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.