The $180 billion proposal to build a network of toll roads and rail lines, the brainchild of Gov. Rick Perry, has run into fierce opposition virtually since it was proposed in 2002. State officials told reporters Wednesday that the agency notified federal highway authorities this week to say it wants to halt what was to be the first leg of the project - along heavily congested Interstate 35 through Central Texas.
The department has already spent more than $15 million on environmental studies and planning documents associated with the I-35 corridor, and the cost will go higher as the cancellation process grinds to a halt, officials said.
"We made it very clear that it would be some time before we could completely transition away from the TTC," department director Amadeo Saenz said. "We were and we still are in the middle of environmental studies and those issues have to run their course as we move forward."
Perry's opponent in his race for re-election in November said that kind of comment was aimed at skirting the issue of the viability in the long term of the TTC plan.
The campaign of U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, issued this statement: "Behind all of TxDOT's caveats and qualifiers today is a very clear reality that the (TTC) will not be officially dead until Rick Perry is no longer governor and his political appointees are no longer running TxDOT."
However, state Rep. Ralph Sheffield, R-Temple, has repeatedly said that legislators effectively killed TTC during their regular session last spring by refusing funding and by refusing to OK state deals with developers.
TxDOT has already spent $12 million on the environmental review process for the I-35 corridor, which would have stretched from the Mexico border through Bell County to the Oklahoma line. Costs associated with canceling a private contract to build the corridor have hit $3.5 million and could go up to about $4 million, Saenz said.
The costs will mount further in coming months as the department holds public meetings about the results of the environmental study, he said.
The agency said earlier this year that it was scaling down the project and dropping the name "Trans-Texas Corridor." Transportation officials acknowledged the plan had sparked an uproar among landowners, elected officials and people who live along the proposed routes.
Meanwhile, as an indication of how political the transportation plan has become, Hank Gilbert, who says he is a Democratic candidate for governor, said the state is "still likely on the hook for billions for terminating its contract with the company hired to build" the TTC.
Cintra, a Spanish-owned company, partnered with Texas-based H.B. Zachry Construction to bid on and ultimately win the contract to build the TTC.
TxDOT officials said during Wednesday's briefing that projects to improve I-35 from San Antonio through Texas will continue.
Some legs in Bell County are yet to be started or completed.
Staff and wire reports
