Commissioners approve stimulus projects

Includes money for Segment E

Steve Hawley, Mar 05, 09.

The Texas Transportation Commission, which governs the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), unanimously approved the list of state transportation stimulus projects this afternoon. The list totals $1.2 billion in new construction projects, in addition to $500 million in maintenance projects approved last week. It includes $285 million for the Houston region, of which $181 million will go toward Segment E of the Grand Parkway.

During the three-and-a-half hour meeting, John Barton, TxDOT’s assistant executive director, described Segment E as “an opportunity to open up areas for development in the Greater Houston area.” During the public comment section, which took up about half of the meeting, several people expressed opposition to Segment E. Dick Kallerman of the Lone Star chapter of the Sierra Club said, “The justification, I noticed, for Segment E and the Grand Parkway, and it was right there on the board, was to open up areas for development. If that’s not special interests, I don’t know what is. And besides, urban sprawl is so last century. That’s old-fashioned stuff.“

Donna Hoffman, also from the Sierra Club, noted that the Grand Parkway would significantly damage the Katy Prairie. She said, “The state of Texas has many open spaces, but not many with the rich diversity of the Katy Prairie.” Linda Stall of Corridor Watch remarked, “I have to believe that if the Grand Parkway Segment E was financially viable, Harris County would have built it a long time ago.” Roger Baker added, “Speculative suburban roads should rank up there with subprime loans as a risky investment.” He also noted that “travel on Texas roads is stagnant,” while transit use continues to grow.

Transportation Commissioner Ned Holmes asked Barton how strongly the state’s Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) supported the projects. He said he sat in on the Houston-Galveston Area Council Transportation Policy Council (TPC) meeting last Friday, and the TPC voted unanimously in favor of its list. Barton said it was his understanding that the projects under consideration received overwhelming support from local MPOs.

Much of the discussion also focused on whether or not TxDOT had appropriated enough funds to economically distressed areas as required by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Barton said that 37 percent of TxDOT stimulus funds would be directed at economically distressed counties, greater than the 33 percent required by the act. TxDOT faced criticism for its handling of the economic distress requirements earlier this week, and Rep. James Oberstar of Minnesota even indicated that the state could lose funding if it violated the act’s terms, according to the Houston Chronicle. According to that article, to be classified as an economically distressed area, a county must have “a per capita income of 80 percent or less than the national average or an unemployment rate of 1 percent greater than the national average.”

TxDOT has also come under fire from the state legislature for its handling of the stimulus funds.

Comments

.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) said:

We do not need another expensive sprawl road like the Grand Parkway, especially if it slashes through what is left of the Katy Prairie. It is a serious mistake to build more super highways of any kind including freeways, tollways, Interstates, turnpikes, autobahn, or whatever the Road Warriors agitate for or sneak into the budget. Big roads promote more sprawl and dependency on cars and trucks and increase oil use.

We need a lot more urban mass transit especially light rail inside the inner city and intermediate areas and extensive regional commuter rail built out to 30 to 60 miles from Houston on at least 8 routes. Instead of competing against other cities for funding, we should gang up with other Texas cities for a greatly expanded role for transit and full funding. Furthermore, we need a network of intercity passenger rail lines connecting all major Texas cities with fast, frequent service and includes service to our small and medium-sized towns within our state and connects with our neighboring states.

Posted on Mar 07, 09 at 7:26 pm

.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) said:

The best that can be said is that John Barton admits the real purpose of the Grand Parkway, which is to encourage the development of land.

However, is that the proper role of the Texas Departmernt of Transportation? Why do their environmental documents not state that the purpose of the Grand parkway is to open areas to development? In those documents, the purpose of the highway is to relieve congestion or to provide an evacuation route in case of a hurricane, but never to open an area to land development.

Posted on Mar 07, 09 at 11:03 pm

Page 1 of 1 pages