NAFTA superhighway extends north

A NAFTA superhighway plan under way in Texas will be extended to Oklahoma and Colorado, stretching the four-lane, train-truck-car-pipeline corridor from the Mexican border at Laredo, Texas, to Denver, reports WND columnist Jerome Corsi, whose new investigative book, "The Late Great USA: The Coming Merger with Mexico and Canada," has just been released.

As WND has reported, the Federal Highway Administration is promoting public-private partnership projects to expand superhighway projects, consistent with extending the Trans-Texas Corridor network north.

The plan is for the states of Texas, Oklahoma and Colorado to apply the TTC toll road concept first developed by the Texas DOT to largely rural areas along the Ports-to-Plains Corridor.

To advance this plan, the Ports-to-Plains Trade Corridor Coalition – sponsored by the consulates of Mexico and Canada along with the Texas and Colorado transportation departments – is co-sponsoring a "Great Plains 2007" international conference Sept. 19-21 at the Adam's Mark Hotel in Denver.

The brochure recommends the conference be attended by real estate developers, transportation planners, highway services business executives, as well as state, local, county and municipal public officials and international trade professionals.

An April Texas DOT study on the Ports-to-Plains Trade Corridor Coalition website documents the tie between the two groups.

The study says the Ports-to-Plains Corridor offers an opportunity to apply the Trans-Texas Corridor technology to NAFTA superhighway development in rural settings. It concludes by recommending new highway construction be undertaken parallel to the existing Ports-to-Plains Trade Corridor route in order to apply the superhighway design north through Oklahoma into Colorado.

As WND previously reported, the $180 billion needed to build the 4,000 mile Trans-Texas Corridor network over the next 50 years will be financed by Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte, S.A., a foreign investment consortium based in Spain. Cintra will own the leasing and operating rights on TTC highways for 50 years after construction is complete.

A press release on the Texas DOT website confirms the agency is looking for a public-private-partnership to help finance the construction of the Ports-to-Plains Corridor.

WND also has reported Texas Gov. Rick Perry has received substantial campaign contributions from Cintra and Zachry Construction Company, the San Antonio-based construction firm selected by the Texas DOT to build the TTC.

The homepage of the Ports-to-Plains Corridor Coalition website proclaims, "Together, the communities along the Ports-to-Plains Trade Corridor are becoming the Gateway to trade throughout the nation and with Mexico and Canada."

The homepage also links the Ports-to-Plains Trade Corridor to the millions of containers from China that are planned to enter North America through Mexican ports, commenting, "The Trade Corridor will allow for the development of less congested ports of entry along the Texas/Mexican border."