The Texas Department of Transportation held a public hearing in Waco yesterday and will hold one tomorrow in Temple at the Frank W. Mayborn Civic & Convention Center on the Trans Texas Corridor project. The state is wrapping up a series of hearings in Central Texas. (Rockwall is in the preferred route for the Trans Texas Corridor)
The $184 billion corridor is envisioned as having six passenger vehicle lanes, four commercial truck lanes, two high-speed passenger rail lines, two freight train lines, two commuter rail lines and a utility zone for water, electric, natural gas, petroleum, fiber optic and telecommunications lines.
The route will most likely run from Gainesville to Laredo although other alternatives have been presented. The ten-mile-wide study area for the Central Texas leg of the route runs generally along and slightly to the east of I-35.
More than 1,000 attended the Waco hearing. Among the many vocal opponents to the plan was State Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn. Objections voiced at the hearing related to the displacement of farmland, the corridor’s funding as a toll road, the choice of a Spanish company to develop it and the fear it will block rural roads and isolate communities.
The Texas Department of Transportation will accept formal comments about the corridor until Aug. 21. To make a comment or learn more about the project, go to www.keeptexasmoving.org.
Source: KWTX.com