The increasing levels of truck traffic on the State's highway system are creating an array of issues for the Texas Department of Transportation ranging from highway safety, congestion, and air quality, to the need for accelerated maintenance and capacity expansion. With trade in Texas projected to continue to increase, the pressure to explore alternatives to highway-borne freight is building. At the same time, railroads are facing challenges of their own. As a capital- and labor-intensive industry, railroads are struggling to earn the cost of capital to maintain and operate their extensive networks. As a mode that excels at long-haul intercity freight, but loses to trucking in shorter-haul movements, railroads are in need of services and capital to help gain back lost market share and compete in short-haul markets. The opportunity for establishing a win-win scenario is apparent: by improving the efficiency of intermodal rail service through targeted public-private partnerships, rail transportation may capture a larger market share of intercity freight in Texas and allow important public benefits to accrue - thereby justifying the investment. This report provides an important step in synchronizing public and private transportation planning and financing processes that mostly operate in isolation from one another to the growing disadvantage of each. A truly exciting finding is that both the public sector and the railroads are increasingly receptive to the idea of collaboration and are searching for mutually beneficial solutions to transportation problems.

In The Late Great USA, Jerome Corsi argues that the benignly-named Security and Prosperity Partnership, created at a meeting between George W. Bush, Stephen Harper and Vincente Fox, is in fact the same kind of regional integration plan that led Europe to form the EU. According to Corsi, the elites in Europe behind the EU knew that it would be necessary to conceal from the peoples of Europe what was being done in their name until the process was so far advanced that it had become irreversible. Could the same thing be happening here? Is American sovereignty doomed? Using dozens of documents secured through the Freedom of Information Act and his trademark hard-hitting interviews, Corsi sets out a chilling view of America's possible harmonized future - one being created covertly, without voter input or Congressional oversight. Could our government's unfathomable position on illegal immigration be tied to the prospect of an integrated North American Union?

This procedures guide presents practical and effective approaches for developing right-of-way (ROW) cost estimates and for then tracking and managing ROW cost during all phases of project development, including planning, programming, and preliminary and final design. It is a resource for managers, practitioners, and decision makers interested in developing and managing realistic and accurate estimates of ROW cost from the earliest ROW cost estimate made during planning through to the management of ROW acquisition cost during final design.