NAFTA Super Highway and the Trans-Texas Corridor

This one bears watching.

The US NAFTA Super Highway is a planned mega-road (on a path 4 football fields wide) that will span from Mexico to Canada. TXSharon over at DailyKos wrote a superb diary on the topic a while back and continues to hold a grassroots vigil over the project in Texas (TXSharon and I once traded online barbs at dKos over the supposed 'divinity' of Cindy Sheehan but she is all over this topic and I simply must give her credit for her indepth knowledge and relentless enthusiasm for educating others).

Jerome Corsi, he of Kerry Swiftboating fame, has taken on the topic in the conservative weekly, Human Events Online.

Texas has become the first battleground as campaigning politicians bring the debate out of the backrooms and into the public forum, creating a growing election year stampede. It's an emotional topic in Texas where the 10 lane Trans-Texas Corridor will become a giant land grab for road, 'ports', and concessions -- probably a sign of things to come for this country's heartland as land use is determined. Cintra, the Spanish company that will fund and manage the TTC, blurs the line between public use and privatization.

Kelo, anyone?

Also of interest will be the coastal impact of replacing the ports and hubs in the US with cheaper, less rigorously controlled ports in Mexico. Not just a labor issue but one of national security as well, I'd say.

There will be tradeoffs, of course, and living with the Super Highway may not be all bad. I must say that I noted in true "what's in it for me?" style that the highway will cut just south of where I live, toward Chicago. As the Midwest industries that have always sustained my corner of the world begin to fade away -- agriculture, manufacturing, machineries -- I've been wondering what will replace it. The highway will not be an industry, per se, it may likely become a regional economic mainstay.

Like I said, this bears watching. A project of this magnitude and with this many social and economic implications needs to be well thought out and it's not wise for us to give over the planning to those who would do it with secret meetings and backroom agreements.