TxDOT to look at using existing roads for corridor

June 11, 2008

By Kristin Edwards, Staff Reporter - The Huntsville Item

Texas Department of Transportation officials announced their intention Tuesday to consider only existing roadways in the next planning phases for the construction of Interstate 69 and the Trans-Texas Corridor.

According to Amadeo Saenz, TxDOT executive director, the decision only to expand existing roadways was made due to the vast amount of public response against the use of private lands.

“We’ve received more than 28,000 comments concerning the I-69/Trans-Texas Corridor project, and based on those comments, TxDOT will be recommending that we consider only existing highways as we move forward with the project,” he said.

During a special press conference on Tuesday, transportation officials said they would only use existing roadways, including U.S. Highways 59, 77 and 281 in their environmental studies for the project.

Saenz said any route originally charted to go around Houston through private land in Walker and other surrounding counties will be discarded.

“Any route that was a new location is no longer going to be moved forward – it’s out of the mix,” Saenz said. “I can’t say it’s never going to happen, because 50 years from now someone might need to build a second or third loop around Houston.

“But, as far as I-69, we’re not going to consider those routes.”

During their initial investigation process for the I-69/Trans-Texas Corridor project, which included public hearings and other meetings held all over the state, Saenz said the majority of public opinion favored the use of existing roadways.

“We have had a series of 46 public hearings and 12 open houses which included a lot of open dialogue concerning both transportation in general and the I-69/Trans-Texas Corridor,” he said. “Overall, we had about 12,000 people attend those meetings, and since that time, we’ve received thousands of comments which have said things like, ‘We don’t want you to go across our farm, we’ve had it for 150 years.’

“A lot of people also said, ‘Why don’t you go out there and use existing corridors?’ — we agree with them.”

Saenz said the bulk of TxDOT’s recommendations for the I-69/Trans-Texas Corridor project will be based on policies adopted last month by the Texas Transportation Commission.

“In addition to using existing roadways whenever possible, only the new lanes added to roadways could be tollroads,” Saenz said. “The existing lanes would not be used as tollroads.

“In essence, we’re doing what the commission recommended for us as well as following the public comments we received.”

Saenz said the public comments made and the input from a select group of Congress members had a strong effect on TxDOT’s decision.

“The bulk of our comments said we should build along existing roadways and our commission said we needed to look at existing right of ways,” he said. “This is really because a series of a lot of people came together and agreed on developing existing facilities.”

Saenz said TxDOT’s decision to use only existing roadways applies exclusively to the I-69 project, not to the I-35 corridor portion of the Trans-Texas Corridor project.

“The I-69 project may utilize one, two or all three of the existing highways along its path, and this will require those highways to be expanded, but that applies only to I-69,” he said. “This is part of our recommendation for the I-69/Trans-Texas Corridor project, not I-35.”

When development of the existing roadways is being considered, Saenz said individuals from all affected areas will be involved in the process of deciding where additional lanes should or should not be placed.

“You have to look at traffic, population growth and other factors to determine what the type of facility you need to address transportation needs is,” he said. “We will soon start the process of putting together segment advisory committees, and every county affected by this corridor will have a committee member appointed by each area’s city manager and mayor.”

Beginning at 10 a.m. today, information will be available on the TxDOT Web site concerning the use of only existing roadways.

Among the new information available, a full press release, a fact sheet and a new map of the possible course for the project will be posted.