In 2003, the Texas State Legislature approved funding for the Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC), a highway system composed of 4,000 miles of high-volume freeway space that includes a super-highway between the U.S. and Mexico.  At an estimated total cost between 145 and 184 billion dollars, the TTC is Texas's largest transportation project since Eisenhower's interstate system of 1956.

The TTC, as envisioned currently, will consist of stretches of multi-lane highway up to 1,200 feet wide, supporting all types of traffic. In each direction will move 3 lanes of passenger automobiles, 2 lanes of freight trucking, 3 railway lines (commuter, freight and high-speed), and various underground utility lines that will carry water, gas, electricity and fiber-optic data throughout Texas.

The justification for such an epic construction project hinges largely on the perceived needs of a rapidly expanding Texas population. Since 1988, the state's population has swollen by a staggering 65% to its 20.8 million current residents. That figure is expected to double by 2030, and the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) wants to head off congestion problems well in advance.

The TTC will concentrate mostly in East Texas, where the large metropolitan areas of cities like Austin and San Antonio are expected to continue their rapid growth. In addition to connecting Texans, supporters of the TTC hope that the huge construction project will bolster the economy.

Another important feature of the TTC is its connectivity to the ports of entry at the US-Mexico border. Seventy-nine percent of all U.S.-Mexico trade passes through Texas, and a well-maintained route between the two countries is vital for a healthy economic relationship. Though TxDOT has yet to publish the schematics of TTC south of the border, some have speculated that it will eventually link with every major shipping center in Mexico.

The proposed interstate system is not without its critics, many of whom are violently opposed to what is, ostensibly, a standard (if mammoth) highway expansion. Some are skeptical of the TTC's claims to link all cities across Texas and fear that smaller, less profitable towns will be left in the dust. Others worry about the implications that a four football-field-wide highway will have on the environment, despite TxDOT's claims that the TTC will actually result in cleaner Texas air-a dubious claim. But most prevalent among Texans' distaste for the project is over the means by which the TTC will be financed.

According to the TTC website, "transportation solutions will have to be developed cooperatively between TxDOT, local officials who know their areas' transportation wants and needs, and private investors who can provide much needed infrastructure capital." In this case, the private funding will come from the Cintra-Zachry group: Cintra is a Spanish-based toll operation company, and Zachry Construction Corporation is a San Antonio-based construction company. Together, Cintra-Zachry has earned the right to build the TTC and maintain a toll system for the first 50 years of operation.

Part of the Texas community's distrust for a privatized highway system is that Texas commuters have never before been subject to freeway tolls and would have to pay for the multi-billion dollar freeway out of their own pockets.

A greater concern lay in the handing over of what would once have been a federal or state project to a private corporation, and a foreign one at that.  Critics fear the TTC will inevitably be developed according to the schedule and needs of the private company and not those of TxDOT of the Texas taxpayer. As the TTC will be built piecemeal, Cintra-Zachry will have the say on just which roads get built when. If a certain low-population area of Texas looks as if it won't be able to generate sufficient toll revenue, its construction might be cancelled in favor of a more lucrative stretch of highway. Essentially, commuters could be at the whim of the construction company, instead of the company taking order from the State.

Five years after the plan's approval, the TTC remains in the planning stage without any clear timeline for development.  If the early rumblings among the Texas community are any indication, its construction will be a topic of increasing intensity as the project moves forward. With promises of economic growth and a modern infrastructure on one side, and fears of an uncontrolled private conglomerate having their way with the Texas taxpayer on the other, the TTC debate promises to be anything but a smooth ride.