NBC KCEN-TV (Waco-Temple Killeen)
Copyright 2007
Some local city leaders sat down with TxDOT Tuesday to get some answers about the proposed Trans Texas Corridor.
The group from Bell County formed the Eastern Central Texas Sub-Regional Planning Commission, and they spent about three hours voicing their concerns Tuesday. Since there is no definite location for the corridor, there were a lot of unanswered questions.
However, one point was made clear: the commission does not want the corridor built through their towns.
The group is made up of mayors and school board officials from Bartlett, Holland, Little River-Academy and Rogers who are concerned about the economic impact and size of the corridor.
They fear it will alter their quality of life and TxDOT is unable to address those issues because they said it's too early in the planning stages.
"There [are] a lot of questions that have not been answered. There’s a lot of impact that has not been studied. And they have agreed to come back with us and to keep working forward with us which we have not heard before now," Holland Mayor Mae Smith said.
"We want to try to impact the fewest number of people possible and we want to try to minimize the impacts to people. At the same time, we want to minimize the impact to the natural environment," Director of Corridor Development Edward Pensock said.
The proposed corridor will cost $25 billion.
The commission said it does recognize the congestion problem, and propose the expansion of I-35 opposed to the construction of the corridor.
© 2007 KCEN-TV:
