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.
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