get some guidance from you as to how to proceed.

MR. LANEY: Let me understand you. Did I understand you to say the national park system has said they will build two to one?

MR. LYNCH: No, they will build on their land to meet whatever you folks choose to do.

MR. LANEY: Well, I don't know that we're going to be able to give you any grand advice right here at the moment. But if you can hang around for a little while afterwards, I think we might be able to get together with our district engineer and other members of the staff and at least begin to give you some guidance on how best to approach this.

MR. LYNCH: Thank you very much.

MR. LANEY: And if you've got time to stay, we'll encourage you to stay. And we're nearly at the end.

MR. LYNCH: Thank you.

MR. LANEY: Joyce Watkins.

MS. WATKINS: Good morning, Commissioners. My name is Joyce Watkins and I'm with -- excuse me. I'm a little nervous. I'm with Payless Nursery, and we have a retail nursery and landscaping company here in El Paso. And what I'm asking you for is we would like to do some landscaping work for TxDOT, and in fact, we do have one job done at Alpine that we will be doing coming up very shortly. But some of the general contractors that are hired in El Paso have a reputation for not paying their subs, and I can't take that chance.

Now, all I'm asking you to do is to implement a procedure that many of the other entities do, to where the general contractor shows that they have paid their sub before they receive final payment. That protects me as a subcontractor. If I do work for TxDOT, I would really like to get my money for it.

MR. LANEY: Well, you know, we don't blame you.

MS. WATKINS: My second concern, my other concern, it's kind of along the same line. We look at a lot of contracts, although we don't bid a lot of them because we know who the general is that's going to get the job. And we see what is planted and we have the specs, we look at the specs, and what's going in is not what was spec'd. That's not fair to me as a bidder, that what I bid on is not what's going into the job.

I can't say anything other than landscaping, because I don't have any expertise there. I know in the landscaping portion, a lot of times the trees do not meet the caliber, the weed mat that's going in is not what is spec'd. I realize there are change orders, but it's too much of it going on in this town.

MR. LANEY: Thank you very much.

Let me try one more time and call Jerry Thiedt.

Does anyone else expect to testify who might not have signed one of these blue cards, speaking of public testimony?

If there is no further business before the commission, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn.

MR. NICHOLS: So moved.

MR. JOHNSON: Second.

MR. LANEY: All in favor?

(All voted aye.)

MR. LANEY: As we adjourn, let me thank again all those from El Paso and from our district who have spent so much time and energy making this possible and making it as hospitable a visit as we've had in a long time. Thank you very much.

The meeting is adjourned and the time is 11:30.

(Meeting adjourned at 11:30 a.m.)

CERTIFICATE

I, John M. Eby, Jr., Certified Shorthand Reporter of the State of Texas, do hereby certify that the above and foregoing contains a true and correct transcription of the proceedings.

Certified to on March 10, 2000.

_______________________

John M. Eby, Jr.
Certified Shorthand Reporter
Texas CSR No. 1418
Expires December 31, 2001
(25489)

City Council Chambers
Civic Center Plaza
El Paso Texas

9:00 a.m. Thursday, February 24, 2000 Regular Meeting

1. Report
   Officials from Chihuahua, Mexico, will discuss transportation related issues.
   (English translation of the presentation of Secretary Anchondo.)

SECRETARY ANCHONDO: Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen: In the name of the governor of the state of Chihuahua, Patricio Martinez Garcia, we thank you for your gracious invitation to this public information meeting held by the Texas Transportation Commission.

As a border state, Chihuahua has real opportunities for growth in the area of communication and transportation, and this responsibility should be shared by government and society.

Economic and social integration is what must drive us to define new remodernization programs in these areas, this being the strategy for assuring growth in the [state’s] different regions. We see this as a great responsibility but also as a great opportunity for developing, planning and overseeing the different transportation services.

One of the [services] that presents itself is the maquiladora industry, which with its capacity for generating jobs and potential as an economic spark, requires a large infrastructure that will allow for harmonious and systematic development.

One of the fundamental aspects for this industry’s continuance and development is transportation, transportation for its finished products and consumables. Of equal importance is the transportation that should be provided to the workers who bring life to this important industry.

Sustained growth in the maquiladora industry began in the ‘60s and took off in the ‘80s; employing close to 40,000 people, changing the appearance of the cities and their ways of life and, of course, demanding more and better public transportation and more and better international crossings for cargo.

Currently, there are about 300,000 workers employed by this industry throughout the state. The most important industrial parks, due to their size, are the ones in Ciudad Juárez and Chihuahua [City].

In the state, 2,599 passenger buses transport approximately 1,316,000 passengers daily. Independently of this, 2,599 buses transport approximately 198,000 maquiladora workers daily.

The state of Chihuahua currently has nine border crossings or bridges, five of which are for commercial and light (tourist) vehicles and the remaining four, are exclusively for light vehicles and pedestrians. Of these nine international crossings, two are on the border with New Mexico and seven with Texas.

The annual volume of vehicles in the state of Chihuahua with the neighboring states of Texas and New Mexico, light and commercial vehicles, is approximately 47,122,763 crossings in both directions.

Due to the important trade exchange between the two countries by land routes, motor carrier transportation plays a primary role. In considering that in the current situation there exist priority problem issues at the border crossings in the Ciudad Juárez area, which are as follows:

1. One of the problems is that there is no uniformity in the hours of service at the Customs’ cargo lines. For example, the Cordova Bridge of the Americas, on the Mexican side, opens for imports and exports at 8:00 a.m. and closes at 8:00 p.m. The American side opens at 6:30 a.m. and closes at 6:00 p.m. This is different from Customs on both sides, at the Zaragoza/Ysleta Bridge, which open at 8:00 a.m. and close at midnight.

Also, we can add the increased cost since the Cordova Bridge of the Americas, unlike the Zaragoza Bridge, is free.

2. Another problem that is considered to exist, is the very prolonged time to cross from Ciudad Juárez to El Paso, Texas, through the Cordova and Zaragoza bridges. At peak hours, the time it takes to cross the border is approximately four hours. This is not including the amount of time it takes to get in line for the appropriate customs facility.

Considering the problems mentioned in point number one concerning schedules, we think there are two solutions:

A. Extend service hours at the Cordova Bridge until midnight, as they are at the Ysleta-Zaragoza crossing.

B. The hours of service between Customs (Mexican and American) at the different border crossings should be uniform and coincide with each other, with the goal of distributing the volume of commercial vehicles and thus contributing to avoiding congestion, wait times and pollution.

Concerning what was expressed in point number two, this problem could be resolved by putting into operation a larger number of inspections booths, by taking advantage of the existing infrastructure, since out of six inspection booths normally only three or four are open at any given time at the Cordova and Zaragoza Bridges. Also, speeding up the inspection procedures and aiming for better coordination between the authorities that are directly involved in the inspections that are done on both sides of the border.

As you know, the XVII US-MX Border Governors’ Conference was held last September, in which the ten state leaders from both countries created a document entitled the "1999 Joint Communiqué". One of the subjects developed was that of border crossings, which included nine points, of which numbers 1, 3, 5 and 6 encompassed problems and alternative solutions relating to the state of Chihuahua, basically the Ciudad Juárez area.

Based on the aforementioned, we believe that both of the states that are meeting here should insist to the different federal agencies involved in issues related to border crossings and bridges that there be follow up and above all favorable answers to the suggestions made by the border governors. By doing this, we are sure that the trade exchange favoring Mexico and the United States would improve considerably, especially in the neighboring states on both sides of the border.

MOTOR CARRIER TRANSPORTATION UNDER THE NORTH AMERICAN FREE TRADE AGREEMENT (NAFTA)

Concerning the North American Free Trade Agreement and the "national" treatment that should be given to the service providers from the signatories, in order to obtain a permit to allow them to provide cross-border freight and passenger service with a fixed itinerary. As we know, in the first stage from the 18^th of December 1995, three years after the signing of the treaty, U.S. and Canadian cargo transport companies were to be able to provide international services in the border states of Mexico (Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas). From those states to the U.S. southern states, the Mexican carriers were in this same way supposed to provide services to Canada and the U.S. border states. In addition, up to a 49 percent foreign investment in international passenger and cargo companies was to be permitted. [Except for a] unilateral moratorium decreed by the United States preventing implementation of cross-border transportation.

Even though this matter is the responsibility of the federal governments of both countries, we believe we should urge the fulfillment of the agreements, already signed by both countries, by adjusting the established dates. By doing this, commercial exchange between the northern states of Mexico and the southern states of the United States would increase and be strengthened.

WEIGHTS AND DIMENSIONS:

With regard to this subject, a program is being developed to standardize weights, dimensions and capacity of motor carrier vehicles that travel on roads under state jurisdiction, a program that is in the review phase.

In developing this project, the first step was completing a classification of state highways. Secondly, the established federal standards were used as the basis to determine the maximum permitted weights per class of vehicle or vehicular combination, as well as their dimensions.

Regarding the highway infrastructure projects in the state of Chihuahua with the United States and other states in the Mexican republic; within the state development plan for 1999-2004, the communication and transportation infrastructure is considered, among others, as a priority and of a strategic nature for assuring economic growth in the different regions of the state. It is a fundamental factor for economic and social integration, both in the interior and with its relationships with other states and countries.

Therefore, studies have been performed to determine the economic and social viability of the following border highways:

1. The segment from Santa Teresa to the Zaragoza Bridge, with a length of 36 kilometers;
2. The segment from Zaragoza Bridge to El Porvenir, with a length of 70 kilometers;
3. The segment from El Porvenir to Ojinaga, with a length of 230 kilometers; as well as
4. The construction of the second layer of the Aldama to Ojinaga highway, with a length of 202 kilometers.

Also, the possibility of constructing the following highway segments is being analyzed:

1. From Madera to Sahuaripa, Sonora highway, the segment from Madera to the state line, with a length of 90 kilometers;
2. From San Rafael to Bahuichivo to Reforma to the state line to the city of El Fuerte, Sinaloa, with a length of 153 kilometers;
3. The highway form Chihuahua to Coahuila, with a length of 75 kilometers;
4. From the Port of Sabinal to Atascaderos to the Chihuahua state line to Culiacán, Sinaloa, with a length of 85 kilometers.

Also, under study is the construction of the following beltways:

1. North to south in the city of Chihuahua, with a length of 30 kilometers;
2. In the city of Aldama, Chihuahua, with a length of 5.7 kilometers;
3. In the city of Camargo, Chihuahua, with a length of 12 kilometers; and
4. Improvements of the road through the city of Jiménez, with a length of 3.6 kilometers.

As a result of the opening up of the markets, the border economic sectors between Mexico and the United States have suffered a great change that has substantially impacted the rhythm of life in these border areas, bringing with it as a consequence an increase in both commercial and industrial activities, as well as in agricultural activities. It is with the construction of the border highway from Santa Teresa to the Santa Fe Bridge to Zaragoza to Porvenir to Ojinaga, that the highway network which will contribute to the development of different economic sectors, as well as the strengthening of the state’s infrastructure, is increased. Along with the construction of new routes in core population areas, social demand for decongesting the current routes will be satisfied with the construction of modern highways at the quality level of the greatest cities.

On the other hand, with the improvement to the Aldama-Ojinaga highway, particularly in the segment named El Peguis and its expansion to four lanes, the existing infrastructure will be allowed to provide better safety and speed to those travelling this important section that will be part of the Dallas/Fort Worth to Chihuahua to Topolobampo, Sinaloa, commercial and tourist corridor. This constitutes the shortest route to the Pacific through the state of Chihuahua; its medium term consolidation will have a positive impact on the regional and state productive activity.

On another note, recently the government of the state, through the General Secretariat of Government, the Secretariat of Communications and Public Works, the S.C.T. center of Chihuahua, the Autonomous University of Chihuahua, the U.S. Federal Highway Administration, the New Mexico Department of Transportation and the Texas Department of Transportation signed an agreement of intent to support the creation of a "Center for Transfer of Transportation Technology in the State of Chihuahua," for which we are very grateful.

The objective of this center is to support the development of science and technology in the transportation sector through three principal lines of action, which are:

• Training,
• Services of documentation and information, and
• Projects for transportation technology transfer.

Thank you.

(Translation by the International Relations Office of the Texas Department of Transportation.)