TxDOT's study to look into corridor
By JIMMY GALVAN Managing Editor

In what is being projected as an economic boom for the East Texas region (if it comes to fruition), the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) will soon begin work on a feasibility study for an East-West corridor.

The announcement was made last week as the TxDOT Commission voted to move forward with the study that will cost an estimated $2 million. The corridor is the brainchild of the Gulf Coast Strategic Highway Coalition.

"If we had a major four-lane, east-west highway through Jasper it would mean to us what I-10 means to Beaumont and I-20 means to Shreveport," said Jasper Economic Development Corporation Executive Director Tom McClurg. "I've always said we are a strategic transportation location in that a 150-mile circle from here touches Dallas, Houston, Beaumont and Baton Rouge.

"It would greatly increase our status as an industrial location," McClurg said.

"The first question any kind of industrial prospect has when they are talking about relocating to your area is how close are you to an interstate highway," said Polk County Judge John P. Thompson, who serves as chairman for the Gulf Coast Strategic Highway Coalition. "Transportation is what drives economic development. To have a project like this in your county, you will see economic benefits for generations to come."

The study corridor would generally follow U.S. Highway 190 through East and Central Texas and would follow I-10 in West Texas all the way to the New Mexico state line.

According to Thompson, the feasibility study is scheduled to begin later this year and is scheduled to take 18 months to complete. He said the highway would be a tollway.

The study will address the feasibility and route analysis requirement for the 800-mile corridor in Texas. Included in that study will be the feasibility of upgrading the designated corridor to a fully controlled access facility with a rail component.

"This feasibility study is a huge first step for us," Thompson said. "It puts us on the radar screen now."

Whether the corridor follows U.S Hwy. 190 through Jasper, though, remains a big question in the puzzle.

McClurg said the biggest issue with the project remains U.S. Hwy. 190 where it crosses Steinhagen Lake.

"They are trying to miss the largest bodies of water and that means either south of Steinhagen Dam or north of Steinhagen Lake."

McClurg said he believes the corridor will run between Hwy. 190 and Hwy. 255 in Jasper County.

"We have no idea where it will be in Jasper County," Thompson said. "There are certain issues that limit where it will go through. It has to go north of Lake Livingston and south of the national forest.

"It won't cross lakes or go through national forests," Thompson said. "The closer it gets to the Louisiana line, the closer it gets to U.S. Highway 190."

U.S. Congressman Kevin Brady, who requested $160,000 in the federal reauthorization of transportation programs, will furnish part of the funds that will be used for the project.

"This was one of the first projects that county judges across East Texas talked to me about and asked for help with," Brady said from Washington. "They asked for study money and I was able to get it for them.

"East Texas can never reach its full potential and attract the types of businesses that we want without a modern four-lane corridor," Brady said. "The study money is not only important to give the project some momentum but also to really listen to the communities in East Texas and make sure this is something they want."

The Gulf Coast Strategic Highway System was initially conceived as an upgrade of existing highways in Texas and Louisiana. The simple objective was to provide better highways between Fort Bliss, Fort Hood and Fort Polk and the strategic ports at Corpus Christi and Beaumont.

When the Trans Texas Corridor concept was announced in 2002, the coalition was a very early supporter and has consistently supported ways to implement it in a way that will address military deployment and mobility efficiency.

The Gulf Coast Strategic Highway System, as now proposed, creates linkage and access with a combination of improved existing highways and new elements of the Trans Texas Corridor System.

Brady believes transportation is key to the East Texas region.

"We have great assets in our lakes and our rivers, timber and people, however, but it is tougher when you try to attract businesses that need to ship in and out," Brady said. "

The TxDOT plan calls for an East-West route to cross the Hill Country just north of San Antonio. It would loop around Houston and tie back in to I-10 at the Louisiana state line. The Gulf Coast Strategic Highway Coalition has proposed an alternative East- West route.

According to the coalition's website, the East-West alternative has many advantages:

It runs north of the environmentally sensitive Hill Country, passing just south of Fort Hood and linking Fort Bliss, Fort Hood and Fort Polk.

It misses the San Antonio, Austin and Houston air quality regions.

It ties in to a Louisiana highway corridor that is being improved and can accommodate substantial infrastructure expansion.

Thompson said the highway is not a project that will be completed anytime in the near future.

"Never in the history of mankind has a highway been built in a hurry," Thompson said.