Texas Superhighway Super Scam

Getting from here to there in Texas is about to get a little more complicated and a lot more expensive.
A $175-billion scheme of 4,000 miles of toll lanes a quarter-mile wide carrying cars, trucks, high-speed freight and commuter trains is being built.
Perry and Bush envision room underground for oil, water, electric and gas pipelines with most of the construction being paid for with private money (backed by government bonds).
"It's a blueprint for our transportation and population needs for the next 50 years," Texas Department of Transportation spokeswoman Gaby Garcia said. "It's the wave of the future to plan for different modes [of transport] in one corridor."
Cement contractors say the project is needed in Texas because of a rapidly growing population and increased traffic from a post-NAFTA flow of goods to and from Mexico.
They seem to miss the point that most of the NAFTA flow of goods is through Texas not across it which is the direction in which the highways are to be built.
Many of the counties that the highway is supposed to pass through have nearly worthless land – dry, infertile – and with a population of only a few thousand.
Bush’s attraction to the plan is in the financing: the state would own the right of way to the roads while private contractors would pay to build them. In return, the contractors would charge tolls — for as long as 50 years while taking out guaranteed government loans (back by tax income) against projected toll earnings.
Already Texas has agreed to let a private consortium led by Spanish toll-road operator Cintra build the first section of the corridor — a $6-billion, 316-mile turnpike from Dallas to San Antonio.
The Macquerie Group of Australia which includes the Macquerie Bank recently floated the stock of Cintra in cooperation with Grupo Ferrovial.
Cintra shortly thereafter landed the whopping Alaska-sized Texas contract.
Macquarie Property is a division of the Macquarie group and has more than 250 expert staff located throughout Australia, the U.S. and Asia. Globally, it has in excess of US$8.5 billion in real estate assets under management - a great deal of it in Texas – much along the proposed highway corridor.
Macquarie Group owns a company called ProLogis that also owns land and buildings in the proposed corridor.
Spain's Grupo Ferrovial SA actually won a contract to invest 7.2 billion to develop the first leg of the Trans-Texas Corridor Project with the longest toll road in Texas and rail line stretching from Okalahoma to Mexico.
Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte SA, which is owned by Madrid-based Grupo Ferrovial, was chosen on Thursday as the first private contractor for a series of roads linking Dallas, Houston, Austin and San Antonio with Mexico, the Texas Department of Transportation announced in a press release.
The land will be held by the State of Texas - any land not owned will need to be purchased, rented or leased - much of it from the Australian Bank Macquarie. The road itself will be under the power of the Spanish company Grupo Ferrovial which operates similar schemes in third world countries around the world and in Australia.