• Tara Bozick •
• Originally published January 13, 2009 at 6:39 p.m., updated January 13, 2009 at 6:39 p.m.

We recall the many town meetings the Texas Department of Transportation hosted across the state to pitch its Trans-Texas Corridor - a highway plan of tremendous magnitude. And it's very memorable what came out of those meetings - outrage.

Yes, landowners whose land was targeted for new highways, and others who resented privatizing toll roads, responded with anger. This reaction was, at first, ignored. TxDOT barreled on with its plan as if the town meetings were just a formality. But, as we all know, the residents of Texas were heard, and now the project is apparently downsized into several smaller projects, each with their original name (the name Trans-Texas Corridor has been dropped): For example, the projects will be named I-69, SH 130 and Loop 9.

Good riddance to the larger, unmanageable TTC project. The new focus is a reasonable approach to transportation in Texas.

Back to the I-69 plan. It is the federal plan that connects Canada, the United States and Mexico. With it, interstate and international commerce will be enhanced.

Many of our highways are fine, but they will need maintenance. Funding highway projects remains the challenge for TxDOT. Options still include toll roads, an increase on the fuel tax and maybe other funding alternatives.

How much funding will TxDOT need? An independent panel formed earlier this year studied how much will be required through 2030. The 2030 Committee included Texas business and transportation experts and determined that about $313 billion would be needed through the time period.

Broken down, that total includes "$171 billion for urban transportation projects, $89 billion to repair and maintain existing roads, $36 billion to repair and replace structurally deficient bridges and $17 billion to improve safety on rural roads," according to keeptexasmoving.com.

The committee's report was submitted to the Texas Transportation Commission on Dec. 17.

As we noted, the challenge of funding transportation remains. And transportation is one of the major issues before the 2009 Legislature, which convened Tuesday.

With much more manageable projects before them, the members of the Texas Legislature should have an easier time of it figuring out funding for TxDOT.

This editorial reflects the views of the Victoria Advocate's editorial board.

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