A little transportation action

There's more anti-Trans Texas Corridor activity in the House, and it's coming from both sides of the aisle.

State Rep. Garnet Coleman has filed a bill seeking to bar the state from spending money on the Trans-Texas Corridor until 2007 and calling for a committee to study the corridor plan and its use of toll and bond financing.

The Houston Democrat's bill, HB 3363, would place the same moratorium on tolling currently free roads. It was one of four bills — the others filed by Republicans — that seek to limit the corridor plan proposed by Gov. Rick Perry in 2002.

[...]

HB 1273, filed by Rep. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, bars "noncompetition" clauses in contracts between the state and corridor developers that would prevent government from building roads nearby.

The bill would narrow the corridor's maximum width from 1,200 feet to 800 feet and require that state highways and farm-to-market roads intersecting it remain unobstructed and connect to it. A Cintra-Zachry spokesman said the company is not interested in doing that.

HB 1794 by Rep. Glenn Hegar, R-Katy, calls for at least one public hearing in every county through which the corridor passes, with public disclosure of each of its proposed transportation modes, entrances and exits.

That's three bills, not four. The House bills page doesn't appear to have a search-by-date function, but using their search-by-keyword, I'd guess that Rep. Rick Hardcastle's HB3419, which has to do with "reconveyance of property acquired for the Trans-Texas Corrisor", is number 4.

On a related topic, Anne sent me a note last week about a bill filed by Rep. Debbie Riddle, HB847, which is "relating to the board of directors of a regional mobility authority" (RMA). The bill is noted on this blogHOUSTON thread by Connie of United to Save Our Spring. I don't know what, if any, effect it might have on the Grand Parkway toll road extension that's slated to slice through Spring, since (I'm told) the Harris County Toll Road Authority is not an RMA, but I do approve in general of "fair representation of a political subdivision that will be affected by an authority transportation project", which HB847 calls for. If I get a chance, I'll call Rep. Riddle's office and ask what the goal of this bill is.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on March 16, 2005 to Planes, Trains, and Automobiles | TrackBack