When it comes to the Trinity toll road, much of the attention lately has focused on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and its worries about the levees between which the city would like to run the toll road. Those worries will delay the toll road for at least 20 months, the city announced this week.
But all of that assumes something that is not yet certain — that the Federal Highway Administration will decide that the between-the-levees route is the best place for the toll road, after all. It is the FHWA, not the corps and not the city, who will decide the ultimate route for the toll road.
The FHWA has decided it needed more time and let the public comment on where that route should be. The FHWA has extended the public comment period until June 30, instead of May 15. (If you want to be part of the official record and make a comment, you can do so by sending an email to trinityparkway@ntta.org. All comments are addressed in writing in the final environmental impact statement.)
NTTA says the reason for the delay is that several members of the public asked the FHWA to extend the comment period at the May 5 public hearing held last month to discuss the draft environmental review issued earlier this year. That document was thousands of pages long and reviewed in detail all of the proposed routes for the toll road, including the levees-route preferred by the city.
Of course the delay comes just as we learn more about just how significant the corps concerns about the levees are. That’s probably not a coincidence.
A reader of this blog sent me an email letting me know that she had been one of those who requested more time, and that the FHWA had sent her a letter agreeing. Here’s what the FHWA wrote, and I’ll include her letter below.
… [visit site to read more]