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Globalists Will Not Give Up on Takeover of US Roads 
By Mark Anderson
AFP is continually monitoring the
proposed North American Union. This not only involves the dynamics surrounding
the “border fence” issue; it also involves watching the efforts of “NAFTA
Superhighway” profiteers to install small “piecemeal” infrastructure projects,
even while opponents throw legislative roadblocks in front of the much larger,
more obvious stretches of super-tollways that are part of the proposed
international highway scheme that could consolidate the U.S., Mexico and
Canada.
Such a three-part union must have an
international mega-tollway network for even more free trade, a common currency
and other physical and political tangibles—not just policy papers and books
written by people like American University professor Robert Pastor that call
for a “North American Community.”
Much of the Trans-Texas Corridor part of
the NAFTA Superhighway—whose two main branches are TTC-69 and TTC-35—has been
set back by vigilant citizens. They worked overtime in the spring of 2009
shadowing their state legislators and getting them to oppose the TTC plan that
could carve up many large Texas
ranches held by the same families for generations. But some smaller highway projects
that seem to fit into the TTC schematic indeed have taken root.
An especially notable project is the
State Highway 130 tollway around Austin,
Tex., which is so devoid of
motorists at times that a plane landed on it during “peak traffic” and did not
have to be rushed out of the way, although transportation crews closed part of
the tollway for a time once they reached the scene. The pilot, 24-year-old
Lindsey Moreland, told investigators she took off from an airstrip at Austin-Bergstrom Airport
and was headed to Georgetown
when she had engine trouble. SH 130 was closed while crews moved the single
engine Cessna to the shoulder of the southbound lane. At 4:30 p.m. the highway
was shut down again so the plane’s owner could take off and fly to Temple.
An Aug. 17 Austin American-Statesman article
included the sub-headline “New section will offer less congested route to Houston.” But “less
congested” is a major understatement when traffic is sparse enough for a pilot
to land there during peak time. Thus, will SH 130 fail like another under-used
private Texas toll route (Camino-Columbia)
near Laredo
that went belly-up?
Citing the Austin newspaper piece, the
San Antonio Toll Party (SATP) activist group, which has helped slow the TTC
onslaught over several years, issued a news bulletin that commented: “This
article bills this leg of the Trans Texas Corridor/TTC-35 project as a way to
avoid congestion to Houston when the original sales pitch for the loop was to
relieve traffic on I-35 (which the segment from Georgetown to the airport has
not done). However, the first leg of SH 130 . . . is ‘sooo’ empty, that a plane
landed on it during peak traffic. It begs the question: if no one can afford
[to drive on it], then why build it?”
A major aspect of this development,
according to SATP, is that SH 130—though not completely finished but is partly
operational—is the first Texas road under foreign control if and when new
sections are added. It is slated to remain under that control for the next 50
years.
A consortium called SH 130 Concession
Co., led by private Spanish toll road operator Cintra—partnering with the huge
San Antonio-based Zachry Construction Co.—is financing the $1.35 billion
project. It will operate the toll road and hopes to profit from it over the
next 50 years.
Noting the NAFTA connection, Wikipedia’s
listing for SH 130 describes it as follows: “A tollway from Interstate 35
(I-35) in Georgetown
to U.S. 183 and SH 45 at Mustang Ridge. Portions south of Mustang Ridge will
soon be under construction. When completed, SH 130 will run in an 89-mile
corridor east and south of Austin.
It parallels I-35 and is intended to relieve the Interstate’s traffic volume
through the Austin-San Antonio corridor by serving as an alternate route. The
northern terminus of State Highway 130 is I-35 north of Georgetown. Its eventual southern terminus is
Interstate 10 near Seguin.
The highway was developed in response to the tremendous surge in truck traffic
on the I-35 corridor brought on by the North American Free Trade Agreement
during the late 1990s, especially truck traffic originating from Laredo, where the Texas Department of Transportation
reported 150 trucks entering the United States every hour.” SH 130
will eventually be six lanes. Ground was first broken for SH 130 on Oct. 3,
2003.
On June 28, 2006, Cintra-Zachry, the
Trans-Texas Corridor developer, reached a $1.3 billion agreement with the state
to build segments 5 and 6 from U.S. 183 to I-10 in Seguin.
“In exchange for their investment,
Cintra-Zachry will receive the right to collect tolls for 50 years in a revenue
sharing agreement with the state. The state will own the road while the
developer will be responsible for financing, design, construction, operation
and maintenance over the life of the agreement,” Wikipedia also noted,
confirming what critics are saying about decades of foreign control.
Mark Anderson is a longtime newsman now working as a corresponding editor for American
Free Press. Together he and his wife Angie provide many photographs of the
events they cover for AFP. Mark welcomes your comments and inputs as well as story
leads. Email him at [email protected].
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(Issue # 32,
August 10, 2009) | 
