Opposition Builds Against Nation's Largest Toll Road

The "Trans-Texas Corridor is a public-private partnership unrivaled in the state's - or probably any state's - history, that would stretch well into the century and end up costing around $200 billion."

It is not to be confused with other plans in Texas to convert existing interstates to toll roads.

The TTC "envisions a 4,000-mile network of new toll roads, with car and truck lanes, rail lines, and pipeline and utilities zones, to bypass congested cities and speed freight to and from Mexico."

"At particular issue in South Texas is a stretch of federal Highways 77 and 59 designated part of a proposed new segment of the federal highway system, I-69. But what was to have been a new interstate long sought by some businessmen and local officials is now listed as TTC-69, or part of the Trans-Texas Corridor.

"I don't think people realize it has morphed into a toll road," said Linda Stall, founder of a opposition group called Corridor Watch. Ms. Stall said the project was backed by "the guys who build, financiers and the suits."

"With construction, land acquisition and other expenses, the cost was estimated in 2002 at up to $183.5 billion, all of it to be put up by private investors, state officials say. No existing roads would gain tolls."

Thanks to Mark Boshnack