Paris Texas gets an RMA and six TRs in train

Virginia has a Vienna, Pennsylvania a Berlin, Vermont a Moscow, Connecticut a London, New Mexico a Madrid, Newfoundland a Sydney, Georgia an Athens, Florida its Melbourne, Ohio a Dublin, and Texas, of course, has a Paris. A Paris with its own Eiffel Tower no less - a light and elegant structure compared to heavyhanded version that seems to attract all the tourists there in France.

Clearly the Texas engineers have a thing or two they can teach their French counterparts.

Sadly however the Tour Eiffel de Paris TX is presently blighted by a strange brown hat that sits atop it, perhaps a prank of students from a local Texas A&M University, or from Oklahoma State University making a sortee across the Red River in the dead of night. We're sure the Paris city fathers, judges all, will order this disfiguring piece of trash removed promptly, so as to restore the western hemisphere's Eiffel Tower to its proper splendor and elegance.

Paris Texas (pop 26k) has another distinction. It's the latest Texas metropolis to host a regional mobility (toll) authority - the Sulphur River Regional Mobility Authority (SURRMA) covering Delta County, Hopkins County, Hunt County and Lamar County located northeast of Dallas, the closest side to civilization.

First priority of SURRMA is upgrading TX24 to a 2+2 lane expressway. This is the main drag in to Dallas from Paris - presently a mix of 2+2 lane and 2 lane surface arterial. Other projects are:

- US271 Pattonville to Red River County line
- US82 Paris to Fannin County line
- TX11 Sulphur Springs to Commerce
- TX19, TX24 to Rains County line
- US380 I-30 to Floyd

SURRMA - it has a French sound, non? - is Texas eighth regional toll authority or RMA.

TOLLROADSnews 2008-01-14