The Super Superhighway

valdean writes "The state of Texas is seeking to build a 4,000-mile megahighway network between Oklahoma and Mexico, called the Trans-Texas Corridor. The highway will be up to a quarter-mile across, and include separate lanes for passenger vehicles, large trucks, freight railways, high-speed commuter railways, and infrastructure for utilities including water lines, oil and gas pipelines, electricity, and broadband. In a recent press release, the governor of Texas said it will 'forever change the way we build roads.' So much for scenic drives."

Comments

Re:Speedy Limit

[damiangerous]

Montana, late 90's. It was the safest period ever on the roads there.

Improper transfer of wealth.

[zerofoo]

The article suggests that the highway will be built with private funds, and the "operators" of the highway will charge tolls to recover their investment.

One assumes that the "recovery" of the investment will net a positive return on investment - PROFIT.

The article also states that some people stand to lose their property under "eminent domain" laws.

The logical conclusion of this: The government is seizing private property and making it available for use by the private sector. This seems like an improper transfer of wealth.

Eminent domain laws were designed to allow a government to seize property for the benefit of it's constituents. These laws were not intended for the benefit of a few "shareholders".

Investors in this highway should beware of warping this law. The next property seized and given away might be their own.

-ted

Re:Speedy Limit

[Doppler00]

Ah I remember those reasonable and prudent signs in Montana. They still had regular speed limit signs in cities, it's just the highways had signs that said "Reasonable and Prudent" and then below that "Trucks: 55" or something like that.

I wonder if that's because people didn't need to bother looking at their spedometer every few seconds to make sure they were not breaking the law. I would certainly be able to concentrate better driving if I didn't have to glance at my gauges all the time.

Re:Soooo...

[deimtee]

There used to be a station (that's a ranch to you yanks) in West Australia that actually was bigger than Texas. Pity it got broken up a few years ago as it was fun pointing it out to texans.