Posted on 03/07/2005 1:57:52 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Brownsville vies for major highway corridors
McAllen, Laredo also in running for interstate linking Canada to Mexico
By Gilberto Salinas
The Brownsville Herald
March 6, 2005 — Brownsville is among three South Texas cities playing a game of musical chairs for two major highway corridors.
When the music stops, one city will come out empty-handed in its bid to land Interstate-69 and Trans-Texas Corridor-35.
Both projects remain in the planning stages, but state transportation officials have already narrowed the competitors to McAllen, Laredo and Brownsville.
“There’s two legs and three locations. In the Rio Grande Valley, we’re going to get at least one leg,” said Mario Jorge, district engineer for the Texas Department of Transportation. “But one city will be left out.”
TTC-35 and I-69 are proposed highway corridors that are part of Gov. Rick Perry’s 50-year plan to build 4,000 miles of toll roads and rail lines in the state.
TTC-35, which has faced opposition near Laredo, will likely be a toll road and essentially run parallel to Interstate-35 from the Dallas-Fort Worth area, stretch south near San Antonio and will end in Brownsville, McAllen or Laredo.
I-69 will start at the Canadian border in Michigan and run to South Texas, linking Canada to Mexico. Part of I-69 is already built in the northern states.
While one of the three South Texas cities will not get either project, TxDOT officials said they will try to help the entire region benefit.
“If (either) corridor comes down Highway 281, what I’m trying to do is tie it together (to Expressway 77), or vice versa, so nobody is left out,” Jorge said. “Somebody is going to complain but that’s the realistic situation that we’re looking at.”
Since the inception of the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994, the Texas-Mexico border has increased its trade activity. It’s around that time that the idea was proposed of having an interstate run from South Texas to the Canadian border.
Since then, I-69 has become a national project that encompasses nine states, all of which will see trucks hauling finished goods and raw materials by the tons via the interstate.
About $52.2 million in federal funds have been allocated to the I-69 project since 2000.
Costs for the TTC-35 were unavailable.
Both corridors would have high speed automobile lanes, separate truck lanes, utility corridors and a freight and passenger rail, Jorge said.
I-69 is an element of the trans-Texas corridor system and part of a 1,600 mile-long national highway project. The Texas portion is 1,000 miles, TxDOT officials said.
Due to financial reasons, TxDOT officials are now considering making I-69 a trans-Texas corridor toll road.
“Basically, the difference is that a TTC is being looked at as a toll facility in order to expedite the project faster,” said Amy Rodriguez, TxDOT spokeswoman.
“It can be I-69, but it really hasn’t been decided yet.”
The decisions will be made in the next year, Jorge said.
“As far as how fast it gets built, it is based on the corridor itself, and it will be 10 to 15 years,” he said.
Already in the works is the expansion of FM 511 from Highway 77 to the Port of Brownsville. That segment has been designated an extension of I-69, according to port officials.
“From the port to the expressway will be done in two phases,” he said. “The third phase will be to build an interstate-type expressway.”
The current expansion of Highway 77 from four to six lanes also falls into the upgrades needed for the designation of I-69 or TTC-35.
Officials with the River of Trade Corridor Coalition near Laredo want to reroute the corridor so it’s in proximity to the existing Interstate 35, which starts in Laredo and runs through San Antonio, Austin, Dallas and ends at the Canadian border.
The fear is that thousands of trucks will stop rolling through Laredo, Cotulla and Pearsall on I-35, instead taking an alternate path proposed by the state from Oklahoma to the Rio Grande Valley.
The major corridors on a priority list include those parallel to I-35, I-37, I-45, I-10 and two segments of the new I-69 — from Denison to the Valley and from Texarkana to Houston and Laredo.
Pearsall officials have passed resolutions in support of the River of Trade Corridor Coalition’s effort to keep the Trans-Texas Corridor as close to the existing I-35 as possible. They’re also urging state legislators to halt the corridor proposal.
“We don’t want our money going to Hidalgo or Brownsville,” said Pearsall City Manager Albert Uresti at a council meeting in November. “We want to keep it here.”
gsalinas@brownsvilleherald.com
Trans-Texas Corridor PING!
BTTT!!!!!
Poor dumb South Texans don't realize that TTC will shut down their current NAFTA traffic revenue stream. The trucks from Mexico will slow down at the boarder and not get off of TTC until they are in at least Central Texas, maybe not until Oklahoma. Their local economy will go back to agriculture and immigrants (legal and otherwise.)
I 69 is a rare bird because it has East - West signs from Lansing to Port Huron, yet is an odd numbered, route.
Building a new freeway from Indy to Texas sounds improbable, and expensive. I doubt it will get done.
There is talk of a new route from North Carolin to SE Michigan, I-73, they want it at the southern end, but up here in Michigan, it is as welcome as typhus.
As far as building a new toll road in Texas goes, it is like asking to have your pocket picked.
Thanks for the ping!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.