shipped through Texas, a major trade gateway from
Mexico, as red lines branching out from the heart of the state. Only freight passing through Texas is included. There were two initial trans-Texas corridors under consideration: One would have paralleled
Interstate 35 (I-35), from
Gainesville to
Laredo and passing the
Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex,
Austin and
San Antonio. The other would have been an extension of the proposed I-69 corridor, generally following
US 59, from
Texarkana past
Houston to either Laredo or the
Rio Grande Valley. Both of these corridors have seen large increases in freight traffic demand over the past two decades due to increased trade with Mexico. Two additional high priority potential corridors would have paralleled
Interstate 45 from Dallas to Houston and
Interstate 10 from
El Paso to
Orange.
TTC-35 ACS-
Zachry, a partnership between Spanish-based toll-road developer/operator ACS and Texas-based Zachry Construction, was awarded a $3.5 million contract to help plan the entire TTC-35 route in March 2005. The study area for Trans-Texas Corridor-35 (TTC-35) generally followed
Interstate 35 from Laredo to the
Oklahoma border. The environmental study for the project proceeded in two tiers: a first tier that refined the study area to a wide study corridor and a second tier that selected particular alignments for the various corridor components; where all corridor components (rail, highway, and utilities) were planned to be built adjacent to one another, this corridor would have been approximately wide. The TTC-35 Tier 1 draft
environmental impact statement (EIS) was published in April 2006. The final EIS was expected originally to be submitted to the
Federal Highway Administration in 2007; , preparation of the final EIS was listed as "ongoing." The draft EIS included 12 different study corridor alternatives by choosing among four variations along the route. The first variation, from Laredo to southeast of San Antonio, would have included either the current I-35 alignment until curving off to the east at a point south of San Antonio or would have followed a more direct route to the east. The study area for all alternatives continued northeast, paralleling I-35. The second variation would have either passed just to the east of the municipal boundaries along I-35 from Austin to
Temple or further east. The third variation would have passed either to the west of
Fort Worth or east of Dallas. The fourth variation was dependent on the eastern third variation and would have either rejoined the western third variation near the Oklahoma border or would have ended at the Oklahoma border near
U.S. Route 75. The draft EIS designated a recommended preferred alternative corridor running to the east of I-35 and I-35E from near
Gainesville to south of
San Antonio, where the corridor would join I-35 to run south to Laredo. On October 7, 2009, TxDOT officials announced that the department would recommend the "No Action Alternative", which effectively ended the efforts to develop the Interstate 35 corridor through the TTC concept.
SH 130 State Highway 130 is a component of the
Central Texas Turnpike System, much of which was thought likely to be incorporated into TTC-35. Segments 1-4 of SH 130 were built by Lone Star Infrastructure in the
Austin metropolitan area as an eastern relief route for Interstate 35. On June 28, 2006, ACS-Zachry reached a $1.3 billion agreement with the state to build segments 5 and 6 of SH 130, which could have represented the alignment of TTC-35's highway component between
Interstate 10 at
Seguin east of
San Antonio and
U.S. Route 79 near
Taylor, Texas. According to the "Facility Plan of Finance," $412 million of financing for the project would be a federally-guaranteed loan under the Transportation Infrastructure Financing and Innovation Act, while the remaining financing would be from equity put forward by ACS-Zachry and bank loans from private lenders. Per the agreement, TxDOT would receive between 4.65% and 50% of toll revenues depending on the performance of the facility, with a smaller share due to TxDOT if TxDOT does not authorize posting of daytime speed limits of or higher along the route. The ACS-Zachry Preliminary Financial Plan showed the expected toll revenue to be collected for Segment 5 and 6 at $14.9 billion over 50 years. The Preliminary Financial Plan for Segment 5 and 6 also showed $12.4 billion in earnings before taxes for the developer.
I-69/TTC The second priority corridor for development was the
Interstate 69 extension through Texas, which would have roughly followed the route of
US 59 from Laredo via
Houston to
Carthage; there, the national I-69 corridor would have continued northeast into
Louisiana and a spur route north to
Texarkana would have continued along US 59 to
Interstate 30. The original national plan for I-69 also included two spur routes to the
Rio Grande Valley following
US 281 and
US 77; Texas was also studying a connection between the I-69 corridor near Laredo and
Corpus Christi known as the "Port to Port Corridor". Texas' portion of I-69 was originally planned to be developed as a traditional Interstate highway (with a mixed-use freeway component only), as it is being developed in other states, but was rolled into the Trans Texas Corridor concept soon after the latter's announcement due to their substantial overlap in purpose and scope. However, on June 11, 2008, TxDOT announced they planned to limit further study of I-69 to existing highway corridors–U.S. 59, U.S. 77, U.S. 281, U.S. 84, and SH 44–outside transition zones in the lower Rio Grande Valley, Laredo, Houston, and Texarkana. TxDOT also announced it was reverting to building I-69 as a standard 4-lane freeway instead of a multi-modal corridor as previously envisioned under the Trans-Texas Corridor concept. The latest plan called for adding a second
carriageway and eliminating at-grade intersections along US-59 and US-77 in rural areas, with tolled bypasses around major cities and towns along the I-69 route. According to the Deep East Texas Council of Governments, I-69 is a "future
NAFTA Superhighway". It will enter the U.S. from the Mexican state of
Tamaulipas.
Other potential corridors Texas officials identified several other possible TTC corridors in the long-range plan.
Interstate 10 through the southern part of the state,
Interstate 20 from east of the
Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex to I-10 near
Midland, along an extended
Interstate 27 through western Texas, and a new terrain corridor along the northern Texas border paralleling sections of
Interstate 30 from the
Arkansas line at
Texarkana to
Fort Worth,
US-287 from Fort Worth to
Amarillo, and
Interstate 40 from Amarillo to
New Mexico. ==As alternatives to California seaports==