Organizers expect as many as a thousand people to attend a rally against the $184 million Trans Texas Corridor project Friday night in Bell County.

Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn will deliver the keynote address during the rally.

Strayhorn has been critical of the massive project backed by Gov. Rick Perry, whom she’s expected to challenge in the Republican primary in 2006.

The Blackland Coalition, a new group formed to “educate, warn and protect Texans against the Trans Texas Corridor”, organized the rally, which begins at 7 p.m. at Seaton Star Hall five miles east of Temple on Highway 53.

The Texas Department of Transportation signed a contract in April with the Cintra-Zachry consortium for planning on the controversial project, the most ambitious highway construction effort since the Eisenhower administration launched the effort to build an interstate highway system.

The $184 billion plan calls for a 4,000-mile network of transportation corridors that would crisscross the state with separate highway lanes for passenger vehicles and trucks, passenger rail, freight rain, commuter rail and dedicated utility zones.

Designers envision a corridor with six separate passenger vehicle lanes and four commercial truck lanes; two high speed passenger rail lines, two freight rain lines and two commuter rail lines and a utility zone that will accommodate water, electric, natural gas, petroleum, fiber optic and telecommunications lines.

Under the agreement, Cintra-Zachry will begin work on a master development plan for the first segment of the corridor, which will parallel Interstate 35 from San Antonio to Oklahoma.

The plan will take 12 to 15 months to complete, Perry’s office said.

Cintra, which is an international engineering and construction firm, and the San Antonio-based Zachry Construction Corporation, have agreed to provide $7.2 billion for construction of the first six segments of the project, Perry’s office said.

Cintra will spend $6 billion to build a four-lane toll road on the corridor and will pay the state $1.2 billion in return for the exclusive rights to operate the toll road for 50 years.

Cintra would also operate businesses along the route.

Officials in Interstate 35 corridor cities such as Waco and Dallas are concerned about the commercial impact of the project.

McLennan County Commissioners approved a resolution in February opposing the corridor.

The Waco-based Texas Farm Bureau also opposes the project because of concerns about the loss of farm and ranchland and the impact of the construction on the tax base of Texas counties and communities.

Click Here For Interactive Map Of Proposed Corridor Route

Click Here For Trans-Texas Corridor Web Site

Click Here For Background Information On The Trans-Texas Corridor

Click Here For An Opposing Point Of View From Corridor Watch