Home > Eye on the Road > Archives > 2008 > June > 24 > Entry
TTC developer will be selected this week
One of the giant elephants in the room has been who will build the highway. As we’ve written about before, lots of folks are concerned about Cintra, a Spanish toll road developer, winning the bid, due to fears about foreign control and national pride.
Well, the issue will come to a head this week, when state transportation commissioners will read and select a company to build the project. Here’s the agenda item for Thursday’s meeting:
Act on the recommendation of department staff concerning:
(1) the selection of the best value proposal for the planning, development,
acquisition, design, construction, financing, maintenance, and operation of the
element of the Trans-Texas Corridor System from Northeast Texas to the
Texas/Mexico border (I-69/TTC); and (2) the execution of a comprehensive
development agreement for I-69/TTC
Some of the back room politicking involved in the selection — including the role of Rudy Guiliani — has been noted in the pages of Vanity Fair.
TexasTURF has written about this, as has corridor watch, with both organization criticizing the transportation agency for sneakily avoiding the restrictions of SB 792, which places a moratorium on the construction of new toll roads in Texas until 2009.
In advance of the decision Thursday, Eye on the Road took a minute to talk to Amadeo Saenz, TxDOT’s executive director, about awarding the contract, during a recent press conference in Lufkin. He talked about the bid process, what he hopes to see in them, and when details will be made public. Below is the audio-only interview hosted by YouTube. Click here for direct download (.wav).
Comments
By not fooled
June 30, 2008 9:49 PM | Link to this
Looks like the “chosen” developers are the very same ones Perry has been dealing with from the beginning. They didn’t change the names quite enough to hide the truth. With nothing but Perry’s hand-picked cronies on TexDOT, nothing else has changed either. There should be an investigation into this deal. Now we all know why he wouldn’t sign the eminent domain law, this was already planned.