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February/March 2007
Volume I; Issue 1
Special Report:
Trans Texas Corridor

Daylight Shines on the TTC
Grassroots Fight the Superhighway
By Dan and Margaret Byfield

Shortly after passage of the Trans Texas Corridor legislation in 2003, word began to spread throughout the state about the ill-conceived and stealthily devised transportation plan. Critical questions were being raised by cities, counties and landowners, while key provisions of the contract between the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDoT) and the foreign owned Cintra-Zachary, were being buried from the public’s eye.

During the 2005 Legislative Session, two variations of the status of the contract were being told by our legislators and agency personnel. Those fighting the issue at the statehouse were told because the contract was final, legislative changes could not be made without incurring large penalties to the state. The public, demanding to see the details of the agreement, was told the contract could not be revealed because it was still being negotiated.

A newspaper and law firm both filed open record requests to view the contract, but these were denied by TxDoT. They appealed to the Attorney General and he ruled that the contracts could not be withheld and must be revealed to the public. But, TxDoT ignored the AG opinion and continued to withhold key portions of the contract from public view.

A lawsuit was filed in the middle of 2005, to try and get TxDoT to adhere to the Attorney General’s opinion. Interestingly, the AG’s office ended up on both sides of the lawsuit. On the one side, they defended TxDoT’s position to withhold specific details of the contract, and on the other, they defended their Attorney General’s opinion to release the same documents.

After a year and a half transpired, a court date was finally set in the case for October of 2006, one month before the November elections.

My husband and I, along with a handful of neighbors, decided that landowners had the right to know if they were in the path of the TTC. It was believed that part of the contract being withheld included detailed maps where the road would be placed. Unfortunately, like so many of our neighbors, our land happened to fall within the 10 mile-wide study area.

TxDoT continued to deny there was a final plan using the excuse that they were still performing negotiations and their environmental assessment, claiming that releasing the details would divulge “confidential and proprietary information.” However, we suspected otherwise for a multitude of reasons.

After several discussions with an attorney, our small group of neighbors decided to intervene in the lawsuit. One of these, Carol Fox, a well-respected retired English Teacher at Temple Junior College, stepped forward to be the lead plaintiff. Ready for litigation, we decided first to publicly announce to TxDoT and state lawmakers our intentions. The advantage of becoming a party to the lawsuit was that landowners would be able to question TxDoT employees and Cintra representatives under oath. The litigation would no longer be within the tight grasp of the Perry administration and they would lose all ability to control the case.

Our first step towards intervention was to file open record’s requests for the withheld documents knowing we would be denied by TxDoT. Being denied gave us the legal right to intervene. We could then go to the court and ask the judge to allow us into the pending lawsuit. We also held a meeting with other landowners in the area and encouraged them to also file open records requests for the same information. Within a few short days, over 1000 requests had been submitted.

A mere six days later, after a year and a half of litigation, TxDoT and the AG’s office announced a settlement had been reached in the case and the withheld portions of the contract were made public on the agency’s website. Every landowner who had filed an open records request received a letter the very next day stating the information requested was available online or they could send a check for $5 and have it mailed to them.

Within the released information was a series of detailed aerial photography maps with engineering lines drawn in to show the path of the I-35 parallel corridor from Mexico to Oklahoma, the same detail TxDoT denied having.

Landowners now knew whether their land was in the path. Within days, farmers, ranchers, and homeowners across the state had printed out the section of map that showed their family home and land. It was a common sight to see maps on the dashboards of pickups as farmers drove down county roads.

In one area of Williamson County, where several key sections of the TTC would intersect, landowners were receiving letters from land speculators, wanting to initiate conversations about purchasing their land. They received these letters just days prior to the release of the maps.

We then began a second open record’s request demanding to see all correspondence leading up to and after the signing of the contract between TxDoT and Cintra. We wanted complete transparency of how the TTC came about.
To no one’s surprise, TxDoT would not release certain critical sets of documents and they again requested an AG’s opinion. This time, however, the AG agreed that some of these exhibits could be withheld. Unfortunately, it will take landowners filing a new lawsuit to force the state agency to reveal these critical documents, something currently being explored.

There continues to be looming questions about why Governor Perry is committed to forcing this poorly designed transportation scheme on Texans. As more questions are raised, landowners are meeting more roadblocks. This is particularly concerning to those directly in the path since the TTC authorizes TxDoT to use the “quick take” provision of Texas’ eminent domain laws.

Quick Take allows the agency to take possession of a residential property 90 days after notice has been given to the landowner being condemned and 30 days for agriculture land. Even if a landowner appeals the condemnation, they must be off by day 91.

While Texans are contemplating lawsuits to force TxDoT to comply with the necessary transparency that should come with a $180 billion road project, the agency’s Commissioner, Ric Williamson, is campaigning for the idea in Oklahoma.

On January 23, Williamson appeared at the “2007 Transportation Forum” in Oklahoma, City, to speak to a crowd specifically about the Trans Texas Corridor and its continuation through the state of Oklahoma, after which he received a standing ovation.

Those in attendance included Citigroup Global Markets and Transportation Group, Love’s Travel Stops and Country Stores, Associated General Contractors (ACG), Citizen’s Security Bank, Asphalt Pavement, Oklahoma Aggregates Associates, and a slew of other investment groups, bankers, highway-engineering firms, construction companies, consultants, and Oklahoma state representatives.

Here in Texas, the Lt. Governor has named John Carona (R-Dallas) the new chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee. He and Ric Williamson share no love and has called for the governor to replace Williamson as head of the Texas Department of Transportation.

Senator Carona has also heeded the mounting concerns of landowners regarding the TTC and has authored several proposals, which would slow down the project. However, everything that is passed must be signed by the Governor, who has made clear that his visionary transportation plan will be completed regardless of what the people think.

Efforts are being made, however, to turn the tide and mount overwhelming opposition to the TTC. Senator Carona is holding a critical hearing on the TTC on March 1 in the Extension Auditorium at the Capitol and a rally is being organized to be held on March 2, ending up on the front steps of the Capitol.

And, at least one representative is not afraid to take on the Perry establishment. Representative David Leibowitz (D-San Antonio) has filed a bill to repeal the entire TTC project, something that would not have even been publicly discussed, let alone be considered, in the last session of the legislature.

Everyday, as more people begin to look into the TTC and not just Perry’s spin about how great the new road system will be for Texans, they realize that the TTC is not about transportation at all, it is about revenue. Those who will benefit from the project are international corporations importing more goods into the US. Those who will suffer are the people and communities who surround the areas within the path. They will experience economic segregation as all tolls and concession lease income goes to Spain, while they are left footing the bill for the increased emergency services and access inconvenience as current roads are cut off by the structure.

Few of us fighting this superhighway are opposed to corporations making money or even a good transportation plan. We are opposed, however, to private and international corporations using the state’s power of eminent domain to strip land away from the hard working families of America who have earned their land and home the honest way.

The highway itself is not even necessary. The Federal Highway Administration determined some years ago that with modifications to the I-35 interstate system, all transportation needs could be handled within the existing footprint for the next 30 years, with the addition of loops around major metropolitan areas. The TTC was not sought by the state; it was brought to Texas along with an extra $1.2 billion to sweeten the deal, pre-designed by the Spanish owned Cintra. Local road builders were never given the opportunity to bid on the project. Trying to sell the TTC to Texan’s as a way to prepare for future needs is, to be polite, disingenuous.

Then there is the question of security. There has been no discussion by the Perry administration on this issue, not for goods, nor for people. The TTC legislation is deathly quiet on this issue. It is no wonder that on the national scene people have described the Laredo port of entry into the United States as being nothing more than a speed bump. From what we can see on the ground, nothing more has been planned.

People are waking up all across the nation realizing that if the TTC gets a foothold in Texas, it will be even harder to stop elsewhere. As people wake up to the pitfalls of this plan, so too grows the opposition. Governor Perry was able to authorize and begin implementing this plan in total darkness. The question remains, whether the TTC is too far in its development to be stopped by the light of day.