"SuperSlab" paves the way: the NAFTA Super Highway, nicknamed "SuperSlab" by some, is a planned system of roads, rail lines, and more that will speed up the unification of North America

New American, The, Oct 2, 2006 by Kelly Taylor

In 2004, Austin residents heard rumblings of plans for converting local roads, enjoyed by drivers for years as free ones, to toll roads.

Soon we learned that plans for new toll road construction, conversion of existing roads to toll roads, property confiscation for land acquisition, awarding of building contracts to a foreign consortium, shady campaign contributions, and passage of the largest spending bill in Texas history had slipped past Texas voters unnoticed. Local polls later revealed over 90 percent of residents oppose the policy, yet officials proceeded with construction despite overwhelming opposition. An investigation into local toll issues led to the discovery that tolls will be the funding mechanism for the larger Trans Texas Corridor (TTC), a segment of the massive NAFTA Super Highway. The Super Highway is important in developing the North American Union.

Perhaps you've heard of the North American Union (NAU) in recent weeks. The NAU is a proposed merger of Canada, Mexico, and the United States into a European Union-style alliance, and the Super Highway is the super-road connecting the dots, with chilling implications for all freedom-loving Americans.

The architects of the European Union (EU) originally designed a coordinated system of roads and highways, called the Trans European Network (TEN). The system was created under the 1993 Maastricht Treaty to help reinforce economic and social ties. The TEN was perceived as critical to properly linking the regions by a modern and efficient infrastructure. According to the TEN website, "For goods and services to circulate quickly and easily between member states, we must build the missing links and remove the bottlenecks in our transportation infrastructure."

The NAFTA Super Highway is our American version of TEN, if one believes the EU model is being copied. A venture unlike any previous highway construction project, it's comprised of dozens of corridors and coordinated construction projects guaranteed to radically reconfigure the physical landscape of the United States. and our political and economic landscapes as well. Like the TEN; the Super Highway will be a complex system of parallel multimodal transportation lines accommodating passenger and freight lanes; rail lines and depots; gas, oil, and water pipelines; and cabling for electronic information transmission--running north from Mexico to Canada. These corridors are designed for the purpose of speeding goods and people across our dissolving borders into America's heartland.

The effects of the Super Highway will hit close to home as Americans begin to pay with their jobs. In an August 9, 2006 interview with Houston television station KHOU. Texas' Fayette County Judge Ed Janecka expressed concern about the effects of the "SuperSlab" on his own small Texas town, right in the highway's path. Diversion of traffic from existing roads will dry up critical tourist and traveler revenue, just as railroad bypasses shriveled bustling towns years ago.

And just as NAFTA trade policies have driven millions of jobs out of the United States, this Super Highway will accelerate the job exodus. Mexico will become irresistible to remaining U.S. manufacturers as a place to reduce production costs and aid their anemic businesses. Not to mention increased opportunities for traffickers of humans, drugs, terrorists, WMDs, and other contraband. As Mexico's government is notorious for corruption, including kidnapping, torturing, and dismembering innocent victims, stopping the guarding of our border--which would be part of the easing of trade and travel, as happened in the EU--will mean the violence will gush into our country.

The Super Highway will have an insatiable appetite for acreage. According to the website of the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), the present scope of the highway in Texas is 1,200 feet wide and 4,000 miles long. Millions of acres are scheduled for paving, and the right of "eminent domain" will surely be invoked to justify the land-gobble waiting for Americans whose homes, farms, ranches, businesses, and communities are in the way. Conveniently, last year's Kelo v. City of New London Supreme Court decision provides the necessary justification to transfer the property of one private citizen to another who would make better use of it--for the Super Highway is to be constructed and operated by public/private partnerships that smack of fascism.

Interestingly, the TEN in Europe was developed in the same manner. Jacques Barrot, the VP of the European Community with Responsibility for Transport stated (regarding TEN) that "a system of toll collection is being developed, as well as new methods to attract private investment for large-scale public private partnerships (PPPs)" for funding.

Every American can expect to pay in the form of increased taxes as well as tolls. To assist financing the mammoth highway, plans call for converting current roads to toll ways for all motor vehicles. Legislation is already in place for all of this. The Coordinated Border Infrastructure Program of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act of 2005--A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU) allows for the tolling of existing interstate highways, and even provides for U.S. taxpayer funds apportioned to a border state to be used to construct highways in Canada or Mexico! In 2004, Texas Senator John Cornyn introduced S. 2941 (reintroduced in 2006 as S. 3622 and currently in committee), a bill to create a North American Investment Fund to make grants for road construction in Mexico facilitating trade between Canada, Mexico, and the United States.