1-1 By: Fraser, Truan S.C.R. No. 6 1-2 (In the Senate - Filed January 10, 2001; January 16, 2001, 1-3 read first time and referred to Committee on Veteran Affairs and 1-4 Military Installations; February 8, 2001, reported favorably by the 1-5 following vote: Yeas 5, Nays 0; February 8, 2001, sent to 1-6 printer.) 1-7 SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 1-8 WHEREAS, The III Armored Corps stationed at Fort Hood in 1-9 Killeen, Texas, is the largest military force in the free world; 1-10 the III Armored Corps forces have fought in and supported many 1-11 operations worldwide, including Grenada, Panama, Honduras, Saudi 1-12 Arabia, Kuwait, and Iraq, and provided humanitarian support in 1-13 Somalia and peace support in Bosnia-Herzegovina; and 1-14 WHEREAS, Interstate 35 has long served as Fort Hood's major 1-15 deployment route and is included in the U.S. military's 61,000-mile 1-16 network of highways that link military installations and facilities 1-17 that are critically important for mobilizing and deploying military 1-18 forces from U.S. bases to seaports, railheads, and airports; and 1-19 WHEREAS, The U.S. military's Defense Planning Guide 1999-2003 1-20 mandates that the deployment of forces from Fort Hood to any crisis 1-21 theater must be completed within 30 days; to meet these operational 1-22 requirements the III Armored Corps has identified State Highway 195 1-23 as the premier southern convoy route to the strategic ports of 1-24 Corpus Christi and Beaumont; and 1-25 WHEREAS, The area along the two-lane State Highway 195 has 1-26 experienced considerable growth in population and an increase in 1-27 traffic that has resulted in a degraded level of service and has 1-28 compromised the safety of its military and civilian users; future 1-29 traffic projections indicate that the capacity of State Highway 195 1-30 will be exceeded within the next 5 to 10 years; and 1-31 WHEREAS, In April 1999 the Texas Department of Transportation 1-32 began Phase I, a six-mile segment of the State Highway 195 1-33 reconstruction project; the project as a whole expands State 1-34 Highway 195 to a four-lane divided highway that extends from south 1-35 of Killeen to Interstate 35; and 1-36 WHEREAS, The Texas Transportation Commission in May 2000 1-37 provided the project with a Priority 2 status to prepare plans, 1-38 specifications, and estimates; subsequent phases of the 10-year, 1-39 $100-million project should also be prioritized to enable the III 1-40 Armored Corps to deploy troops and equipment from Fort Hood to the 1-41 ports of Corpus Christi and Beaumont in the time frame required by 1-42 the U.S. Department of Defense; now, therefore, be it 1-43 RESOLVED, That the 77th Legislature of the State of Texas 1-44 hereby direct the Texas Transportation Commission to prioritize the 1-45 construction of State Highway 195 in its entirety to ensure 1-46 completion of its expansion by the spring of 2005 for use by the 1-47 III Armored Corps as the southern convoy route to Texas' ports; 1-48 and, be it further 1-49 RESOLVED, That the secretary of state forward an official 1-50 copy of this resolution to the chair of the Texas Transportation 1-51 Commission. 1-52 * * * * *