Valley leg of I-69 a big maybe

A so-called “NAFTA Superhighway” earned support from the city’s mayor and discussion among residents Monday during a public hearing on the Texas Department of Transportation’s I-69 project.

TxDOT held a public hearing at the Brownsville Events Center Monday to explain the progress of the Trans-Texas Corridor, a future segment of Highway I-69, which will link the U.S.-Mexico border to the U.S.-Canada border.

After a short presentation, the floor was open for comments. Among the local politicians, college students and retirees at the hearing there was a wide range of opinion on the project.

According to Mario Jorge, district engineer for TxDOT in the Rio Grande Valley, the hearing was held to better understand the views of Brownsville residents. “We want to hear if they want it and where they want it,” Jorge said of the proposed road.

Jorge stressed that although the I-69 project has been labeled the “NAFTA Superhighway,” it is being planned to accommodate existing traffic, not increase transit between the United States and Mexico. “We’re going to build what is needed when and if it is needed,” he said.

The Trans-Texas Corridor project is still in its first phase, during which an environmental impact statement is being composed to evaluate the feasibility of the highway. Because the land on the King Ranch north of Brownsville is considered a historic property, there is no immediate plan to extend the corridor to either Brownsville or McAllen. In the project’s second phase — which Jorge said might not arrive for several years — the inclusion of existing highways like US 77 will be evaluated.

In the project’s later stages, the possibility of lanes for large trucks and the construction of a railroad will also be discussed. Such measures, TxDOT representatives say, would accommodate commercial traffic coming from Mexico and provide for safer driving conditions.

Because of funding problems, Jorge added, the highway’s cost will likely be shouldered by private contractors, who might build toll roads to supplement existing highway lanes and allow for expedited travel.

Some of the hearing’s attendees, like Mayor Pat Ahumada, applauded TxDOT’s efforts to bring the Trans-Texas Corridor to Brownsville.

“We’re the door to NAFTA,” Ahumada said. “We need a corridor that supports commerce and gives our young people a reason to stay here.” Ahumada mentioned that unlike many border cities, Brownsville utilizes both land and sea ports to serve its commercial interests.

Others, like Trevor Southerd and Dale Bashaw, came to the events center to voice their opposition to what Bashaw calls “a threat to national sovereignty.”

“Corporate interests are working together to push this forward,” said Southerd, a sophomore at the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College. “It will hurt small businesses along the corridor and eliminate choices that consumers have.

“The country’s middle class is already disappearing,” Bashaw added, “and the corridor will only encourage more jobs to be exported.”

Brownsville’s public hearing was the first of 46 hearings on the Trans-Texas Corridor that will take place in the state over the next month.