Texas pulling final plug on corridor

The Texas Department of Transportation is pulling the last plug on the Trans-Texas Corridor, Gov. Rick Perry's embattled plan to build a toll-road network across the state. The agency said earlier this year it was scaling down the project and dropping the name "Trans-Texas Corridor." Now, transportation officials say it's fully dead. Transportation Commissioner Bill Meadows told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram of the decision in a report posted online Tuesday. The news comes a day after Perry's Republican primary opponent, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, secured the coveted endorsement of the powerful Texas Farm Bureau — a vocal opponent of the corridor and a group that has been at odds with Perry over eminent domain and private property rights. Farmers and ranchers did not like the corridor plan because of the private land it threatened to take. On Wednesday, transportation officials are expected to announce they have decided against building the TTC-35, a key part of the corridor that was to parallel Interstate 35 between Dallas-Fort Worth and San Antonio. The development contract with a private company is being terminated. "The reason that's being given for the no-build option is that people don't want it," Meadows said. "They said 'Hell no.' "...read more