By Fraser S.C.R. No. 6 77R1259 RVH-D CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 1-1 WHEREAS, The III Armored Corps stationed at Fort Hood in 1-2 Killeen, Texas, is the largest military force in the free world; 1-3 the III Armored Corps forces have fought in and supported many 1-4 operations worldwide, including Grenada, Panama, Honduras, Saudi 1-5 Arabia, Kuwait, and Iraq, and provided humanitarian support in 1-6 Somalia and peace support in Bosnia-Herzegovina; and 1-7 WHEREAS, Interstate 35 has long served as Fort Hood's major 1-8 deployment route and is included in the U.S. military's 61,000-mile 1-9 network of highways that link military installations and facilities 1-10 that are critically important for mobilizing and deploying military 1-11 forces from U.S. bases to seaports, railheads, and airports; and 1-12 WHEREAS, The U.S. military's Defense Planning Guide 1999-2003 1-13 mandates that the deployment of forces from Fort Hood to any crisis 1-14 theater must be completed within 30 days; to meet these operational 1-15 requirements the III Armored Corps has identified State Highway 195 1-16 as the premier southern convoy route to the strategic ports of 1-17 Corpus Christi and Beaumont; and 1-18 WHEREAS, The area along the two-lane State Highway 195 has 1-19 experienced considerable growth in population and an increase in 1-20 traffic that has resulted in a degraded level of service and has 1-21 compromised the safety of its military and civilian users; future 1-22 traffic projections indicate that the capacity of State Highway 195 1-23 will be exceeded within the next 5 to 10 years; and 1-24 WHEREAS, In April 1999 the Texas Department of Transportation 2-1 began Phase I, a six-mile segment of the State Highway 195 2-2 reconstruction project; the project as a whole expands State 2-3 Highway 195 to a four-lane divided highway that extends from south 2-4 of Killeen to Interstate 35; and 2-5 WHEREAS, The Texas Transportation Commission in May 2000 2-6 provided the project with a Priority 2 status to prepare plans, 2-7 specifications, and estimates; subsequent phases of the 10-year, 2-8 $100-million project should also be prioritized to enable the III 2-9 Armored Corps to deploy troops and equipment from Fort Hood to the 2-10 ports of Corpus Christi and Beaumont in the time frame required by 2-11 the U.S. Department of Defense; now, therefore, be it 2-12 RESOLVED, That the 77th Legislature of the State of Texas 2-13 hereby direct the Texas Transportation Commission to prioritize the 2-14 construction of State Highway 195 in its entirety to ensure 2-15 completion of its expansion by the spring of 2005 for use by the 2-16 III Armored Corps as the southern convoy route to Texas' ports; 2-17 and, be it further 2-18 RESOLVED, That the secretary of state forward an official 2-19 copy of this resolution to the chair of the Texas Transportation 2-20 Commission.