Trans Texas Corridor Fact Sheet

The Trans Texas Corridor is new way to move commuters and cargo, remove hazardous cargo from city centers, reduce air pollution, and expand economic opportunity. It is a major project that ensures needed infrastructure gets built sooner and cheaper. Like any major infrastructure project, it generates a lot of questions, and even criticism, that warrant a response. This fact sheet addresses some of the major arguments against the corridor with the facts.

Contention: The corridor is too big.

Reality: The corridor will be developed over the next 50 years as our transportation needs continue to increase. Because it is financed by a market based toll system, no segment will be built until the need arises. I-35, the most congested corridor in the state with immediate needs, will be built first.

Contention: The corridor costs too much.

Reality: The corridor will be financed by tolls to build additional infrastructure without a tax increase. Unlike gas taxes which drivers are forced to pay, whether to pay a toll is a choice that every driver makes. For those that don't want to pay tolls, the existing interstate system will continue to be available toll-free. The first segment of the corridor, as agreed to in a comprehensive development agreement with Cintra-Zachry, will require no tax dollars up front for construction while ensuring a $7.2 billion private investment in the corridor. And the purchase of right-away will be much cheaper than the corresponding number of lane miles added to the existing infrastructure system because the price of real estate adjacent to that system is much more expensive.

Contention: The corridor will harm schools and local governments by removing taxable land from the tax roles.

Reality: Under any scenario, the state will need to purchase land to build more roads over the next 50 years. Considerably less tax value will be removed by buying undeveloped agriculture exempt land to build the corridor than expanding our current system by purchasing the expensive retail and commercial development adjacent to our existing roads. Additionally, state law requires that any development on corridor land such as a gas station, utility or railroad is subject to local property taxes, even though it is on state right of way.

Contention: The state will use eminent domain to take private land.

Reality: Under any scenario, the state will need to purchase land to build more roads over the next 50 years. The 5th amendment of the U.S. Constitution and state law require the state to pay fair market value when purchasing private land for public purposes. If a landowner doesn't believe an offer to purchase is fair, the law provides they can appeal to special commissioners and even a district judge who will decide what is fair.

Several other protections exist in state law to ensure that landowners are fairly compensated. Landowners may retain the development rights of any property purchased by the state, and state law also allows landowners to accept an equity interest in the road rather than a cash payment for their land. Landowners whose land is severed by the corridor are required to receive damages caused by the severance including inaccessibility.

Contention: Huge amounts of private land will be taken by the state through eminent domain for superhighway, train, and utility rights of way.

Reality: Over the next 50 years, the state, railroads, and utilities will all need to purchase private land for expansion. By using the Trans Texas Corridor to combine many of these rights of way into one corridor, less total land will be needed. The Corridor will ultimately result in the purchase of less public land than would otherwise be needed to keep up with growth, and all the needed land will be purchased during one process, instead of on a piecemeal basis as we need to build out infrastructure one project at a time.

Contention: The private companies helping to build the corridor will have the ability to condemn private property.

Reality: This is false. Only the government and common carriers have the power of condemnation.

Contention: The corridor will allow the state to condemn land and build restaurants, hotels, golf courses, and chemical refineries.

Reality: State law only allows the condemnation of corridor land for transportation purposes. Condemnation for any other purpose is illegal.

Contention: Roads will be cut off by the corridor making it harder to move around.

Reality: Just as when the interstate system was built, roads will be connected across the corridor. State law requires the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) to restore any road it alters to accommodate the construction of the corridor.

Contention: The federal government has agreed to allow the first segment of the corridor proposal to proceed before environmental studies are even completed.

Reality: This is false. Not one inch of the corridor can be built before a full environmental study is completed and signed off on by the Federal Highway Administration.

Contention: Land will be bisected with as much as a ½ mile wide path forcing landowners to drive many miles to reach the other sides as they will have limited access.

Reality: A fully built out corridor is projected to be roughly twice the width of the interstate highway system, not ½ a mile wide, and most corridor segments will be even less than that. As with other highways, TxDOT will work hard to make sure that the routes for the corridor are between properties rather than bisecting them. When a property is bisected, TxDOT will do everything it can to minimize the impact on the property owner including reconnecting severed roads, providing crossovers, and constructing limited access roads. Where appropriate, wildlife and livestock crossings may be included. As mentioned previously, state law requires that landowners who suffer inaccessibility because of the corridor be paid damages.

Contention: A foreign company will own Texas land if chosen to help build the corridor.

Reality: The land and roadway of the corridor will be owned by the State of Texas, just as with any other state road. The state has an obligation to make the best deal it can for corridor financing regardless of the address of the bidders, and the fact is private investors are willing to invest billions of dollars in Texas infrastructure that will create thousands of jobs for Texans.

Contention: When acquiring land for the corridor TxDOT will get water and mineral rights.

Reality: When TxDOT purchases or condemns land for highways it does not buy the mineral rights, only the surface. State law prohibits the pumping of groundwater on corridor property except for incidental on-site use.

Contention: The corridor isn't needed. Rather than build new parallel corridors, we should just expand our existing roads.

Reality: In developed areas the cost of expanding our interstate system is prohibitive. Just to add one extra lane in each direction of I-35 would cost billions of tax dollars and decades of construction. By building a new parallel tolled corridor, we can build more road, build it in a fraction of the time it would take to expand I-35, build it for less money, build it with little or no tax dollars, and allow for new rail and utility lines as our state continues to grow. The state will continue to make necessary improvements and expansions to I-35, but we can't count on that aging highway to meet all of our future needs.

However, in the states' more rural areas it makes much more sense to expand the existing roadway rather than build a new parallel corridor. In these areas, the lack of development adjacent to the highway makes it more cost effective to purchase land next to the road for additional lanes. Parallel corridors will not be needed in these areas.

Contention: There is no public input into the corridor process.

Reality: To date there have been over 700 public meetings on the corridor. Many more will take place over the next several years. Keep up with the public hearing schedule and other corridor info at: www.keeptexasmoving.com

Contention: Corridor contracts are negotiated in secret.

Reality: The elements of the proposed corridor have been made public since its unveiling in 2002. The negotiation process by nature requires private discussion because proprietary information must be protected in competitive situations. This is true in other public negotiations and certainly in the private sector. Corridor documents including proposals may be viewed on the above website.

Contention: The Trans Texas Corridor legislation included several new kinds of condemnation authority to take private land.

Reality: The Trans Texas Corridor legislation contained no new condemnation authority. The same constitutional and statutory protections control eminent domain law. No property can be condemned without an order by a state district judge and the owner being paid fair market value.

Contention: The corridor will be restricted access that won't allow vehicles to get on and off it.

Reality: The private investors in the corridor want to ensure they are repaid for their investment. The best way to do this is to make the road as attractive as possible to drivers so that they will pay to use it. The road must be easily accessible to drivers and popular destinations or drivers will not use the road, which means it will tie in to our current infrastructure system at many points. A transportation system with no access serves no purpose. There must be access from the corridor to small towns and rural areas.

The frequency and location of entrance and exit ramps will be determined as a project is being designed. It is impossible to do that level of design work now because a route hasn't been selected yet. However, state law requires the corridor to intersect with all interstate highways, U.S. Highways and state highways. It also requires the state to work with local officials and study traffic volume, circuity of travel for landowners, and access for emergency vehicles when determining which farm-to-market roads, ranch-to-market roads, county roads, and city arterials to connect to the corridor.

Contention: A private company will control the toll rates in the corridor and can charge very high tolls to use it.

Reality: Because the corridor will be parallel to our tax funded roads it must be competitively priced. If toll rates are set too high, drivers will not use the corridor and will simply use the tax road. State law requires TxDOT to approve the methodology for setting toll rates including toll increases, penalties for non-payment, and any changes.

Contention: The corridor is just a bigger interstate.

Reality: The corridor plan will allow Texas to improve the interstate concept with features like separate lanes for cars and trucks, passenger rail between Texas cities, and 85 mph speed limits.