Texas Department of Transportation Commission Meeting

Commission Room
Dewitt C. Greer Building
125 East 11th Street
Austin, Texas 78701-2483

9:00 a.m. Thursday, September 26, 2002

COMMISSION MEMBERS:

JOHN W. JOHNSON, Chairman
ROBERT L. NICHOLS
RIC WILLIAMSON

STAFF:

MICHAEL W. BEHRENS, Executive Director
RICHARD MONROE, General Counsel
CHERYL WILLIAMS, Executive Assistant to the Deputy Executive Director
DEE HERNANDEZ, Chief Minute Clerk
 

PROCEEDINGS

MR. JOHNSON: Good morning. It is 9:06 a.m. and this meeting of the Texas Transportation Commission is called to order. Welcome to our September meeting. It is indeed a pleasure to have you here this morning.
Please note for the record that public notice of this meeting, containing all items of the agenda, was filed with the Office of the Secretary of State at 11:51 a.m. on September 18.
Before we begin, it's our custom for me to ask my esteemed colleagues it says here; I'm not certain that that's accurate if they have any comments that they would like to make. Robert?
(General laughter.)

MR. NICHOLS: I'll just keep mine short. I just wanted to welcome everyone here; realize you came a long ways to be here; took time out of your day and your work to talk about the needs of the area; we appreciate it. Hope you feel comfortable, and you certainly are welcome. Thank you.

MR. JOHNSON: Ric?

MR. WILLIAMSON: And I also, it's good to see a full house. Glad you're here.

MR. JOHNSON: Before we begin three potential agenda notices, item 6(a) which will deal with Transportation Planning and Programming will be moved up to the front of the meeting; item 9(a)(2) also will be moved up which deals with environmental speed limits when we get into our housekeeping items. And I would also like to warn everyone that at the end of the meeting we will go into executive session to visit with counsel on some legal matters, so I alert you to that.
Also, the good people from Fort Bend have been wonderful to be flexible as to their place in the order. Last night I made the decision that perhaps they ought to go third because of item 6(a) and they've said that would be fine, but I failed to notify our good friends from San Antonio that they had been moved to second and they might not be here in time to bat second, so our friends from Fort Bend might have to come back to the second position, and I appreciate their willingness to do that and their flexibility.

GULF COAST REGIONAL MOBILITY PARTNERS

(Jim Royer, Rep. Peggy Hamric, Senator Jon Lindsay, Judge Robert Eckels, Al Haines, Judge Alan Sadler)

MR. JOHNSON: We do have three delegations, as I mentioned. We will begin with the first delegation which is the Gulf Coast Regional Mobility Partners which represents the Houston-Galveston area, and Jim Royer, I believe, will be the lead spokesperson. Jim, welcome.
I would like to mention, in the interest of full disclosure, that I have been invited to be a part of your group and on the committee, and I am excited about doing so, but I think it needs to be stated that when there arises the potential conflict between my position on this commission and my position as a committee member, that I need to serve all parts of the state.
So having said that, again welcome and we look forward to hearing the presentation.

MR. ROYER: We appreciate that, Mr. Chairman, and just for the record, he has exercised that discretion very carefully in the past and we expect he'll continue to do that in the future.
Our delegation today is led by Representative Peggy Hamric who is the chairman of the Harris County Delegation, and Senator Jon Lindsay, known to you all, and they'll introduce the organization.

MR. JOHNSON: Welcome.

MS. HAMRIC: Mr. Chairman, and Commissioners Nichols and Williamson, and Mr. Behrens. This looks like a familiar group that I see quite often during the legislative session, and normally when I come before you, it's about some particular project in District 126 that I represent in north Harris County, and I'm not even here, Chairman Johnson, to talk about my seven-lane farm to market road today which you give me such a hard time about.
(General laughter.)

MS. HAMRIC: I always have to remind my colleagues from the rural areas that I have farm to market roads in my district also.
But today, it is a real pleasure for me to be here to come before you representing a coalition of transportation interest groups including local governments and businesses throughout the Houston-Galveston region, the Gulf Coast Regional Mobility Partners. The following counties are represented within the Gulf Coast Regional Mobility Partners: Harris, Brazoria, Chambers, Fort Bend, Galveston, Liberty, Montgomery, and Waller. So as you can see, it is a very large area that has come together for a single purpose.
The executive committee of the Mobility Partners is composed of regional leaders designated by the eight-county region, and includes: Chairman Jim Royer; Fort Bend County Judge Jim Adolphus; community business leader Tom Bellows; Houston Mayor Lee P. Brown; Congressman Tom DeLay; Harris County Judge Robert Eckels; Port of Houston Authority Chairman Jim Edmonds; former Highway Commissioner and former Houston Mayor Bob Lanier; Montgomery County Judge Alan Sadler; Houston Metropolitan Transit Authority Chairman, Ambassador Arthur Schechter; community and business leader, Michael Stevens; and Brazoria County Judge John Willy.
And Commissioner Williamson, I'm sure you recognize a lot of the names of former colleagues of yours and mine in the Texas House.
The steering committee of the Gulf Coast Regional Mobility Partners consists of a diverse group of public and private organizations with one goal in mind, and that is to advocate increased state and federal transportation funding for our region.
Perhaps the single greatest challenge for continued opportunity and prosperity for the Houston region is to find effective, affordable and timely solutions to our transportation needs. The failure to enact a unified mobility and transit solution will strangle the economic vitality, and therefore, the future prospects for the region. We must address this crucial need as a community, quickly and forcefully. This is the mission of the Gulf Coast Regional Mobility Partners.
As an indication of the depth of commitment and support for this mission, there's a large group of individuals who have come to Austin today for this presentation, and if I could at this time just have them stand behind me so you can see all the folks that have come with the Gulf Coast Regional Mobility Partners quite an impressive group,
In closing, I know that each of you are aware of the wide range of transportation issues that are facing our Gulf Coast region. I appreciate your attention to this presentation this morning and for listening to all the speakers that you will be hearing from the Gulf Coast Regional Mobility Partners, and I want you to know that we do want to work with you as we seek solutions for our transportation problems.
And at this time, Senator Lindsay will address you. Thank you.

SENATOR LINDSAY: Thank you, Peggy. And thank you, members.
It's my job to kind of give you a little bit of history of the relationship between TxDOT and the Harris County Toll Road Authority and to thank you, really thank you and your predecessors for everything you've done for developing what I think is the coming solution if there's indeed a solution to our transportation problems, and of course, that's a combination TxDOT/toll road development system.
In Harris County, of course, back in 1983 we passed a $900 million bond issue that has never been used, by the way, a general obligation bond issue that's never been really used as far as using ad valorem monies to pay debt service for because the toll road system itself has paid for everything with the tolls generated but it was the first in the state and hopefully will be used as a model by you and others across the state to solve statewide problems in transit issues that we have.
Needless to say, you have been a major partner, continue to be a major partner. At the very beginning, we couldn't have done it without TxDOT's involvement. We built the main lanes, we built most of the interchanges, but you all built the interchanges at the end of our roads which made it so people could get on our toll roads, period, and I'm sure you continue to do that.
Now, what does that mean? In Harris County, of course, we built two, and since I left as county judge they're building others and have others on the board, but really what does that mean? What has that meant to Harris County and the surrounding areas? Well, it's meant that we have some mobility that we didn't have before. When I was going to the west side of Harris County and I live in the north, it used to take me 45 minutes to an hour to get there; with the system we have now, I can get there in 15 to 20 minutes. Now, it's getting longer, the toll road is kind of jamming up a little bit from time to time, but that's the way it's been for everybody in that part of the county.
And of course, the development along the west and now on the south and southeast where you and us have finished those projects the development has occurred, is occurring, access is better, business development is occurring along there, the state is benefitting from all the businesses that are there, the citizens can now get to their homes in relatively cheaper land where they can commute from work to the home, has led to Harris County and the surrounding areas still having some of the lowest prices for homes of anyplace in the country, and I think it's due to the fact that we have the means of transportation of getting there on those facilities.
People still like to live a little bit farther out, and they're going to continue to do that. The better schools are out there, there's better parks, the county still has parks; those facilities are not available in the inner city. So if you've got kiddos, you want to live out there, and you can't get there without roads and means to get there.
So the toll roads and the combination between what you do and what we do is essential, and I'm just urging that we continue those programs. I know that looking at the map of future projects that Harris County would like to have which involve state highways, almost every one of them involves toll road participation, and I anticipate, of course, that that will continue in the future.
So I urge this department to continue along those lines. I don't see anything in the next legislature that's going to provide really big funding changes for the department, maybe some little things, and hopefully we'll work on those things I'll see you in Finance, I hope and we'll get there to some extent. But we're delighted that things are happening that way; I hope you're delighted and will continue the effort.
So with that, I know we have a long presentation and I'm going to turn it over to Jim Royer.

MR. ROYER: Thank you, Senator; thank you, Representative Hamric.
I drew the short straw to come up and try and identify what the issues are that are facing the metropolitan area along the Gulf Coast, and the easiest way to describe it is that if you take a look at recent polls in the metropolitan area, the number one issue responded to by 60 percent of the population is congestion and increased mobility; it is the top three issues of 100 percent of the population. It is, by all definitions, reaching a crisis proportion in the Houston metropolitan area. It is affecting our ability to grow economically and it is going to sooner or later affect our ability to be the engine we've been for the state of Texas.
The Gulf Coast Regional Mobility Partners came together to attack the problem or attempt to bring more investment to the issues on three levels: the federal government and that's why Tom DeLay agreed to be part of our executive committee which was a very important aspect of our program to make sure that we had somebody at the highest levels of government who understood how important this was and I believe you're going to receive not only our presentation today but the one from Fort Bend County that's going to address a specific issue that's near and dear to Congressman DeLay's heart; we also looked to the local governments to make their appropriate investments in our transportation systems and we've been very successful in that, and that is why our delegation includes elected leadership from around the entire region.
Fort Bend County has now formed a toll road authority, as Senator Lindsay explained the value of the Harris County Toll Road Authority; Judge Alan Sadler from Montgomery County, Judge Willy from Brazoria County are all part of this organization because this is such an important issue to our metropolitan area.
We come here today to seek your investment in our dilemmas and help us resolve this so we can continue to be the economic growth engine that we have been to the state of Texas, along with the other urban areas.
But to put some of it in perspective, to show you some of the statistics that cause us concern, Houston has 21.4 percent of the registered vehicles in the state of Texas; we have 4.8 million people which is 22.4 percent of the state's population.

MR. WILLIAMSON: That live in Houston?

MR. ROYER: This is the Houston statistical area, the entire metropolitan area as represented by the Gulf Coast Regional Mobility Partners.

MR. WILLIAMSON: How big is that?

MR. ROYER: It's the county areas we described to you.

MR. WILLIAMSON: Harris County?

MR. ROYER: Harris County and the surrounding counties around it.

MR. WILLIAMSON: How many counties is that?

MR. ROYER: Eight counties.

MR. WILLIAMSON: And those registered vehicles also come from those counties?

MR. ROYER: I believe so.

MR. WILLIAMSON: Do you know?

MR. ROYER: I'm going to get to the next slide and it will show you what's in the Houston District of TxDOT, if that's where you're going, Commissioner, but I believe those are the registered vehicles

MR. WILLIAMSON: You've got some information up here and I want to be sure I understand it.

MR. ROYER: Okay.

MR. WILLIAMSON: You say "Registered Vehicles, Houston Data, 3.7 million."

MR. ROYER: This is in the eight-county area.

MR. WILLIAMSON: So that's from the eight-county area from also which the 22 percent of the population figure comes from.

MR. ROYER: Correct.

MR. WILLIAMSON: So same vehicles from same area, same people from same area.

MR. ROYER: These are all the same geographic statistics on this slide.

MR. WILLIAMSON: Thank you.

MR. ROYER: Another important statistic is out of that section of the state, that region of the state is 29.1 percent of the gross state product. And we think those are pretty impressive statistics. It is that last statistic which is the economic engine I'm referring to. Dallas can present similar statistics. It is the urban areas of our state which generate all the revenues for the state. If we stifle economic development in our urban areas, we're eating our seed corn.
We all understand and have been forecasted the dilemmas the legislature is going to face when the gavel comes down in January. There's all types of healthcare problems, indigent healthcare problems, trauma care healthcare problems, there's school financing issues, there are higher education financing issues, there's a drought in the Valley; there are all sorts of things that this state has to deal with.
If the state does not continue to grow economically, it will not have the resources to take care of those other problems. If we do not solve our transportation problems in our urban areas in general, and Houston specifically, we will not have the economic resources to deal with those problems. We are eating our seed corn. We know this from our economic development activities, from the ability or lack of ability to attract additional corporations, to attract additional employment, and to expand existing employers in our metropolitan area.
If we put it in terms of TxDOT, here is where the Houston District ranks in the state of Texas: it's number one in population, it's number one in registered vehicles, it's number one in daily vehicle miles traveled, it's 22nd in TxDOT's spending on an annual basis per daily vehicles miles traveled, and it's 25th in lane miles per population. That seems to be quite a dichotomy, and it is one of the issues that we hope we can get TxDOT to recognize how severe the issue has become in the metropolitan area.

MR. WILLIAMSON: Would you bring that slide back, please? TxDOT spending.

MR. ROYER: That's out of the DISCO books.

MR. WILLIAMSON: Sir?

MR. ROYER: That's out of your data books.

MR. WILLIAMSON: Yes, but I'm trying to articulate. That's the amount of money we spend

MR. WILLIAMSON: Annually per daily vehicle miles traveled. We have 70 daily VMTs, and if you take the TxDOT expenditures in the Houston District as I understand for both maintenance, capital investment, and reconstruction, and divide it by 70 million, you'll get $8.23 a year per daily vehicle mile traveled.

MR. WILLIAMSON: And is that statistic offered up as you meant that we're not spending enough money in Houston?

MR. ROYER: Well, we're first in population, we're first in registered vehicles, we're first in vehicle miles traveled. If we're 22nd in spending, that would indicate to us a dichotomy.

MR. WILLIAMSON: Where does this same area rank in population density per square mile?

MR. ROYER: I think the Houston District is about the same size as the Dallas District, is about the same size as the San Antonio District. I think the urban districts are all about the same size.

MR. WILLIAMSON: Population density per square mile, is it not the case that the Houston area is more densely compacted population-wise?

MR. ROYER: I would expect it's similar to the other urban areas, if that's what you mean. Yes, we're denser than Yoakum.

MR. WILLIAMSON: Well, are you denser than Dallas?

MR. ROYER: I think we're about the same.

MR. WILLIAMSON: Does anybody know?
VOICE FROM AUDIENCE: We'll get that information.

MR. WILLIAMSON: I think that I just heard Mr. Lanier just three months ago point out that you were much denser than Dallas; all your population is in a small area.

MR. ROYER: The city is probably denser.

MR. WILLIAMSON: I'm just trying to understand what spending per daily vehicle mile means. Does that mean that we're not spending enough in the Houston area, or does that mean that there are a lot more people using the same roads as compared to the other 25 districts?

MR. ROYER: It means there are a lot more people using the same roads; it means the roads take a bigger beating, wear out faster; it means that there's more congestion; it means that we're in a more difficult traffic situation than most any other area in the state.

MR. WILLIAMSON: But is the comparison of first in population, registered vehicles and daily vehicle miles traveled to TxDOT spending per daily vehicle mile to illustrate why you're not receiving enough money, is that a proper or valid comparison? That's the point I'm trying to get to.

MR. ROYER: I think I'd rather put it this way, Commissioner: we aren't here to argue that we need to be different from the rest of the state, what we're here to present to you is we have a real problem in Houston and we need greater investment from TxDOT to help us solve our problem.
MR. WILLIAMSON: But your problem is no different from Dallas and San Antonio and Houston and El Paso.
MR. ROYER: No, our problem is more severe. When you look at the statistics, we are the most congested city in the state of Texas. That's a Texas Transportation Institute statistic.
MR. WILLIAMSON: Is that related to your population density?

MR. ROYER: It's related to all sorts of things: it's related to population; it's related to a lack of roads; it's related to a lack of investment in transportation facilities; it's related to the amount of vehicles that travel our roads; it's related to the amount of gross state product we have where all trucks that come to the Port of Houston come from all over the state, come into our district, and that takes an investment. If it's coming out of Laredo and ends up at the Port of Houston, it comes through the Houston District. We have Intercontinental Airport which is one of the two international gateways the state has, a lot of people come from all over the state into the Houston District. We have the most congested freeway system in the state of Texas and one of the most congested in the United States of America, and that's a fact.
Now, we can put up all sorts of different statistics that prove that or highlight that or look at that from different perspectives, but that's a fact. And you can check it at the Texas Transportation Institute, you can check it with the Federal Highway Administration, you can check it with the Metropolitan Transit Authority, you can check it with anybody you want to check it with, but that's a fact.
Now, there are some other statistics that are important too. If we go back to where we rank in the state as a percentage of different things this is the metropolitan statistical area right now it is receiving 13.3 percent of TxDOT's capital investment; if you look at it over the last decade, you see the trend: in the early part of the decade we were receiving 25 percent and that has now diminished down to 13 percent. To look at it graphically, we continue to decline. Back in the mid early 1990s we had climbed out of the congestion that we had developed in the 1980s as Houston grew so fast in the early '80s and we slid back into the congestion confusion of the mid 1980s, and at that time TxDOT responded valiantly and helped us with a great many programs.
Judge Lindsay mentioned the Harris County Toll Road System. We've invested $2 billion of Houstonians' money in the Harris County Toll Road System. Al Haines, representing Mayor Lanier, will come up and we have the largest transportation bond issue in the history of the City of Houston; Fort Bend County has formed a toll road authority; Montgomery County is advancing its bond issue; Brazoria County is putting together its regional mobility plan. There is a great deal of investment going on in Houston with our local monies.
It was back in the mid 1990s when the State of Texas was indignant that we only got 75 cents on the dollar from the federal government, and we got Senator Gramm and Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson, and Tom DeLay and a wide variety of political interests in the State of Texas. We actually had Congressman DeLay and Congressman Sheila Jackson Lee agree completely on this which is a rare event.

(General laughter.)

MR. ROYER: But Texas was indignant with the fact that we only got 75 cents on every dollar that we sent to Washington, and we changed that; we get 91 cents now. We get 91 cents, as I understand it, from the federal government; for every dollar that we send to Washington and transportation taxes, we get 91 cents of that back which is a vast improvement over the 75 cents. Commissioner Nichols, I believe, was on the commission at the time when that debate was going on and that effort was made.
What we're asking, Commissioner Williamson, is that Houston needs the re-commitment of TxDOT to integrate with our transportation programs and help us build our way out of that part of the problem that can be built out. We are also looking at every other technique known to western man to relieve our traffic congestion: intelligent transportation systems, different incident management, different event management. All sorts of things have been developed in studies done in the Houston area of 1 percent solutions, things we can do to attack this problem. It is not just TxDOT we're looking to to help us with this, we're attacking it locally, we're attacking it federally, and we're doing a lot of things differently, but we need to reverse this trend, and that's the message of the Gulf Coast Regional Mobility Partners.
We have a long list of projects that cover that entire metropolitan area and it's from those within the city, those out in the suburban counties; it covers the Grand Parkway which circumnavigates the metropolitan area so traffic that is coming up 59 that doesn't need to go through downtown Houston can move around the city without going on the Loop or without going on Beltway 8; we have projects in Brazoria County, we have projects throughout the metropolitan area. And when you get to the total, we have $3.6 billion worth of projects that would go a long way, not completely relieve, but go a long way towards relieving our congestion. This, in concert with the other programs that are being taken on by local county governments and city governments, will help us get back to where we can economically compete in the nation and continue to be the engine we've been.
We are doing this on a regional basis that's why the representation on the Gulf Coast Regional Mobility Partners is as widespread as it is; we're improving communications at all levels between city officials, county officials, planners, developers, things of that nature; and we're also here to tell you that with the 44 members of the Regional Mobility Partners legislative delegation, that if we can come to some program that would seek to get more investment, more capital placed in TxDOT's hands, we're here to support that.
I know there's a lot of conversation about whether or not the DPS bleeds too much money off Fund 6. You know, Commissioner Nichols, the work you did two sessions ago, we'd be ready to fall in behind that again.

MR. NICHOLS: Thank you.

MR. ROYER: To change the point of taxation from where we tax our gasoline tax from the rack back to the rack as opposed to at the pump, and we understand that can have some significant impact on TxDOT funds. Whether or not there are other opportunities to get TxDOT more money, we're here to encourage our 44-member legislative delegation to support that.
And with that, what I'd like to do now is turn it over to some of our other members of the executive committee to express to you their concerns and their approach to this, and the first is Judge Robert Eckels, who is chairman of the Transportation Policy Council of the Houston-Galveston Area and sits at the apex of this issue, and Judge Eckels has been active both as leading Harris County to deal with the problem and then also leading the whole metropolitan area in how to approach it. Judge Eckels, please.

JUDGE ECKELS: Mr. Chairman, commissioners, I'm pleased to be here with you today. I am here in multiple hats. I do have with us Alan Clark who will be able to answer any real technical questions about what we're doing at the MPO, but primarily to emphasize that we are taking a regional approach and that it will take, as we have discussed in the past, more than TxDOT dollars; we're here to be your partner in regional planning through the MPO and then bringing the local jurisdictions together.
We are the primary agency responsible for the coordination of the regional plans on transportation; we have that currently in our 2022 Plan; we have taken this responsibility in our 2025 Plan which is in current process to look at not just coordinating all the projects of the various jurisdictions but also looking at the requirements to meet 100 percent of our transportation mobility needs and where those holes are in the system. We work, again, with all the local governments in our region. Several other folks who are a part of that are here today are part of this Mobility Partners as well.
One of our key projects and I think you can see the kind of partnership we're developing in the region is the Katy Project which has Gary Trietsch is here with us, as well, today has taken on kind of to me the model of what future projects will be like where you blend the state, the HGAC through our Transportation Policy Council, with the federal funds that we pass through into that project, the Harris County Toll Road Authority building a partnership with TxDOT that will also serve Metro and their transit needs, and in the end we build a better facility for the people who are using that freeway every day in their single-occupancy vehicles, we build a better transit facility and we do more than any of us could have done on our own.
We're working on the same kind of partnerships with the 290 corridor and the 288 corridor, we're looking at those around the region. We have also included the West Park corridor as another project with the Harris County Toll Road Authority and the Transit Authority.
What we're asking today is that we want to be better partners with you. We can do it, we can bring a lot of resources to the table, but we can't do it on our own, it's going to take the commitment from TxDOT, and together we can address the needs of our community and can leverage the dollars of TxDOT, the Toll Road Authority, the Transit Authority, the city and county and other regional entities to provide more than any of us can do on our own. But we are here today primarily to say that we need a little bigger boost from TxDOT to make that happen.
I'll be happy to answer any questions. I would be remiss if I did not mention, in case the time is not appropriate as we get through this process and we have to leave before Fort Bend finishes, is that we are all also here on the 59 Forward project which is item 6(a) on your agenda today. While that is not a Harris County project, it is one that is important for Harris County and for the entire region. That is one of the bottlenecks and that affects our entire area.

MR. WILLIAMSON: Is 59 how fast you want to drive down there?

JUDGE ECKELS: Well, we'd love to be able to drive 59 most of the time.

MR. WILLIAMSON: 59 is the one we're going to name the Tom DeLay Freeway.

JUDGE ECKELS: I think it's already the Senator Bentsen Freeway or Lloyd Bentsen Freeway.

MR. WILLIAMSON: The new part of it we're going to divide it up.

JUDGE ECKELS: It will be the Tom DeLay lanes on the Lloyd Bentsen Freeway.

MR. WILLIAMSON: So then if you're delayed, then you can say you're in the DeLay lane. Right?

(General laughter.)

JUDGE ECKELS: That's right. Hopefully we're going to be at least 59 miles an hour on those roads, Commissioner.
So that is the gist of what we have and if we have to answer any questions. Again, you see the support and we'll continue our discussions and work with each member of the commission.
And from here, Al Haines from the City of Houston, representing Mayor Brown.

MR. HAINES: Thank you, Mr. Chairman, commissioners. I just want to simply make a comment on two points. I think we've learned as a city and continue to learn, perhaps somewhat painfully, and that's we're not the only game in town anymore. There's clearly value added as we look at this entire region and support, in a collaborative way, what we're trying to accomplish as it relates to a number and a variety of issues and initiatives that are underway, not the least of which is mobility relief and congestion relief.
We have adopted a capital improvement program as a result of the largest voter authorization in the history of the city this past November. Included in that program, that five-year program, we have identified about $700 million in the form of highway construction, street improvements, everything related to improving mobility on city streets and related feeder and other arterials. Of that $700 million, $195 million of that has been identified by funding sources through TxDOT, and we are very, very grateful and recognize the value of leveraging between the city funds, Harris County and other counties that are participants, Metro and TxDOT.
We think there's value in regionalism and collaboration and that's a difficult term that at least at the city level we have come to realize really adds value to our efforts, and we're certainly hopeful that as we go forward with the commitment that the city is prepared to make on behalf of its taxpayers, it's revenue stream, that we can continue to support and see encouragement from TxDOT as well as the other local funding sources.
We also have recognized that economic development is a vital component not just to the political subdivision of the City of Houston but the entire region. We've made investments and continue to do that. As you know, one of the two major economic drivers in growth in this state is in the Houston airport system. We are currently under the largest spending program of $3 billion in the entire country of expanding those airports in Houston, Texas. I mention that in the context of this presentation just simply to point out that as we look at economic development, as we look at, if you will, the narrow issue of transportation and congestion issues, I like to think of contexting that in the broader scheme and the broader vision, if you will, of where we're trying to head in terms of building the economic vitality of the state of Texas as we participate in our regional initiatives. We think certainly that airport system, because it's a city airport, deserves all the attention that it can get on its own to building the economic vitality of this area.
So we look forward to continued support and a continued working relationship with you. We're grateful and appreciate the opportunities we've had in the past to work with you on the variety of issues that we have.
I'd like to call on Judge Alan Sadler from Montgomery County now to make a short comment.

JUDGE SADLER: Thank you, commissioners. This is my second time to appear before this board. I believe Commissioner Nichols was here and I think Commissioner Johnson had just arrived as a member.

MR. WILLIAMSON: I remember you from the alternative fuels meeting.
JUDGE SADLER: I remember that too. Anyway, at that meeting I asked for one thing, that was to move I-45 from long-term priority to Priority 1; you all did that. You're making great progress on I-45 from Houston through Conroe and I appreciate that, and believe me, the Montgomery County people appreciate that. Thank you very much for that.
But today we have rural people here, we have urban, we have cities, we have counties, we have a broad spectrum of people here that are requesting more dollars. And I'm kind of a black-white person; let me get down to some very hard facts that have maybe been talked about but let me talk about them again.
We represent 23 percent of the population of the state of Texas in these eight counties and what it all boils down to is we received in 2001 exactly one-half of the dollars spent ten years ago as a percent of the money spent. We got 26 percent ten years ago; we're getting 13 percent now. That's a staggering number.
We understand the reason for diversion occasionally for projects in other parts of the state that don't really justify the population or have the tax base, we understand that, but the graph you've seen earlier shows this is a consistent pattern downward, the money we're getting for this Gulf Coast region.
Back in Montgomery County, I have told my voters that if we pass bond issues we will get federal and state matching dollars for these major projects, and Montgomery County, Fort Bend County and other counties have passed major bond projects. We passed $16 million in Montgomery County a year ago; people are now saying, okay, where is the federal part, where is the state part. So we're having a problem, a credibility problem of not being able to perform with the money we have. We feel we're doing our part; today we're asking the state to please do your part and help fund our money back that we've already paid in in gas dollars.
That's really all I have. If you have any questions, I'll be glad to answer them.
MR. WILLIAMSON: Based on your statement, if '02's amount was up to 16 percent, would that be a reversal of the trend you are concerned about?
JUDGE SADLER: It would be.
MR. WILLIAMSON: And if '03 was up to 19 percent, could you go home and say this is a smashing victory for Houston?
JUDGE SADLER: I'd be a happy camper. Nineteen percent would be sure better than 13, absolutely. We'll take 22, by the way.
MR. WILLIAMSON: I have no doubt you'd take 100.
(General laughter.)
MR. WILLIAMSON: One of the questions I wanted to ask Jim, but I'll ask you, out of curiosity during all those years when the Harris County district was receiving 21, 22, 25 percent, what assets were being purchased with that, do we know?
JUDGE SADLER: What assets were being purchased?
MR. WILLIAMSON: Was it highways?
MR. ROYER: Yes.
MR. WILLIAMSON: Concrete highways?
MR. ROYER: Yes. I think there were two years back there where we were up in the mid 20s.
MR. WILLIAMSON: And we were purchasing highways?
MR. ROYER: Yes.
MR. WILLIAMSON: Mostly concrete highways?
MR. ROYER: Yes, they were investments in support of the toll road system that Senator Lindsay referred to where the local governments were investing over $1.7 billion.
MR. WILLIAMSON: What's the useful life of most of those assets?
MR. ROYER: Well, in Houston, it's a lot shorter than the rest of the state because of the vehicles per lane mile that we put on them.
MR. WILLIAMSON: But it's more than six years, is it not? I'm told it's 40 years by your profession.
MR. ROYER: No, I don't think you'll find a freeway in Houston lasting 40 years. Maybe Mr. Behrens could comment on that, but I don't think there's been a freeway in Houston without major reconstruction that's lasted more than 20 years. If we want to go look at what needs to happen to the 610 Loop and what's happening to the Katy Freeway.
MR. WILLIAMSON: I'm told the useful life when you build a concrete road is 40 years if you have normal maintenance on that road. Let's say it's 20, Jim.
MR. ROYER: Okay.
MR. WILLIAMSON: So if a lot of money was spent in Houston in the early '90s to build concrete highways, isn't it logical that the state would then shift to San Antonio for a while and Laredo for a while and Dallas for a while to build those same long-lived assets and then make their way back to Houston as the assets wore out?
MR. ROYER: I think, Commissioner, that's exactly what we're hoping happens, and if next year goes to 16 percent, one year doesn't make a trend, two years doesn't make a trend. We have a ten-year trend where we've gone from an appropriate amount of investment and again, it depends, is the appropriate investment based on population, vehicles, gross state product, economic engine, franchise taxes collected. You can pick 30 different yardsticks by which you say is the most appropriate investment to make.
MR. WILLIAMSON: I know, but I'm particularly sensitive about this because I've sat on the other side with Senator Williams, soon to be, with Representative Noriega and had to listen to people in my district come to Austin and complain about not getting something, and I know what's fixing to come from me, and I'm particularly sensitive about it when I think that and it's not just Houston, Dallas can take their fair share of this also everybody seems to want to come here now and say we're not getting our fair share, as if you didn't get your fair share eight years ago when we built some long-term assets, as if to imply that TxDOT is somehow being unfair to east Houston and north Houston and Brazoria County, and the truth is you know that we allocate these funds based on life of asset and need. We move around the state doing this stuff.
MR. ROYER: But Commissioner, you've never heard us use the word "unfair"; you've never heard us even use the term "fair share".
MR. WILLIAMSON: I have noted that, I appreciate that.
MR. ROYER: I think what we're looking for is investment in a very, very valuable part of the economy of the state of Texas, and failing us, all of us, whether it's the counties, whether it's Montgomery County, whether it's Fort Bend County, Harris County Metropolitan Transit Authority is investing hundreds of millions of dollars if we don't get on top of this then the state legislature need not meet about child healthcare; it need not meet about expanding investment in education because there isn't going to be any money to do that. If we don't get more economically competitive in this economy in the United States of America and that doesn't just go for Houston, this is an issue of all the urban areas, this is an issue in Dallas, you know that if we don't figure out how to get you more money and you invest more money in our urban areas, the legislature is just going to throw up their hands and say, you know, we're Mississippi no offense intended.
(General laughter.)
MR. WILLIAMSON: I'm not sure it's that bad and I'm not sure there's a member out there that's willing to say they're going to throw their hands up and admit that we're Mississippi. But the inference in your presentation, in the presentation of some of the other urban areas of late is that something is somehow wrong with the way you guys treat us, and that's what these members see, and then we've got to deal with that in just 90 days, and I just cannot let that go undiscussed.
This is a big state, we have to invest in the long-term assets as they wear out or are needed. Houston had a tremendous amount of investment from the late '80s through the mid '90s; Dallas well, actually, the lower South Texas border has had a tremendous amount of investment from the mid '90s to now; Dallas's cycle is starting. The governor has hammered on us unmercifully about urban mobility and about Houston in particular, and we're doing everything we can, and then to come in and see a presentation that leaves in Senator Williams' mind and Senator Lindsay's mind the suggestion that we've got you at 13 and taking you down, when Michael Stevens knows that we already increased the following year and we're scheduled to increase the year after that even more, it's a little bit hard for this guy to take. I don't speak for Mr. Johnson and Mr. Nichols. I don't like the kind of fuzziness in public discourse.
JUDGE SADLER: Just one last statement I'd like to make and then I'll sit down. In this area, Fort Bend County and Montgomery County, as you probably know, are two of the top four growth counties in the state of Texas. I think Williamson is number one as a percent of growth, Collin is two, Montgomery County is three, Fort Bend County is four. We are suffering greatly with our population increase and horrendous traffic problems in those two counties.
Thank you very much for having me.
MR. ROYER: Again, Commissioner, we aren't here again, the idea was that we aren't here saying that you've disparaged us, you've insulted us, we're going to go do something violent about this, what we're here to do is request that as you consider changing that trend around that the needs are overwhelming at the current time, that huge investments are being made by the local community. Al Haines mentioned the $3 billion going into one of the two international gateways in the state, all funded by Houston; we're putting over a billion dollars into the Port of Houston and it is the main port, it is the state's port to the rest of the world. There is a tremendous amount of investment going on in Houston and we just look forward to TxDOT becoming an increasingly more important part of us solving our transportation problems, that's the message
We're here to tell you that we need it, we think we contribute a lot to the state. I don't think we've said the word "fair share." We just said we need more investment in our transportation systems from all fronts: federal, state, local, anywhere we can get it, toll roads, and we're doing it, and we look forward to reversing the trend and getting the investments we need to solve the problems.
And we also want to say this: Gary Trietsch is one of the finest district engineers TxDot has ever had, we're pleased to have him, he's doing a wonderful job, and we applaud Gary Trietsch.
(Applause.)
MR. ROYER: And I know we've exceeded our time and I'm not sure we haven't exceeded our welcome too.
(General laughter.)
MR. ROYER: You're going to hear from another group from the Regional Mobility talking about the 59 project, a project that's near and dear to all of our hearts and one of our prominent members, Tom DeLay, and we're also here to support them in that specific request. Thank you very much.
MR. WILLIAMSON: Well, just be aware not a week goes by that Mr. Perry doesn't personally impress upon me the importance of investing in Harris County.
MR. ROYER: I appreciate that, and let the governor know there's not a day, a morning or an afternoon that goes by that there isn't a lot of road rage in Houston over the fact that it's the most congested city in the state.
MR. WILLIAMSON: I suspect there must be somebody calling him and reminding him to do that. I think the commission has some strong feelings about wanting to address the urban mobility issues.
MR. ROYER: We appreciate that, we appreciate your service. We know if it wasn't for the big paycheck, you guys wouldn't do this. We do appreciate your service and we understand that it's one of the toughest jobs in the state to deal with the limited resources you have and the overwhelming problems this state is addressing in the whole area of transportation. We appreciate your service and your dedication to working on those problems.
MR. JOHNSON: Robert, we've been discovered; we're in it for the money.
(General laughter.)
MR. JOHNSON: Robert, did you have any observations or questions?
MR. NICHOLS: Yes, I had a few observations and comments, it's not so much questions. First of all, you have not worn your welcome out, you're always welcome, the group. I think it's great that you're here and having a very frank dialogue related to some of this. Some of these conversations we've had in smaller groups also, but it's good to have a good size group here going through this.
I think everyone on the commission up here recognizes there are huge needs in the Houston area, as well as there are huge needs in Dallas-Fort Worth and San Antonio and the other metropolitan areas everyone, I think, agrees with that. The fact that Houston is one of the greatest economic engines in the state I think everyone in the far areas of even the most rural of Texas learned, if there was any doubt in their minds, in the '80s when Houston shut down, it shut the whole state down, and no one wants to see that happen again.
I was a little concerned, as Commissioner Williamson was, in some of the ways that some of these numbers or percentile rankings are. I think everyone recognizes you can pick certain statistics and always find anomalies. Using one or the other to try to show this is number one and this is number 23 doesn't really give a full good picture, it shows a distortion in one category. Houston does get a lot of money, it needs more money, no question about it, but if for instance you ran that chart back a little further, there was a huge ramp-up in the Houston area and then it's come down. But during that ramp-up period, the other areas of the state, funds were in effect diverted from them; the San Antonios, the Houstons, the Dallases, the border stuff, they were deferred, their projects were held off. That's what it appeared to me, all the other charts they had the big dip.
MR. ROYER: We're aware of that and we agree with you.
MR. NICHOLS: So they've all been sitting thinking it's our turn, it's our turn.
As far as the percentile, whether it's population or economic percentages, we can get many of the same type of charts that show the same things occurring in the Dallas-Fort Worth area there isn't nearly enough, San Antonio, I mean, on and on. No question about it, we have an overall state problem and one of the problems is that the system and I think it's important for those of you who came here today who are not aware of how some of these data are put together that as a system statewide is aging I know you're aware of this the percent of the state funding to preserve the system everywhere continues to increase as a percentage of our budget. We're up to almost 55 percent now just to preserve the system. If I took that dollars per vehicle miles traveled and tried to see who got the money using that statistic, it's a little district that most of you have probably not heard of called Childress. It's the vast stretch of land between Wichita Falls and Amarillo, a bunch of counties, a huge amount of geography, not many people live there, and they haven't gotten an expansion project in 40 years. I don't think they really expect it; they would love a few, but they do expect, particularly for the people who drive through there and the trucks that leave Houston going to Colorado or the northwestern part of the state expect a road to be there, and any maintenance dollars, cash, that goes into the Childress District using vehicle dollars per vehicle miles traveled is a huge distortion. I'm sure they're number one in the state. That doesn't mean we're pouring money in there; it means that statewide the preservation is going up.
And the only place in the state that has the money to preserve the system statewide is the urbanized and metropolitan areas. Absolutely every one of those is not spending so much to expand those systems as to preserve them, and I think there's no one in the state that wants to see the state system just go apart, we've got to preserve the system. In our transportation plan and in many other things, we have said first of all we have got to preserve what we have. We have got to, as a state, figure out a way to get Houston what it needs for transportation, as well as San Antonio and Dallas and Fort Worth. And yes, we are accused many times of not being fair with it but the very same kind of distortions we get from those areas also as far as a percent of their economy and things like that.
Houston, I think, has done a fabulous job on the toll roads. I know Senator Lindsay has been a pioneer in that area and pushed for it for many years. The state, we see that also as great growth. We are intending to put lots of money, lots of support, we have always done that with Houston and Harris County and Fort Bend, and we're going to see a lot of growth in that area.
In our process of distribution of funds to metros and urban areas and statewide corridors if you want to call it that we're going to rework. Houston has asked us and Dallas has asked us and San Antonio, all the areas of the state, the legislative body, the comptroller have asked us to take the process that we have used over the years, simplify it, get a lot more local input into how those funds are spent, and we are doing that. We are going from 30-something categories to 12; we have task forces the Houston area is represented in a task force, as well as Dallas and Fort Worth and all those others, in trying to make a recommendation, as we spend money in the metropolitan areas, how should it be spent, how do you prioritize. And I think you are coming up with some great stuff and I think what we're hearing at least what I've been hearing from some of the early stuff is rather than using a formula of segmentized construction, we are definitely committed to building major projects in the most efficient manner, but if we possibly somehow or other proportioned those funds and gave a commitment of dollars over a period of ten years or 15 years in the metropolitan areas in a balanced fashion, that might be a better way to do it, and I think we're going to be seriously looking at some of that.
MR. ROYER: I think at a recent symposium in Houston, Commissioner Williamson brought up a very good point, too that we look forward to supporting you on that TxDOT is restricted, as I understand it, in your federal funds as to how well you can apply those into traffic management programs, and in the re-authorization of TEA-21/T-3, we need to get some flexibility in that so TxDOT can participate in some of these intelligent transportation system installations that I know the urban area around the state are
MR. WILLIAMSON: The greatest favor Mr. DeLay could do for us talk to him through you would be to achieve a great degree of flexibility in our reimbursements from Mr. Reagan.
MR. ROYER: That message has already been delivered, Mr. Commissioner.
MR. WILLIAMSON: You can't imagine how much we could help every area of the state if we weren't constricted. The reason I ask you about your 91 percent figure, we think by the time everything gets backed up and we get all of our reimbursements, we think we're back down in the mid 80s again.
MR. ROYER: Then we've got to get indignant and go up there and get our fair share. Right?
MR. WILLIAMSON: Wait, I'm not on that program.
(General laughter.)
MR. NICHOLS: On that point where we used to get 75 percent and then we thought we were going to get 90 and we're finding out we're getting probably about 86, and there was a lot of discussions to try to ensure that we get 90, maybe even 95, that same federal funding we're looking at very possibly in the RABA a lot of people are not going to understand what that is possibly getting cut $200 million a year. That's still being danced around.
But regardless of all that, we're still getting 86 percent at the federal level but at the state level of the fuel tax that you pay, we get a lot higher return from the federal than we do from at the state level; we only get 72 percent of your fuel tax money goes to transportation in the state, we're at 72 percent here in Texas.
MR. WILLIAMSON: We were thinking about asking the legislature to not only let us keep the DPS money but go ahead and send us the DPS traffic monitors and we'll take care of that, we'll put the officers on the street to keep the speed limits down, you just send us the responsibility and the people back and we'll take care of it.
MR. NICHOLS: Anyway, it's going to take a tremendous amount shifting this pie around that everybody is concerned about, that is not the full solution here. The real solution to the transportation problem in Texas is going to be some of these new tools, some of these turnpikes, some of these new opportunities for participating with some of these new transportation things, but it's going to take money I mean, you can't build bricks without straw.
MR. ROYER: We're here to get on the same page with you, because you're right, Commissioner Nichols
MR. NICHOLS: That's the real solution to the problem.
MR. ROYER: that it's new ways to finance, new ways to invest in these projects and then new systems. The intelligent transportation systems where you can get 5 percent more capacity out of your existing facilities and getting TxDOT the flexibility to participate in those programs. We have to attack it on all fronts, and I know we can torture statistics, if we torture them long enough, they'll say anything we want. What we came here to show you, we're asking, we need as much attention as you can give us and we need as much investment as you can give us because we need to get on top of this problem.
MR. WILLIAMSON: Well, we knew that this would be a golden opportunity to have some pretty frank dialogue; we've been anticipating this for about three weeks.
MR. ROYER: I've never had anything other than a frank dialogue with you, Ric.
(General laughter.)
MR. WILLIAMSON: We also knew that there would be a lot of members present who would have the opportunity to perhaps view the dialogue from a different perspective, and it's one of my roles to not let my former colleagues be misled.
Mr. Nichols made a good point that we're up to 55 percent on maintenance, but that's not the whole point. By the time you back out and we're not complaining; like I said, I'm not on the fair share program, I don't like that argument but by the time you back out DPS, safety items are important to House and Senate members, air quality issues that don't directly affect transportation, this next year, Mr. Noriega, we might spend 18 percent of our cash flow on new construction 18 percent.
MR. ROYER: On new capacity.
MR. WILLIAMSON: If you go in and break out all of the requests of the urban leadership of the state, we talk about we can only serve one-third of our need when it goes to new capacity, it's like one-twentieth of our requests. So we're not up here saying pass a tax bill and give us more money, but we just think the facts need to be said over and over again: on a cash flow basis, we can only allocate about 18 to 20 percent on new capacity. It is what it is; it makes everybody mad but it is what it is, no more, no less.
MR. ROYER: We take no exception to that analysis; that's right. You're correct.
MR. WILLIAMSON: I wish we were spending more money on rail and light rail and helping Houston build their light rail.
MR. ROYER: We're also doing that.
MR. JOHNSON: Robert, did you have anything additionally?
MR. NICHOLS: No. I think you have done a great job in working together in all the areas of that region and coming up with some ideas and pooling and creative opportunities to leverage some of that stuff, I think it's great, and appreciate everybody coming.
MR. ROYER: We look forward to working with you as continued partners. Again, thank you very much for your attention.
MR. JOHNSON: Ric, did you have anything else?
MR. WILLIAMSON: No. I've said enough.
MR. JOHNSON: Well, I have two observations. One is the numbers that you have reported come from DISCOs which are actually cash dollars spent in a given fiscal year. I think it's important to note that in the current Unified Transportation Plan of 2002, which we are operating under, that the Houston area is in for a sizable increase, and those are planned and programmed dollars as opposed to actual dollars spent, but that number approaches 20 percent over a four-year period. So I think the facts will show, once those numbers correlate into DISCOs, that the trend is reversing.
And the second observation I have is and this is a personal observation, although I'm confident that my colleagues agree that congestion/mobility is the largest challenge that we have as a commission and as a department. It is also by far the most expensive challenge that we have as a commission and as a department. But as I think you clearly understand and know far too well, we deal with a limited pool of money and I'm heartened by, one, the broad spectrum of people that are represented here today that hopefully will understand the challenges that we have a little better, and the offer for help that we can all be lifted by a rising tide, and that rising tide would be increased funding for this department and what it faces in the future.
I want to thank each and every one of you, and in particular, Jim, for your presentation. It's been very informative and it's been an excellent dialogue, I believe.
MR. ROYER: I agree, and we look forward to partnering up as we have in the past and getting on about taking care of the problem. Thank you very much.

MR. JOHNSON: Terrific. We will take a very brief recess and the operative word is brief so the Houston people can get back and get that state domestic product up a little higher.

(Whereupon, a brief recess was taken.)

SAN ANTONIO MOBILITY COALITION
CITY OF SAN ANTONIO/BEXAR COUNTY

(Mayor Ed Garza, Sen. Jeff Wentworth, Sen. Frank Madla, Rep. Robert Puente, Rep. Frank Corte, Rep. Ruth Jones McClendon, Rep. Elizabeth Ames Jones, Rep. Jose Menendez, Sam Dawson, Judge Nelson Wolff, Lyle Larson, Marty Wender)

MR. JOHNSON: We will reconvene this meeting of the Texas Transportation Commission. I'd like to welcome our new arrivals from San Antonio. I've made an executive change in the agenda order and moved San Antonio to the second delegation. Our friends from Fort Bend County have been gracious enough to not get too mad at me for doing that, and we appreciate their flexibility.
It's great to see the San Antonio delegation here and I understand that Mayor Ed Garza will lead the delegation. We're delighted that you're here and welcome. Hopefully no gridlock on I-35 this morning.
(General laughter.)
MAYOR GARZA: I actually had the opportunity to fly to Houston, so I avoided that, but our delegation got here on time, so we're very appreciative for your time and attention and adjusting your agenda. Commissioner Johnson, it's always good to see you, commission members Williamson, Nichols, and Mr. Behrens.
I am pleased to be here this morning to lead the San Antonio and Bexar County delegation in presenting our priority projects. And first, let me thank each and every one of you for the job that you're doing really establishing a vision for transportation in our great state of Texas. I think it's been several years since we've had an opportunity to make a formal presentation, and so it's good to be back and it's good to talk about the many great things that are happening in the San Antonio and Bexar County areas.
We'd like to focus on really our concerns and most importantly our commitment towards transportation, our commitment in building a superior transportation network in San Antonio and Bexar County, but one that interconnects with the rest of the state. I think as we think about our priority projects, these are projects that benefit the entire state of Texas.
We will be highlighting three of our local projects, priority projects at different stages, but most importantly, and I'd like to stress that we're also in strong support of a state project that many of you are aware of, the interest by Toyota in the state of Texas. We have been a supporter of Toyota coming to Texas. We're very pleased, obviously, that they are looking at San Antonio and south Bexar County. But I think we want to communicate to this commission that by bringing Toyota and by welcoming Toyota would be a great opportunity for the entire state of Texas, our economy and certainly the future.
So we will talk about these projects in greater detail, the Toyota project is an evolving one but one that will require an investment by the State of Texas. We are working with our public works department and the officials at Toyota to come up with cost estimates and because of the sensitivity of the issue, I don't want to get into great detail, but let you know that we're ready to work with this commission to make sure that the state of Texas benefits and brings Toyota to this part of the country. It would be a first for Toyota to invest in the state of Texas and I think a very strong commitment and certainly one that will focus on transportation.
And I might also note that the officials that we've been talking to are talking about the same type of vision that we are in terms of building a sustainable community, integrating land use into their design, and because of that it gives me a great amount of enthusiasm to stand here and to ask for your support.
Talking about transportation systems, certainly this commission has taken a big step forward. It's taken a position on the access road issue and one that I've supported. I just want to stand here today and applaud you for that and also for listening to the rest of the state of Texas. I think that demonstrated your sincere willingness to make sure that the decisions you make will benefit the entire state of Texas, and more importantly, look to building a transportation network for the future.
In San Antonio, Bexar County we're focusing on the very same things. We're talking about integrating our transportation system with land use planning so that as we continue to grow we will see economic development but economic development that is sustainable. We know that the growth needs of this state are tremendous. San Antonio, being the second fastest growing city of cities over one million, we too know that the challenge must be to plan for the future.
We've also listened, we've listened very carefully to the message that you have sent to our delegation in years past about leveraging dollars, about bringing dollars to the table. Later today you will hear from one of our speakers, our county commissioner, on what we're bringing to the table this year. And so we're here today to thank you for your leadership, we're here to ask for your support as we stand here ready to invest in our community and to promote sustainable growth throughout our community.
You see many of the delegation standing behind me, many are wearing this SAMCO sticker here. This is a new partnership, and again, this was from the message that we heard from this commission to get organized, to work as a community, and to come with a plan. The San Antonio Mobility Coalition is a public-private partnership and we are exploring ways to extend those boundaries to a regional mobility authority. We're also working with other communities across the state, and I have the opportunity to co-chair the re-authorization efforts that the state of Texas has developed through TX-21 in making sure that the state of Texas receives its share of dollars from our federal government, and we know that's going to be a difficult task but we will do all that we can to leverage those dollars as well.
I'd like to introduce, before we begin our presentation we're going to have several individuals talk about the priority projects in greater detail but it gives me great pleasure to introduce our Bexar County legislative delegation who is here, and after I introduce these members, Sam Dawson, who is the chairman of the San Antonio Mobility Coalition, will begin our presentation.
I'd like to ask our delegation to please stand: Senator Jeff Wentworth; Senator Frank Madla; Representative Robert Puente; Representative Frank Corte; Representative Ruth Jones McClendon; Representative Elizabeth Ames Jones; and Representative Jose Menendez; and I believe we also have a representative from John Shields' office. I want to thank our Bexar County delegation. We're very proud of the job that they do each and every day and we're looking forward to a very productive legislative session beginning in January.
With that, I'd like to turn it over to our chair of SAMCO, Sam Dawson.
MR. WILLIAMSON: Mayor, just a second. I need the record to reflect that Senator Van de Putte called me and said, I'm tied up on something I have to do; if I don't get there on time, I'm thinking about it. And certainly Senator Van de Putte is a strong supporter of transportation and someone that's very comfortable for this commission to deal with.
MAYOR GARZA: I'm glad you mentioned that because Senator Van de Putte is my state senator, so if you didn't mention it, I would hear from her later. She's been also a supporter and our entire delegation has been supportive.
MR. WILLIAMSON: You know what's unique about the Bexar County delegation?
MAYOR GARZA: It's headed by an Aggie.
(General laughter.)
MR. WILLIAMSON: It's the only urban delegation in Texas represented by senators with whom I served in the House, each senator. In fact, my first office mate was Frank Madla and he took his time to point out where I was missing the Ps and Qs as a freshman House member. I'll never forget.
Tell us about Toyota for a minute, Mayor. We want desperately, the governor has made it clear to us that TxDOT will do everything it can to help Toyota be a reality. We need just for you and the leaders of the community to say this is what we need, and we'll be frank with you and tell you what we can't do or can do, but we will go the extra mile to bring that important economic investment to our state.
I was thinking about my Houston friends a while ago because I knew you would be speaking about this later, and I wonder how much more of the gross state product will be allocated to Houston by the cars that get shipped out of San Antonio and taken to the Port of Houston. It just demonstrates the point we're one state: whatever happens in Houston affects San Antonio, whatever happens in Dallas affects Houston, whatever might happen in San Antonio in the next 90 days will have a great impact on the rest of us.

MR. JOHNSON: On the entire state.

MR. WILLIAMSON: You tell us and we will be here to be your partner.

MAYOR GARZA: Well, I appreciate that, and fortunate for San Antonio, and Toyota, you have to understand, is a very thorough due diligence process, and we didn't even know Toyota was looking at San Antonio until just a short time ago, but once we discovered that, they have been very clear that this is a substantial investment in our state. And all along we've been supportive to get Toyota in Texas I think they were looking at two areas within our state when they've narrowed it down now to the San Antonio, Bexar County area, we've been supportive. They were actually, I think, even looking outside of our county and we've been supportive.
And so we're here to let you know that our city and county are working with those officials. Again, not going into a whole lot of information because I believe the media is here but we are putting together a package that not only addresses their investment in our community but one that builds an economic catalyst for south Bexar County, for the region, and for the state of Texas. The transportation areas that they have focused on primarily deal with the access issues to the sites that they've been looking at, there would be some highway interchange improvements that would be required, improvements and an addition to a spur off one of the main rail lines is also a must, and access over that and over some of the drainage issues.
And so we've been working very hard to (a) get down to very specific cost estimates for a site so that we can come to you and present that information and seek your support, but it would be probably not good on my part to give any specific numbers at this point but to say that we're going to do whatever we can to make this happen and we would certainly ask for your support and your partnership with the state, with the county, and with the city of San Antonio.

MR. JOHNSON: Well, please rest assured that we're very anxious to assist you in any way that we can. We are aware, keenly, not only of how important this is to your region of the state but also, as Ric pointed out, it affects the entire state, and it's very important to the department, and we as the commission will assist you in every way we can.

MAYOR GARZA: We appreciate that. And I introduced our delegation. We also have Councilman Carol Schubert who is here from the city council also an Aggie, by the way; and of course, you'll hear from our county judge and our county commissioner Lyle Larson, an Aggie as well. I can't say that for our county judge but we're working on that. Now I'd like to turn it over to Sam Dawson.
SENATOR WENTWORTH: Actually, I'm not Sam Dawson.
MR. JOHNSON: Could have fooled us.

(General laughter.)

SENATOR WENTWORTH: No. Sam is younger and better looking and not an Aggie.
Chairman Johnson, Commissioner Nichols, Commissioner Williamson, Mr. Behrens. We really appreciate your patience and forbearing as you go through the process of listening to all these delegations come before you with the same plea which is for more money. I had an opportunity to listen to part of the previous delegation and some of the chairman's remarks about hoping that the rising tide of revenue that you all need to provide the things that we're asking you for takes place next spring.
And I would just respectfully recall that a year and a half ago I was speaking publicly about the need for a nickel a gallon or a dime a gallon gasoline tax increase. I've taken a lot of heat in campaigns since that time for those remarks, but I believe I genuinely reflected the views of my constituents who want more road improvements and they want less pressure on their local property taxes, and because the gasoline tax is split as you know three-quarters for roads and one-quarter for schools, that would have been helpful.
It wasn't well received by House leaders at the time. They indicated to the reporter that the chances of that passing were slim to none, and the executive branch indicated probably a bill like that would be vetoed, but hopefully through the last year and a half or two years, I think more and more people are coming to the conclusion that we do need that. So I'm with you.
I've got to tell you this delegation traveled here this morning on a bus, most of them, from San Antonio and I-35, and I told my son last night he asked me what I was doing today, and I told him I was going to go to Austin and talk to them about Loop 1604. Carla and I have two sons: One is 14 who fortunately is not yet driving, and another who is 20 who USAA wishes were not driving
(General laughter.)
SENATOR WENTWORTH: but when he found out that I was going to talk to you about 1604, he said, Oh, you mean the death loop. I mean, that is what people call Loop 1604. So my role in this presentation is to try to bring some facts to you about growing congestion problems that we face in Bexar County.
According to a 2002 study on urban mobility by the Texas Transportation Institute at some university the mayor was talking about, Texas A&M University, of the 75 urban areas in the country, San Antonio has the fastest growing congestion rate from the years 1996 to 2000. This congestion results in 25-1/2 million hours of delay at an annual cost of $420 million, it amounts to 42 million gallons of fuel being wasted each year at a cost of $55 million. The study estimated that between 1996 and 2000 the number of miles San Antonians traveled in peak hour bottleneck traffic increased by 25 percent. Citizens of San Antonio spent about 43 hours idling on the ever increasing congested roadways.
The previous Texas Transportation Institute urban mobility report in the year 2001 ranked San Antonio number three behind only Atlanta and Minneapolis-St. Paul. One of the solutions to this problem is to add capacity to the Loop 1604 corridor as is being proposed today by our delegation.
Thank you very much for your attention.

MR. WILLIAMSON: Thank you.

MR. JOHNSON: Thank you. Welcome, Senator.

SENATOR MADLA: Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the commission.
I'm going to be brief. I know what it is to be sitting up there and someone going on and on forever, but I have to tell you that I'm real glad that Ric is up on top because I remember when he was down in the hole. He was referred to as one of the pit bulls, and I can tell you it was no fun coming before that group of individuals, Ric.
I'm going to visit with you with reference to just one of the items because I think members are going to be covering several things, and basically it's the one that impacts the southern sector of Bexar County, and there's a request to move the Kelly Parkway project from PLAN status to DEVELOP status, and let me tell you why I think it's important.
I think, first of all, as the NAFTA traffic increases in the state of Texas, it's going to be coming in from the southern sector. As you know, Kelly Air Force Base was closed some years ago but there are a great number of jobs that have been created that are there already in place I think there's about 12,000 jobs that have been created. I might point out to you that Kelly USA has limited access simply because it was a military installation. I think if Kelly USA is going to reach its full potential, we're going to need your help to improve the entrances from the southern sector and from the northern sector.
And let me just say this and then I'll be quiet and sit down. There is also at this time a group out of Dallas, Texas, that is working very hard at having Kelly USA designated as a port of entry. If that happens, I can tell you that the traffic coming in both by rail and by highways is going to increase substantially. I would hope that you would grant us this request so that when all this takes place, hopefully we won't be playing catch-up.
With that, that's all I have to say.
MR. PUENTE: Good morning, commissioners, Chairman Johnson. My name is Robert Puente, I'm the state representative for District 119 in San Antonio, and I'm glad to see you here, Commissioner Williamson, as a former House member or as Speaker Lewis used to say, an extinguished House member. Like your Senate colleagues, we're very proud of Commissioner Williamson who is also housebroken, so you know what it's like.

(General laughter.)

MR. PUENTE: I would like to specifically talk about in a little bit more detail about the south part of Bexar County and the Kelly Parkway, the one that Senator Madla kind of referred to.
Our coalition is requesting that the project be moved from the PLAN status to the DEVELOP status in your strategic priorities. This will allow needed right of way acquisition and the development of a detailed construction plan. The proposed Kelly Parkway would improve not only mobility in south San Antonio but all of south Bexar County and south and central Texas.
The redevelopment of the former Kelly Air Force Base into Kelly USA Business Park has been touted by the Defense Department as a poster child for successful base closures. Presently there are over 60 companies at Kelly USA with a total of 12,000 employees. Corporate giants such as Boeing, Lockheed, General Electric call USA Kelly home. There are plans to further develop USA Kelly's air, rail and truck capabilities in order to attract even more employers.
Working in conjunction with Kelly USA's land development plans, the Kelly Parkway can significantly support and improve Kelly USA's growth while ensuring safe and convenient transportation to local residents. Your approval of the request to change the status to the DEVELOP category will permit the Kelly Parkway project to proceed and be successful and get up to the level of Kelly Air Force Base at its peak.
Kelly USA's success and economic impact is not limited to San Antonio or even the southwest region. You've heard from other speakers that what's good for San Antonio is good for Dallas, it's good for Houston, what's good for the border is good for the entire state. So this change in this status I think will help not only San Antonio but our entire area.
Commissioners, while I sit on Appropriations, you come before us and we know what difficulties you face of having to allocate different funds when not only TxDOT comes before us but education, criminal justice, all those other issues, and before you today Houston, Dallas, San Antonio. So you have a hard job, we know what it's like, and we appreciate the time that you spend on these issues, and we look forward to a good conclusion. Thank you.
And by the way, I did not mention anything about what school I came from because when you're ranked number three in the nation, you don't have to do that.
(General laughter.)

MR. CORTE: Hard act to follow. I'm Representative Frank Corte.

MR. WILLIAMSON: Another thumb.

MR. CORTE: I'm from that school that Mayor Garza is from also, and proud of it.

MR. WILLIAMSON: And I don't know what school Mr. Puente is from.

MR. CORTE: I'm Representative Corte and I'm also one of the representatives in the Bexar County delegation, and I want to thank Commissioners Johnson and Nichols and Williamson for allowing us to be here, and I know that you'll hear all day about how important transportation is to our community. What I'd like to focus on is really safety.
You heard a little while ago from Senator Wentworth about 1604 and that corridor. Actually, my current district is I-10/1604 and is pretty much kind of almost the center of it; with the new district that I will take on in January, I will have the 281/1604 interchange. I know you are very familiar with the congestion and what we're doing in San Antonio to deal with the growth that's going on out there and how much growth is going on out there, but I'd like to talk a little bit about safety and specifically with some numbers.
The accident rate for Loop 1604 which we are seeking your financial assistance is significantly higher than in the statewide average. In fact, the range is 20 percent higher in the area around IH 10 interchange to 70 percent higher in the area around US Highway 281. In fact, the segment north of 1604 on 281, actually right there is even staggering in the percentage, it's actually 400 percent higher. So we have a lot of accidents occurring. I know Commissioner Larson is going to talk maybe more specific about the types of accidents and how important it is.
We have a great responsibility, obviously, to meet the needs of our state, our community when it comes to transportation. But as you know, in hearing a lot of the testimony and dealing with the issues that you deal with, safety is also another issue. So I would like to present to you that while we are concerned about putting San Antonio in the right place for the great things that might happen in the future, such as the continuing growth of Kelly USA and Toyota, we need to also make sure that we're addressing those safety issues.
I dealt with some of these issues when I was on the MPO. I think there are some other folks within the delegation here today, whether the commissioners or representatives, have been on there and we've been talking about this for quite some time. So Bexar County has been working really hard to address the growth problems; however, we need your help from TxDOT to be able to continue to address these concerns, and so at this time, I'd request your favorable consideration for these items. Thank you very much.

MS. McCLENDON: Good morning. Chairman Johnson and commissioners, I am Ruth Jones McClendon, state representative for the downtown area of San Antonio and Bexar County. I also serve on the MPO representing the Bexar County delegation along with my colleague Senator Jeff Wentworth.
We are very concerned about the safety and accident problems on Interstate 10 that runs from downtown east through the middle of my district. Traffic safety is of great concern to us and to Bexar County and to the state as a whole. Safety is an even greater concern where there is a high concentration of truck traffic, and there is a very high concentration of truck traffic in this area. Approximately 22 percent of the traffic along IH 10 East is made up of commercial trucks. These trucks are 18-wheelers sharing limited capacity roads with school buses, private automobiles and emergency vehicles.
This part of I-10 is lined by businesses that support the commercial trucking industry. Truck traffic in San Antonio has grown by 250 percent since 1994 and it's projected to continue to grow as a result of NAFTA. The accident rate for this area of I-10 East is 50 percent higher than the statewide average.
The project funding request before you today would help solve these safety problems by constructing operational improvements to include ramp revisions, auxiliary lanes, and converting frontage roads from two-way to one-way roads. At a total of a mere $10 million, the return in added safety to the citizens passing through my district and Bexar County is well worth the investment.
And I want to thank you also for your recent approval for the allocation to Hayes Street Bridge. It's coming along very well and we thank you so much for your support. Thank you.
MS. JONES: Gentlemen, Chairman Johnson. Good morning and thank you all for giving us the opportunity to come together as a team to lobby you. I appreciate the fact that I am on this side for a change and doing the lobbying for a better San Antonio and South Texas region.
I'm here to talk to you a little bit about air quality. After many years in the near non-attainment category for air quality, this summer San Antonio exceeded the three-year average EPA eight-hour ozone standard. The most recent day that we exceeded that eight-hour standard was September 13 of this year.
In an attempt to avoid being designated a non-attainment metropolitan area for clean air standard and resulting sanctions that would come with that, San Antonio, with the support of the TCEQ and EPA is making a concerted effort to enter into an early action compact which will result in a clean air plan and avoid our metropolitan area being designated non-attainment.
This voluntary clean air proposal will permit the continued development efforts of San Antonio without compromising the construction of needed highway improvements, and once that clean air plan agreement is reached by the local governments in our MSA which includes the four counties of Bexar, Comal, Wilson and Guadalupe the area will develop time lines to implement the control strategies and solutions.
We are working very hard on this together and are committed to ensuring that this is followed through and that we provide our citizens and all of our constituents with a great healthy environment in which to live and work. Our Bexar County Commissioners Court, under the leadership of Nelson Wolff, has passed a resolution in support of developing a clean air plan.
Our voluntary clean air action is critical, we realize, to the future economic development of San Antonio. The 1604 corridor, in particular, the improvement of that corridor will greatly enhance our local efforts, and our request which also include the IH 10 East corridor which Representative McClendon spoke about, and our Kelly Parkway status change will permit us to solve some of our air quality problems both current and in the future in San Antonio.
I'd like to thank you for your consideration of all of our initiatives which will benefit not only San Antonio but the border region which is experiencing this great problem and that's why we're here in front of you all today. It's a problem that I think everybody would like to have and that is that we're having a lot of growth because it is a great place to come to, to live and work and raise your families, and so this is the kind of problem I think we're delighted to have and we can deal with it in ways that I think will be satisfactory to all the citizens of Texas across the state.
Thank you all for your time and your consideration. Hook 'em Horns.
(General laughter.)
MR. JOHNSON: I would like to offer one observation about the date of September 13 and exceeding the eight-hour standard, and I think there's a justifiable reason, is my first grandchild was born on that day and a lot of the bad air from Houston was visiting San Antonio, so I'm sure the EPA will understand.
(General laughter.)
MR. MENENDEZ: Thank you, Chairman Johnson. We will put that in our defense. Commissioner Nichols, Commissioner Williamson, Mr. Behrens. My name is Jose Menendez and I have the honor and privilege of representing the city of San Antonio in House District 124; I also had the privilege of representing my city on the city council prior to this service.
I want to first of all thank you and let you know that the TxDOT district in San Antonio led by John Kelly is doing a tremendous job. Back in the '80s the city of San Antonio had many developers come together in a partnership with the city and TxDOT to give a lot of their right of way to build a highway known as 151 or Stotzer Freeway. The reality of this vision that this commission funded, that part of Bexar County, the western part, is one of the fastest growing parts of the nation. We have the privilege to have one of the few Sony microchip facilities outside of Silicon Valley and Japan; we have a Phillips chip manufacturing facility; Sea World is there; the Hyatt Hill Country is there. It is a beautiful atmosphere in which you have manufacturing, you have recreational and you have many housing communities, some of the highest in value along the western part of our county.
So my point is that the projects that we bring before you today, in my opinion, can have the same impact, if not greater. I believe greatly that your support of many of these initiatives, in particular the Kelly Parkway, will send a huge message not just to the great big fish that we're trying to land but to every single company looking at Texas and looking at South Texas and South Central Texas in particular. I believe that with the folks that are looking at creating an inland port at Kelly Air Force Base, we're able to change that from a PLAN stage to DEVELOP, I think they'll see that there is a momentum there and I think that will help greatly in those initiatives, and with that connection of Kelly Parkway should just make it very convenient for any company looking to bring in parts or manufactured goods from Mexico through our city.
So I think there's a lot here to offer and we humbly request this before you. We know that you have many requests before you. We just want to let you know that we will do everything on our part, like we did back in the '80s when the developers came forth and said here's some of the right of way. Anything we can do to help you, count on the city of San Antonio and Bexar County to be there to be your partners to help not just San Antonio and Bexar County but the state of Texas. Thank you.
MR. DAWSON: Good morning, Commissioner Johnson, members of the commission, Nichols and Williamson, Mr. Behrens. Nice to see you. My name is Sam Dawson. I am chairman of the San Antonio Mobility Coalition.
When I arrived here I thought we were going to be asking for money but I think we're here to defend our alma maters. I will say one brief comment about that because I know our time is limited. We were going to start today's presentation with an Aggie quarterback but apparently no one could find one. So I will make today's opening comments.

(General laughter.)

MR. DAWSON: As Mayor Garza stated in his opening comments, our community has become increasingly aware of the importance the transportation system plays in economic development and our quality of life as we know it in San Antonio.
San Antonians are very concerned about transportation planning and the necessary funding for transportation projects, as demonstrated by our presence here today. At this time I'm going to ask those who are part of our delegation to rise so you can see the effort that we made to be here today. Thank you.
San Antonians do recognize the importance of adopting a pro-active approach with regards to its transportation planning and financing. As a result, our community has created the San Antonio Mobility Coalition, Inc., acronym SAMCO, an organization that is dedicated to raising the community's awareness of transportation issues and striving to identify and support opportunities for increased transportation funding by exploring all available means.
SAMCO is a public-private partnership, it's financed by membership dues paid by the City of San Antonio, Bexar County, VIA Metropolitan Transit, and then members from the private sector including the chambers of commerce, the business community, the development community, the transportation industry.
SAMCO has hired as its first executive director Mr. Tom Griebel, who I believe is no stranger to this commission and is a former assistant executive director with the Texas Department of Transportation.
The San Antonio Bexar County Metropolitan Planning Organization voted to set aside 25 percent of its STP-MM funds each year to develop a revenue stream which may be used to leverage additional state and federal funds. Our community is exploring the possibility of establishing a regional mobility authority that could provide additional sources of funds to develop added needed transportation improvements. We had previously requested TxDOT's assistance in funding a toll road feasibility study.
As a result of SAMCO's and the MPO's actions, and the Texas Transportation Commission's advice, San Antonio is pro-actively considering new and innovative funding mechanisms for its transportation system for the first time in many years. The funding and status change requests that we will present to you are essential over the long term in solving the safety, congestion and air quality problems that we are experiencing in San Antonio. You will also see that our requests today have components that are critical to NAFTA truck traffic and the overall economic development for not only our community, our region, but also the state as a whole.
As Mayor Garza indicated, we have with us today a distinguished group of community leaders to present to you San Antonio's priority funding request. Today you will hear from Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, former state senator and former mayor of the City of San Antonio, and he will be speaking on Kelly Parkway and on the IH 10 East corridor improvements; Bexar County Commissioner and MPO Chairman Lyle Larson and he will be speaking on the Loop 1604 corridor improvements; and then the chairman of the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, Marty Wender, will be providing an economic development perspective on our request.
So at this time I will turn it over to our County Judge Nelson WoLff.
JUDGE WOLFF: Chairman Johnson and commissioner Williamson and Commissioner Nichols and Executive Director Mike Behrens, thank you very much for listening to our presentation today. And let me deeply thank you for your speaking out on the Toyota plant. It's the most important economic development initiative that the city has ever undertaken, it's a transforming industry for our community, and will be a positive benefit to the state. Governor Perry, Lieutenant Governor Ratliff, Speaker of the House Pete Laney, all the leadership in our delegation providing the lead has just been absolutely marvelous in all the talks that they've had with you, so we thank you very, very much for that initiative.
One of the hazards of speaking in the latter part of the agenda is striking through your prepared remarks so you won't be saying the same thing that everybody else said. There may be a little redundancy here but I'll try to hold it to a minimum.
With respect to Senator Madla and Representative Puente's issues on the Kelly Parkway, we do ask that to be from the PLAN status to the DEVELOP status in Category 12 of the strategic priority in order to continue the development of the project. As you can see from the conceptual drawings, the proposed Kelly Parkway, a new four-lane divided arterial, will begin at US 90 and extend to SH 16; the parkway will include major connections to Loop 410 and IH 35, providing greater commercial truck access to Kelly USA, South Texas, and the increased NAFTA-related traffic. NAFTA-related truck traffic flowing through San Antonio is estimated to be 3.7 million annually, or over 10,000 a day.
Kelly USA Business Park is a significant project that is critical to the economic development of San Antonio, the region and the state. Your approval of this request will permit the Kelly Parkway project to begin purchasing the right of way. The elevation of this project status is critical to allowing San Antonio to take certain advantage of situations. Specifically, the Union Pacific Railroad has indicated its willingness to sell the right of way needed for the Kelly Parkway.
I now would like to highlight the first of our two funding assistance requests that we are presenting today. You've heard from Representative Ruth Jones McClendon regarding the IH 10 which is a major east-west commercial route for the nation, Texas and San Antonio, it is the dominant truck route for international trade between Mexico and the Port of Houston. The proposed improvements will convert the two-way frontage roads from IH 410 and Foster Road in eastern Bexar County to one-way operations in order to improve the safety of the highway. The project is approximately two miles in length; the cost to convert the frontage roads to one-way operations, including the reconfiguration of the entrance and exit ramps and the addition of auxiliary lanes is estimated to be $10 million.
We thank you very much for your time and your favorable consideration regarding these two projects, and now our next speaker is Bexar County Commissioner and MPO Chairman Lyle Larson who will address our second funding request.
MR. LARSON: Good morning. We appreciate all the things TxDOT has done over the past years in regards to San Antonio, and as you can see, by our prior speakers, we've gone through a fundamental reorientation on transportation.
We sat down with Mr. Behrens a couple of years ago and we asked the question about why San Antonio was not getting the same level of funding some of the other communities were getting, and he laid out a blueprint for us and we're following that blueprint. We agree that partnering with TxDOT is better than coming up here and just asking for projects without having some local match, and we're determined to get some of that done.
We've got a project out on the north side of our community out on 1604. I think one or two of you came to the design workshop with TxDOT, and if you came down 1604 you saw the level of traffic that we're experiencing during rush hour. We've seen congestion grow 47 percent over the past six years and this is the number one concern that I hear from constituents all over the community is dealing with the 1604 corridor.
This project specifically on the roadway is an additional lane in each direction on IH 10 West to US 281, two direct connector ramps at US 281 and one direct connector ramp at IH 10 West. Loop 1604 between IH 10 East and IH 10 West could function as an alternative route from San Antonio for IH 10 from El Paso to Houston provided that it has adequate capacity. The traffic ranges have grown from 83,000 to 104,000 vehicles a day on this roadway, and as you can see on the illustration, this is the one we're talking about.
The proposal is to add capacity in the median by constructing an additional lane in each direction to the existing four-lane controlled access highway. The project has already been approved environmentally and the right of way is already available.
The population out in this part of town has grown 72 percent over the last six years and will continue to grow in the next ten years at the same level. We've seen 500 new subdivision plats approved, 16,000 new housing starts in this area. If you live out in this area, you've seen explosive growth, and we're probably 12 to 15 years behind our growth projections out in this area. I don't think anybody, TxDOT, the City of San Antonio, or Bexar County could anticipate the growth that we've realized, so we're just trying to catch up. The project on the additional lanes is $38.4 million and we would ask for your consideration just for those two additional lanes.
The big issue that I hear more so than any other transportation project we've got in the community is dealing with the interchange at 281 and 1604. We've had seven fatalities over the course of the last five years there, we've had 123 accidents, and I've been on the scene with a couple of accidents. And because of the high speed that people are coming off of 281 and coming into that interchange, we just can't handle the volume that is coming through there on a daily basis. We've got a lot of residential growth that I alluded to earlier, but also we've got a lot of corporate folks that are located in that area: Clear Channel Communications has just built a facility there; we've got Valero out in that vicinity building facility out there. So we're going to see more and more traffic.
I can tell you anybody that travels through that interchange in the morning and the afternoon, you're going to spend 30 to 45 minutes negotiating through that interchange, through the signals, and that's if you don't have any accidents. If you have an accident, it's going to compound that by 15-20 minutes easily. So this is a big issue that we've got in the community. We're requesting $45 million to construct direct connectors from northbound US 281 to westbound Loop 1604, and from eastbound 1604 to southbound US 281.
Finally, I'd like to talk to you about the IH 10 West and Loop 1604 connector ramps. Again, because of the population growth out there, and we also have Six Flags Fiesta Texas theme park, we've got Sea World that impacts that, and a number of other resort and residential communities that are developing out there. On top of that, we've got 25,000 students at UTSA that sits on the corner of 1604 and I-10 and you only have 2,100 students that are actually on the campus. The balance of the student body commutes into the school, so it really creates a problem. USAA sits within a couple of miles of that interchange; you've got 16,000 employees that are coming in and out of that intersection as well. We've got to address that issue.
The accident rate is 70 percent higher than the statewide average in this interchange as well. We would appreciate consideration for that connector ramp; the cost of that connector ramp is about $20 million is what we've estimated.
Again, we appreciate all of the good planning that TxDOT has done in San Antonio. I think you see San Antonio as sort of the model for urban design from TxDOT's perspective, the reason being you've got two loops that have been developed there and over the course of the last 40 years we've been in better shape than the other communities, Houston and Dallas and Austin because of your good planning. Now we're dealing with capacity issues and our congestion models are starting to reflect that we're starting to experience a lot of the same problems as other communities are experiencing.
So we're asking for consideration of these projects to help us stay ahead of that curve, and I think that that's the whole emphasis behind this whole delegation is that we don't get into the same issues and that we don't experience the same level of problems. We are and these particular projects hopefully will alleviate some of that.
Now I'd like to introduce Marty Wender. He's a developer and he's the chair of the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, and he'll underscore the role that transportation plays in economic development. Marty is a UT guy and I think I'll get him in a headlock before we start this deal, sort of get away from that A&M deal. That was an uncalled for remark from Sam Dawson and he will have some grief to deal with on the way back to San Antonio
MR. WENDER: Thank you, and may the eyes of Texas be upon you. (Laughter.) First of all, before I start I want to let you know that the business community of San Antonio and I bet the entire state of Texas realizes the importance of increased funding for highways of Texas. We will be there and support that, even if it means making tough decisions, but great states invest in themselves, Texas is the greatest state, and we know as business people that we have to invest in our future and building highways in Texas is an investment in our future.
Every day people make decisions on where companies are going to locate. Toyota is the best example. Transportation getting to and from the Toyota plant will be key in their decision, and the part that you'll play in that will be major in making San Antonio the home for Toyota.
In 2000 we experienced 25.5 million hours of congestion delay in San Antonio, wasted 42 million gallons of fuel, costing approximately $475 million, or $810 per San Antonio driver. That's almost half a billion dollars drained from the economy of San Antonio with this congestion problem.
San Antonio is one of the fastest growing cities in the United States. In 1990 San Antonio saw an increase of more than 200,000 jobs, a 36 percent increase compared to 32 in 1980. The projects we bring before you today will be more efficient to help San Antonio grow its economy, specifically Loop 1604. Due to San Antonio's growth pattern, Loop 1604 is playing an increasingly important role in San Antonio's overall development of the economy.
As we said, medicine is our number one industry in San Antonio. The medical center is the heart of that. The medical center has eleven hospitals, 80 clinics, a combined budget of over $2.3 billion, and there are 25,000 people that work in the medical center, 10,000 volunteers who go to the medical center, 3.3 million visitors and patients go to the medical center. We need to support our medical industry to get people in and out of that and the highway system is critical to that.
Tourism is our second biggest industry in San Antonio, $4 billion a year. We have two of the big draws, Fiesta Texas and Sea World, that are both along 1604. It is vital for the almost 4 million visitors a year that go there that they can get to and from those parks. Loop 1604 needs to be expanded in order to provide connectivity for the people of San Antonio, for the employees, students, commuters, patients and tourists. We beg for your help on this.
The I-10 East corridor, there are 50 companies with truck-related businesses along that corridor. The trucks are going to come from Mexico through San Antonio, they're going to come, we need to help them get through the city.
And Kelly USA, when they decided to close Kelly, we decided to try to make it an asset; we have done that. Kelly USA will create 21,000 jobs, $400 million in investment in Kelly USA but we've got to get people in and out of there. It is vital to the economy of San Antonio and the state of Texas.
I appreciate, as a businessman, what you do. We realize tough decisions, having to allocate assets; we want to work with you and help you; we appreciate everything.
Now I'd like to turn it back to Sam Dawson.
MR. DAWSON: Mr. Chairman and commission members, this does conclude our presentation but I would like to briefly summarize what we have presented to you today.
First, we have identified approximately $10 million in local STP-MM funds to commit to our priority projects in San Antonio. We ask that you consider allocating state funds for: the Loop 1604 corridor, specifically, add one lane in each direction between IH 10 West and US 281, estimated cost $38.4 million; provide additional capacity for at least one of the two requested interchanges, either the Loop 1604/US 281 interchange, estimated cost $45 million, or the Loop 1604 IH 10 West interchange, estimated cost $20 million.
We also asked your consideration for the IH 10 East project as discussed by Judge Wolff. These operational improvements from IH 410 to Foster Road will convert the frontage roads from two-way to one-way, estimated cost of these improvements $10 million. Finally, we request your approval to move Kelly Parkway from PLAN status to DEVELOP status in Category 12 to authorize right of way acquisition.
In closing, we hope that our presentation shows that we have been listening in San Antonio. We have brought local money to match state funds for the first time; it is our commitment to the transportation partnership with TxDOT. We have become more organized and innovative in our approach, and each project in our request today has not only a local significance but real statewide impact on safety, economic development and traffic congestion. We have been listening.
Before I close, I would like to end our presentation by complimenting John Kelly and the TxDOT staff that we have in San Antonio. We in San Antonio are well represented by your representatives, Mr. Kelly and his staff.
It's my understanding that our mayor does want to make one closing comment, so at this point I will turn it back over to him. Thank you.
MAYOR GARZA: Thank you, Sam. Again, on behalf of our entire delegation we want to thank you for the time. San Antonio loves to make presentations so we're very passionate about our community and we're very proud to be part of the State of Texas. And just to, I think, summarize our priorities this year, I think you could put it best saying we're catching up and planning for the future at the same time. The projects that we believe are catching up are the areas around 1604 where we've seen tremendous growth, and this will allow us to preserve the quality of life, our air quality that makes San Antonio such a special place to live.
But at the same time we're here to talk about the future and again I refer to this commission taking a bold step, talking about access issues on highways, thinking about the highway system of the future. I don't think a lot of people saw that but what we're here today is to tell you that we're planning for the future as well, and next week we will have at least a dozen individuals from the Urban Land Institute come to San Antonio to look at how we can promote balanced growth. The areas to the south side of our community have the capacity on our highway system that you have given us, and we have to find ways and establish policy to create a market-driven balanced growth initiative in the southern sector of our city.
Senator Madla had to leave but I'll never forget the first time that I had an opportunity to visit with him before I was a council member, and he said, You know what, I'm just pushing for lights on the south side of Loop 410. And that planted a seed in my mind that we really weren't utilizing the infrastructure that we had already and that we had to find ways to do a better job of promoting balanced growth.
So next week we have the Urban Land Institute in town talking about a transportation network in the southern part of our city for the next 20 years. And as you know, from the heavens Toyota came, and they're looking at south Bexar County and south San Antonio, and so now that puts a spotlight on this initiative and certainly on our efforts to promote balanced growth, to utilize the resources that you have given us, but also to catch up in those areas where we've seen the growth and that we have to address immediately in order to preserve the quality of life of our community.
So again, thank you for your time today and we look forward to continuing to develop a partnership with the State. Thank you.
MR. JOHNSON: Robert, did you have questions or comments?
MR. NICHOLS: Well, not so much questions as it was comments. First comment is congratulations on a great presentation; I think it was excellent and you put all the pieces together. I also want to compliment all of you for coming together as a coalition. The SAMCO that you've put together puts all of the entities, your city, your county, your chambers, your businesses, and those who have been on city councils and county commissioners understand how difficult it is to work through a process to try to figure out which project are we going to do that we can all agree on and it's certainly very tough for us, and we recognize very tough for you in a local, but you have put that together in the region, all interests, and laid the priorities out and stepped up to the plate. So you put all the pieces together and I wanted to compliment you on that.
Number two, I think as you work through the Toyota situation I know you can't talk a lot about it I think you're going to find a lot of support from the Department of Transportation on that. I think you're in the early stages of consideration of forming a regional mobility authority. I would like to say that I would strongly encourage you to work in that direction. I think we are very excited about it, we've seen a lot of the other possible things that can work out of that, but it is, I think, going to be amazing as time moves on what that can do and the long-term benefits for your region and ultimately, we see, for the whole state, and we're going to be working with you, seed corn, guidance, whatever we need to do to help work your way through the process as you decide how it works best for you in your area and the projects and things like that. So I wanted to make sure I made that point.
I couldn't help but notice some of your early comments were related to access management. I would like to almost take that, tape it and play it all around the state. You have been applying access management in your area for really a number of years now, and your comment related to not only does it work with economic development but the word sustainable economic development, and I think you recognize that and I think we have recognized that and some other states have recognized that. And it works, it does work. We have certain areas of the state who have great fear or concern about it and we're working our way through that and we're going to work with those areas of the state, but I appreciate you making those comments because that's kind of an important issue right now also.
With that, I didn't go to either one of those colleges.
(General laughter.)
MR. JOHNSON: Ric, did you have anything?
MR. WILLIAMSON: It was a great presentation, and a united delegation is always easier to support. And I repeat again, Toyota is important to the governor, it's important to this commission, whatever we need to do we need to know that.
MR. JOHNSON: I would like to add my thanks and also state that very impressive presentation. We recognize an area like San Antonio has huge needs and it's impressive that you're able to assemble the community as a team to push these issues forward in a manner that's united, and that makes all the difference in the world
One observation I have, the Kelly development has the potential to be a huge economic engine for your area and also for the state. Kelly Parkway I think is a vital ingredient in that. It is also what I call a pig in the python, it is a very expensive surface transportation project, and for that reason I think it emphasizes how much we need to be partners because we need your help because to fund something of that magnitude for a single project at a single moment is a very difficult and challenging proposition. So we look forward to working with you on that and 1604 and 410 and 10 and every other project that you mentioned.
Once again, thank you for being here and we will take a brief recess so that you can head back to commerce and industry, and for the record, when we return out of recess, Robert Nichols will chair the meeting. Thank you.
(Whereupon, a brief recess was taken.)

59 FORWARD ALLIANCE

(Mayor Dave Wallace, Rep. Charlie Howard, James Patterson)

MR. NICHOLS: Our next presentation is the 59 Forward Alliance, also from the Houston area, and I think Mayor Wallace will be first at bat. Welcome.
MAYOR WALLACE: Thank you. Mr. Chairman, members of the commission, good morning. Dave Wallace with the City of Sugar Land. We'd like to thank you for the opportunity to be here to talk this morning.
As Jim Royer indicated, we are a member of the Gulf Coast Regional Mobility Partners and firmly believe in the regional approach to mobility. We're also taking a leadership role in the 59 Forward Alliance which is comprised of a number of local agencies and leaders, as State Representative Charlie Howard will speak about in a moment.
With the City of Sugar Land today we have our city engineer Dale Rudick, our city manager Alan Bogard; we have a quorum from our city council that are with us today: Council Members Daniel Wong, Jimmy Thompson, and Brian Gaston, and Mayor Pro Tem Don Smithers. I'm saying that just from the standpoint to let you know that the City of Sugar Land is here in full force and are asking for your support today.
First and foremost, on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of people in Fort Bend County, I would like to thank you for your historical support in connection with the 59 expansion from US 90A to State Highway 6. That's continuing to move forward, and I know there was a positive comment made earlier regarding TxDOT and Gary Trietsch, and I'd like to again compliment him on all his efforts as well. Again, we'd like to ask for your continued support on the agenda item 6(a), the minute order to amend the 2002 UTP for the funding of US 59 between State Highway 6 and State Highway 99.
We've previously provided a package of information and included in there was a chronological summary of certain activities that have taken place. I'd like to touch on three or four of those points.
The first one, we are very proud of the relationship and the city-state partnership that has been created, and back in 1997 city council approved just under $4 million to further those efforts in connection with the city-state partnership. We want to continue to provide that type of financial support. We've been working with the county, as Commissioner Patterson will say in a moment, to urge the support of bond referendums to support the next segment of 59. Council recently approved the city's acceptance of ownership and maintenance of Spurs 41 and 58, and the city is also spending significant dollars to create what we consider to be a signature freeway with 59 because of the aesthetic features and design of that, and that will continue on future expansion segments of 59, US 90A and State Highway 6.
I'd also like to point out in connection with access management, a point that was raised earlier today, Sugar Land has implemented a strong policy in connection with access management and we feel that we've taken a leadership role and have partnered quite successfully with TxDOT and the TxDOT district office in maximizing separation distances for driveways on state facilities, forcing shared use driveways on state facilities, providing right of way and construction deceleration lanes, and then also along with other mitigation measures as dictated by TIA requirements. And we're very proud of this role that we have taken.
There's an adage that says "A picture is worth a thousand words" and rather than me standing up here and giving you a thousand words, what I'd like to do is show you a six-minute video that I think articulates some of the message that we're trying to have today.
(Whereupon, the video was shown.)
MAYOR WALLACE: Mr. Chairman and members of the commission, hopefully you'll agree that that was better than my thousand words.
At this point in time, what I'd like to do is introduce a gentleman who has been very supportive of the City of Sugar Land, very supportive of all of Fort Bend County, and very supportive of the 59 Forward Alliance, State Representative Charlie Howard.
MR. HOWARD: Thank you, Mayor. Good morning, commissioners. I know it's been a long day, but first of all, I want to thank you for all your help in preventing further delay in the Tom DeLay Freeway, and I can assure you that Christine and Tom will appreciate all your help too, and one of the things I'm going to do this morning is present to you the original letters of support and resolutions that I brought with us in support of our endeavor.
But I want to assure you that we would be remiss of anyone that gets up here today from our area that doesn't also give accolades to Gary Trietsch and his staff. They have been there, they see the problems, they come out there after hours; Gary Trietsch has been in my front yard watching the traffic not go anywhere many times, understanding our concerns. And I know all you commissioners have been down in our district, and Ric, you were down there recently and we appreciate that and I just want to thank you for that.
I do want to read one little paragraph from a letter of support from Congressman DeLay, and it says: "I can assure you that as a senior member of Congress that during next year's transportation authorization process, one of my top priorities will be to work to guarantee that the state receives a more reasonable share of transportation funds distributed to the states. I continue to believe that Texas should receive a return of no less than 95 percent on all federal highway funds distributed. My other goals during re-authorization include streamlining the environmental review process and giving state and local officials in Texas more discretion over federal funds."
We are proud to have Tom and Christine residents of Sugar Land, and I can assure you they are working not only for Sugar Land and Fort Bend County but for the State of Texas, and Tom is working very hard to get the additional funds to us.
I just wanted to recognize a few of our elected dignitaries in the audience that haven't been recognized already: State Representative Dora Olivo; State Representative Bill Callegari; we have representatives from our chamber of commerce, the Greater Fort Bend Economic Development Committee; David Gornet with the Grand Parkway Association; we have Jim Gonzales, a Richmond commissioner; and in a moment I'll introduce our county commissioner who is going to go over some other facts with you.
Rather than bore you with additional comments, I was going to read off the people who presented letters of support, and I will give the originals to you and then the resolutions of support. Our letters of support, first of all, from: U.S. Congressman Tom DeLay; the Texas Transportation Policy Council; Judge Robert Eckels; myself; State Representative Dora Olivo; County Judge Jim Adolphus; Commissioner James Patterson; mayor of Missouri City, Allen Owen; mayor of Rosenberg, Joe Gurecky; Fort Bend Economic Development Committee, Herb Apple; Grand Parkway Association, David Gornet.
And then we have resolutions from: Fort Bend County, the City of Sugar Land, Fort