08/19/04  Trinity River Tollroad - Dallas  TX

Dear Secretary Mineta,
US Dept. of Transportation

I was disappointed to read in today's Dallas Morning News that your department was putting the proposed Trinity River Tollroad in Dallas, Texas on a fast track for clearing government checks and balances.  

I don't know if you know the history of this project, but it should be labeled "Pork Barrel Project" in big letters.

This project's original purpose was to provide a reliever route to traffic on I-35 while the interchange between I-30 and I-35 in downtown Dallas is rebuilt.   It has changed over the years, but it ignores some basic facts.  

This tollroad will not move that many cars and trucks.   The currently proposed 4-lane tollroad can only move about 4,500 people per hour (since most people don't carpool in Dallas). 

It will not reduce congestion.

It will increase air pollution in a region already violating current EPA air quality standards.

The tollroad's biggest problem is its location inside the levees.  It will be closed to traffic for weeks at a time when this area experiences heavy rain.  

The alternative proposal is to kill this waste of taxpayer dollars since you are part of a Republican administration and force local governments to divert the funding from an underwater highway to DART and speed up the construction of mass transit rail lines to Northwest and Southeast Dallas county, which will move even more people than the proposed highway project.

Please do not support this waste of federal highway funds.

Sincerely, 

Stan Aten
A concerned Republican voter & Precinct Chairman
Dallas County, Texas