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The Gulf Coast
Strategic Highway System was initially conceived
as an upgrade of existing highways in Texas and Louisiana.
The simple objective was to provide better highways between
Fort Bliss, Fort Hood and Fort Polk and the strategic ports
at Corpus Christi and Beaumont.
 When
the Trans Texas Corridor concept was announced in 2002, the
Coalition was a very early supporter and has consistently
supported ways to implement it in a way that will address
military deployment and mobility efficiency. The Gulf Coast
Strategic Highway System as now proposed creates linkage and
access with a combination of improved existing highways and
new elements of the Trans Texas Corridor System.
 The
Trans-Texa s
Corridor is
a new multi-use transportation system that includes roads,
freight and passenger rail and a utility zone. The Trans Texas
Corridor Plan will provide a new type of transportation system,
a network of wide corridors designed to move people and goods
faster and more safely than ever before. The concept is to
build a network of corridors up to 1,200 feet wide with separate
lanes for passenger vehicles, trucks, high-speed rail lines,
and a 200 ft. dedicated utility zone
TxDOT
has proposed a corridor network covering much of the state
and has designated four priority Trans Texas corridors –
Brownsville to Oklahoma; Laredo to Texarkana (i69); near Houston
to west of Fort Worth; and El Paso to Louisiana. The North-South
route runs parallel to I-35, I-37 and U.S. 77 and will be
ideal for deploying Fort Hood and Fort Bliss units to the
Port of Corpus Christi.
The
TxDOT plan calls for an East-West route to cross the Hill
Country just north of San Antonio. It would loop around Houston
and tie back in to I-10 at the Louisiana state line. The Gulf
Coast Strategic Highway Coalition has proposed an alternative
East-West route.
The
East-West alternative has many advantages:
- It
runs north of the environmentally sensitive Hill Country,
passing just south of Fort Hood and linking Fort Bliss,
Fort Hood and Fort Polk.
- It
misses the San Antonio, Austin and Houston air quality regions.
- It
ties in to a Louisiana highway corridor that is being improved
and can accommodate substantial infrastructure expansion.
- It
avoids the I-10 route through the coastal wetlands of Louisiana
where adding new capacity would be extremely difficult.
- It
ties directly to the proposed I-14 corridor at the Mississippi
River crossing at Natchez, Mississippi, providing a new
long-haul freight route that avoids large urban centers.
The
Louisiana Corridor
The new Trans Texas
route would cross the Sabine River about 10 miles south of
Toledo Bend Reservoir, connecting with Louisiana Highways
8 and 28 a short distance from Fort Polk. Deployments from
the fort would roll across a new river bridge then down improved
highways US. 96 and Texas 62 on the way to the Port of Beaumont.
The East-West Highways
8 & 28 route through Louisiana would pass through Leesville,
Alexandria and Jonesville before crossing the Mississippi
River. Portions of this route are existing four land highways
and other sections are being improved. The Gulf Coast Strategic
Highway Coalition supports the upgrading of all sections of
the corridor across Central Louisiana. The goal is to provide
an alternative to traffic that would otherwise have to use
I-20 to the north or I-10 between Houston and Baton Rouge,
both areas in need of congestion relief.
The
Interstate 14 Proposal
The
East-West Corridor of the Gulf Coast Strategic Highway would
link at the Mississippi River with a proposed new Interstate
14 cutting across the mid-sections of Mississippi, Alabama
and Georgia. Legislation proposing this route has been introduced
in Congress by members from the three states involved. It
would provide an important alternative to I-10 and I-20, both
of which carry significant long-haul freight traffic, relieve
some of the truck traffic congestion in the Atlanta area.
Avoiding
Non-Attainment Areas
The
Gulf Coast Strategic Highway System route north of the Texas
Hill Country and through Central Louisiana has the very important
benefit of moving some long haul traffic away from Clean Air
Act non-attainment or near non-attainment areas in both Texas
and Louisiana.
The
Coalition believes that the diversion of this interstate traffic
– which provides no economic benefit to these urban
area – could provide a portion of the needed emission
reductions for some cities. A study by the Texas Transportation
Institute determined that if 80% of the thru traffic with
origin or destination outside the Houston airshed is diverted
around the area it would result in a NOx reduction of 1.7
tons per day. While the Dallas-Fort Worth area was not within
the scope of the study, emissions in the Metroplex airshed
would be reduced when traffic is diverted from I-20 and I-30
to the alternative East-West route through Central Texas.
Alternatives
to California Ports
Using
elements of the proposed Trans Texas Corridor system, Texas
ports could become part of a Pacific-Gulf freight land bridge
linked to ports on the west coast of Mexico. The Midland-Odessa
Transportation Alliance, Inc. (MOTRAN) and interests in Mexico
have been working on the La Entrada al Pacifico (Gateway to
the Pacific) and the Port to Plains trade corridors which
would connect the Pacific Ocean port of Topolobampo to the
inland port of Midland-Odessa and on to points to the north
and east, linking with existing east-west corridors. It and
other routes through Mexico could also feed the Gulf Coast
Strategic Highway System east-west route through Central Texas
and Louisiana.
Strategic
Military Ports
 The
Port
of Corpus Christi was designated as a Strategic Deployment
Port in 1998. Dozens of shiploads of equipment have been sent
to and returned from the Iraqi theater since early 2003.
The
Port has excellent waterfront facilities including roll on/roll
off docks on both sides of the Corpus Christi Inner Harbor.
The Port also has acres of off-dock areas suitable for assembling
cargoes and taking a surge of cargo when a ship is unloaded.
 Interstate
37 and U.S. Highway 181 come to within blocks of these docks.
On-dock rail service is available and was used extensively
in the 2003 deployment of the 4th Infantry Division.
The
Port of
Beaumont served as a busy port of deployment for Army
equipment sent to Iraq in 2003 and has been a military deployment
port for decades.
Rail
Components
High-speed
rail transportation linking the largest cities in Texas is
the objective of the nonprofit Texas
High Speed Rail and Transportation Corp. The plan calls
for connecting Fort Hood by rail along the Gulf Coast Strategic
Highway East-West Corridor to a point near College Station.
At that point the rail-only system would extend south into
Houston and then east to the Port of Beaumont. This will provide
an additional strategic link from the nation’s largest
Army installation to and from ports of deployment.
The
entire high speed rail system links the Metroplex on the north
with San Antonio to the south and Houston to the southeast.
It is known as the "Texas T-Bone" because the lines
would form a “T” shape rather than a triangle
between the cities. It will connect more than 70% of Texas’
population. This system would add greatly to the quality of
life of military personnel stationed and training at Fort
Hood.
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