Connecting Communities
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As we're proud of reminding everyone, Texas is the largest state in the lower 48. And we certainly have more residents than Alaska. With a state this vast and this populous, how does it retain its coherence as one entity? With five major climate zones, what holds it together as a single state?
Well, apart from Texas pride, the network of transportation infrastructure plays a large part in keeping our state connected. Right now, due to the growing population and the limited funds available for expansion, the roads we depend on to get around the state are at risk of either congestion or deterioration.
What's the Solution?
With our plan, there are many options for local communities to get funding for needed projects. They may set up a Regional Mobility Authority, set up pass-through financing agreements, or get a State Infrastructure Bank loan, among others.
The Texas Trunk System
We also have the Texas Trunk System, a plan designed to connect parts of the state and integrate rural communities with a high quality highway network, which will ultimately make getting from here to there better. How?
Goals and Objectives of the Texas Trunk System:
- Provide a rural four-lane divided (or better) highway network to improve mobility – encourages safer, quicker long-distance trips.
- Connect major activity centers within Texas – produces and attracts trips between centers and cities.
- Provide access to major points of entry to Texas – extends highways to major Texas ports, and border crossings to Mexico.
Trans-Texas Corridor
The Trans-Texas Corridor, once built, will connect every region of the state with a first-rate transportation corridor. The TTC will also protect and improve communities by moving the transportation of hazardous materials out of urban population centers, relieving congestion, reducing air pollution, and significantly improving opportunities for economic development in Texas.
Non-tolled highways will always be available, but the TTC provides drivers with another option to get from point A to point B.
The state—in cooperation with regional authorities and public-private partnerships—will build 4,000 miles of state-owned corridors during the next 50 years, miles that open up new possibilities for the drivers who use them.
Bringing Communities Closer
With more new roads, and improved existing ones, places that once seemed too far to drive to will now be much easier to get to. That means more trips to friends and family, a wider market for your business, more weekend getaways.
We're working to make this a reality by using innovative financing and a new approach to Texas transportation, and we think you'll enjoy having that horizon be just a little bit broader.
