At the request of Fayette County Judge Ed Janecka, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) will hold a meeting in LaGrange this month to explain the Trans Texas Corridor.

The Trans Texas Corridor is a 4,000-mile multimodal statewide network of tollroads, rail and utilities that TxDOT claims will allow for much faster and safer transportation of people and goods. The plan approved and set in motion by the Texas Transportation Commission will require more than 580,000 acres of land across rural Texas and will pass through at least 117 Texas counties.

Legislation passed last year gives TxDOT the authority to construct all 4,000 miles of the Trans Texas Corridor. Voter approval will not be required for any aspect of this $184 billion dollar project.

During the month February TxDOT held hearings across Texas to gather public input on potential routes for the corridor.  For most communities this was the first that they had heard about the Trans Texas Corridor.

Members of the public as well as local government officials across the state expressed concerns about the corridor and the impact it would have to their communities. Such was also the case at the hearings held in Columbus and LaGrange last month.

The TxDOT officials who conducted these hearings were unprepared to answer questions.

At the LaGrange meeting Fayette County Judge Janecka requested that the District Engineer hold another meeting and ask the Governor and Chairman of the Transportation Commission attend to answer community questions.  Both appeared on a videotape shown at the February hearing. It is not know if either will attend the scheduled meeting.

CorridorWatch.org, a statewide citizen's watchdog group, has confirmed that TxDOT Executive Director Michael Behrens, P.E., will be in attendance to address questions at the March 23rd meeting.

Linda Stall of CorridorWatch.org warns county officials that, "for every mile of corridor that cuts your county in half, TxDOT will take 146 acres of land. That's thousands of acres that will come off your tax rolls."

CorridorWatch.org estimates that the planned priority corridors will take approximately 4,000 acres in Fayette County, 6,500 acres in Austin County, and near 7,000 acres in Bastrop County. Austin and Bastrop are among just a few unlucky counties to have two priority corridors.

"It's extremely important that the public be well informed," said Stall. "Citizens and officials need to express their concerns and be sure that they have their input now, at the beginning of the project."

All interested citizens, particularly those in Fayette, Bastrop, Austin, Colorado, Lee and Washington counties are urged to attend the meeting to be held at the Knights of Columbus Hall, 190 S Brown Street, LaGrange, at 7:00 pm Tuesday, March 23, 2004.

For additional information visit CorridorWatch.org on the Internet.

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