MR. WILLIAMSON: Good morning.
AUDIENCE: Good morning.
MR. WILLIAMSON: It's a great
morning to be a Texan. It is 9:20
a.m., and I would like to call the
April 2006 meeting of the Texas
Transportation Commission to order.
Before we begin today's meeting, we
traditionally ask everyone in the
audience to join with us in taking a
moment to reach into your pocket,
purse or sidesaddle, pull out your
pager, your cell phone, your PDA,
your DewBerry, whatever you carry,
and please, if you would, put it on
the silent or vibrate mode so that
none of our guests will be
interrupted unexpectedly. We'll all
do it with you. Thank you.
I
want to tell you it's a great
pleasure for the commission to be at
the tip of Texas this morning.
Brownsville is a great Texas city,
as are all of the communities
scattered up and down the Lower Rio
Grande Valley.
It's our practice to begin each of
our commission meetings by
permitting each commissioner to
address the audience on a personal
basis, so with your indulgence, we
will begin to the far right with Mr.
Houghton and go to Ms. Andrade and
Mr. Johnson, and then I'll close the
remarks. Ted?
MR. HOUGHTON: Good morning,
everyone, and I echo the chairman's
remarks on being down at the tip of
Texas here. It's been a lot of fun;
I've been down here quite a bit
lately. And I look forward to the
actions today, the anticipated
actions today to launch this
community into a new arena of
transportation.
And again, thank you for all the
hospitality that you've afforded us.
MS. ANDRADE: Good morning. It's
just absolutely wonderful to wake up
in South Texas this morning. It's a
great morning, it's a great day.
I'm looking forward to the business
that we're about to take on and to
keep transportation moving forward
here in South Texas.
But also what's wonderful is to see
so many of our friends from other
communities come together to support
what we're trying to do. And I see
kids back here, I see our future
leaders back here, so I'm so glad
that they've been brought here to
see how business is done for
transportation in the state of
Texas.
Thank you all again, it's been a
great trip.
MR. JOHNSON: Good morning. I would
like to echo the comments of
Commissioners Houghton and Andrade.
It
occurs to me that many years ago
whenever the state highway engineer
or the chairman of the commission
decided to move some of these
meetings outside of Austin, he or
she had an idea on his or her mind
that perhaps they ought to move
these meetings to where there was a
more friendly, receptive audience
than some of the ones that we get in
Austin when we meet. I think you're
probably a home run for what he or
she had in mind.
But there's some other things that
have been accomplished by that.
One, we get to see the various parts
of the state, and as Hope said, it's
great to see a lot of the youth
here, who are the future leaders of
these communities of the state, take
interest in what goes on. And by
conducting these meetings out in the
field, if you will, you can learn
what goes on, the deliberations of
transportation decisions which
affect not only the local
communities but the state as a
whole.
Secondly, we get to interface with
you, the people who have great
interest in the decisions that we
make. Rather than doing it in an
office environment, we can visit
with you one on one, and that's a
great help to us.
And thirdly, and as important, we
can share time with the people who
really do the work, and that's our
local district people. And last
night was no exception. We had a
wonderful barbecue and we got to
visit with them. There was a film
basically describing what goes on in
the district, and a lot goes on in
this district: $700 million plus
under construction right now, the
population is growing. We visited
the port yesterday, an economic
engine of untold proportion which
brings goods and economic
opportunity and jobs to this area,
and it's all part and parcel to why
we go out and have these meetings
where we do.
And so I want to thank you for your
attendance today and thank you for
all you do for this great state.
It's been a pleasure and the
hospitality in South Texas just is
without par.
MR. WILLIAMSON: Thank you, Ted and
Hope and John, and I would associate
myself with the remarks of my fellow
commissioners. Thank you, Mario,
for a great presentation, great trip
yesterday around the area. We
thoroughly enjoyed the evening last
night.
It
is our practice to take the
commission meetings on the road
three or four times a year,
depending upon the legislative
session. As John said, it gives us
the opportunity to see with our own
eyes and hear with our own ears
about the successes and the failures
that occur in the transportation
world in the diverse parts of the
state.
It
also kind of prepares us for what we
want to say to the legislature every
other year about how the laws need
to change, and we're starting
something this year that will also
permit us to do that perhaps in a
more organized manner. In June of
this year ‑‑ I think it's June 8.
Is that right, Coby?
MR. CHASE: June 8 and 9.
MR. WILLIAMSON: June 8 and 9, we
will host the first Statewide Texas
Transportation Forum in Austin,
Texas. We're doing that in
partnership with the Texas Good
Roads Association, the oldest
continuously active organization
focused on transportation in the
state of Texas. And that will be
held in Austin and there will be
state, national and international
transportation engineers, financiers
and managers and operators of
electronic devices, along with state
and federal officials, talking
transportation to the state.
I
invite each and every one of you to
take the time to come to Austin and
attend that forum. We're running
this as a bit of a test to see how
much interest there is in it. If we
believe it's valuable enough to the
citizens of the state, we're then
going to look at doing it on maybe a
quarterly basis around the state to
give everyone the opportunity to sit
down and visit and exchange ideas
and learn from each other.
I
think there's a card, a registration
card out in the lobby. Is that
correct, Coby?
MR. CHASE: Yes.
MR. WILLIAMSON: Out in the lobby,
yes, ma'am. Thank you.
So
I invite you to attend that if you
can make the time.
This is a history-making event
today, the first time in the history
of our commission ‑‑ which dates
back to 1917 ‑‑ that we have met in
Brownsville. Now, we've been in the
Rio Grande Valley, we've been in the
Lower Rio Grande Valley, but this is
the first time we've actually been
in Brownsville. The last time we
were in the Valley was in July of
1997; the commission met in Weslaco.
We're very happy that we've been so
pleasantly received, and please note
for the record that the public
notice of this meeting, containing
all the items on the agenda, was
filed with the Office of Secretary
of State at 10:20 a.m. on April 13,
2006.
Now, normally we get to this point
and we talk about some homework, we
hold our cards up ‑‑ and I'm going
to do that real fast for a reason ‑‑
we hold our cards up and we say if
you're going to talk about an agenda
item, you need to fill out the
yellow card before you approach the
dais, please; if you're going to
talk in the general comment section
towards the end of the meeting, we
ask that you fill out a blue card,
please. And in any event, try to
restrict your remarks to about three
minutes so that everybody will have
the opportunity to speak.
And we do other housekeeping matters
and then we go right into the
presentation, but we're going to
break ranks a little bit today
because I don't know about John and
Hope and Ted, but this is the first
time I've been to a commission
meeting where elementary age
children were actually in the
meeting. We've had some high school
kids, I think, that are interested
in the engineering world come in
from time to time, but we've never
had young children.
And sitting here listening to all of
our opening remarks and watching the
crowd of adults in attendance from
highway contractors to engineers to
transportation planners to TxDOT
employees to bankers to
transportation planners on the left,
it occurs to me that while we all
operate in our own self-interest ‑‑
and that's okay, that's what America
is about, the ability to operate in
your own self-interest ‑‑ we operate
in our own self-interest because we
have a common interest, and that is
the common interest of a
transportation system that will
prevent congestion, keep the roads
safe, make sure the air is not too
dirty, make sure that we drive
safely, and make sure that we don't
have potholes, and we do that for
those kids that are lined up against
that back wall.
We
don't really do it for ourselves
because we know that in our lifetime
most of this stuff is not going to
be accomplished. We've got a plan
and we think the plan is going to
work and we think along about 2030
this is going to be just a marvelous
transportation world here in the
state of Texas, but for most of us,
the true value will be realized by
these young people who are with us
today.
So
I know you're not ready for this,
Teacher, but my mom was a teacher
and I learned that she was prepared
for anything, so why don't you bring
those kids up here and let's let
them introduce themselves, and
they'll remember that this day they
had the opportunity to tell us who
they were and what was on their
minds.
MS. SANAL: Good morning. My name
is Norma Sanal and I'm the director
for Brownsville Urban System, and
they're here with Mr. Mark Maddy who
is a member of PTAC, and I'll let
Mr. Mark Maddy go ahead and present
himself.
MR. WILLIAMSON: Very good.
MR. MADDY: Thank you. I am Mark
Maddy and I am a member of the PTAC
and I am very proud to have the
student council members of
Morningside Elementary School here
with us today, and I'll let them
introduce themselves, starting with
our president.
The Morningside Elementary School
Student Council members introduced
themselves as follows:
I
am Michael Torres, and I'm the
president of the Student Council
Morningside Elementary.
Hi. I am Isaac Castillo from
Morningside Elementary. I'm vice
president of the Student Council.
I'm Alexis Martinez and I'm the
secretary of Morningside Elementary
Student Council.
I'm Leslie Gutierrez and I am the
treasurer of Morningside Elementary.
Hello. My name is Arturo Mendioloa
and I'm historian for the
Morningside Student Council.
Hi. My name is Alondra Diaz and I'm
the at-large member of Morningside
Elementary.
Hi. I'm Armando Ramirez, at large
of Morningside Elementary.
Hi. My name is Cynthia Mendiola and
I'm the at-large for fourth grade.
My
name is Rigoberto Bocardo and I'm
fourth grade at-large for Student
Council.
Hi. I'm Kimberly Pena, I'm a
representative for Morningside
Elementary Student Council.
Hi. I'm Adrian Gonzalez, I'm a
representative for Morningside
Student council.
Hi. My name is Valeria Garcia and
I'm a class representative.
Hi. I'm Jackie Gutierrez and I'm a
representative for Morningside
Student Council.
Hi. My name is Jesett Arredondo and
I'm a class representative.
Hi. My name is Jeronimo Herrera and
I'm class representative for
Morningside Elementary.
Hi. My name is Janette Balli and
I'm classroom representative.
I'm Mario Benavides and I'm a
representative.
MR. WILLIAMSON: And Mr. President,
you get to ask us one question, so
what one question would you ask us
as representing the youth of
Brownsville, Texas? Just whatever
comes in your mind is okay. Do you
want to caucus with everybody else
and get everybody else's opinion.
Okay, everybody come up. Let's do
this right. You discuss about what
you want to ask us.
MR. HOUGHTON: This girl has
something to ask us. What do you
want to ask us?
MR. WILLIAMSON: You meet right
there at the microphone and we're
going to wait and you decide what
you want to ask us.
MICHAEL TORRES: Does all the United
States have this transportation?
MR. WILLIAMSON: Like this?
MICHAEL TORRES: Yes, all of the
United States.
MR. WILLIAMSON: That was a very
good question. I think what the
president was asking maybe was is
there a commission like this for the
entire country and then does each
state have one like this.
The answer is there's not a
commission like this for the entire
country, there is a federal highway
administrator who is more like Mario
on a national level, he's an
appointee but he's a professional
engineer that has certain
qualifications, and he or she
supervises the 50 states, and yes,
every state has a commission like
this, there are 50 of us.
Thank you very much.
(Applause.)
MR. MADDY: I would also like to
introduce my co-sponsor for the
student council at Morningside, Ms.
Mary Nieto.
MR. WILLIAMSON: And if you will
stay here, we've decided that we
want a picture with you, so we're
going to take just a second and get
a picture.
(Pause for photos.)
MR. WILLIAMSON: We thank each of
you for indulging us on that.
Everyone on the dais has raised
children, and we frequently say from
this position that we're one people
and this is one state, and kids is
what it's all about because one day
they'll be running things, and the
better we leave it for them, the
better off we're going to be. And
we thank you.
I
have some documents in need to read
from various elected officials, but
I think it's more appropriate to let
the meeting start, Mike. Let's see,
I think I would like to get the
minutes approved, and I think that's
what I'll do.
Members, we have the minutes from
the March meeting before us. Do I
have a motion?
MR. JOHNSON: Move approval.
MS. ANDRADE: Second.
MR. WILLIAMSON: I have a motion and
a second. All those in favor will
signify by saying aye.
(A
chorus of ayes.)
MR. WILLIAMSON: All opposed, no.
(No response.)
MR. WILLIAMSON: Motion carries.
Now, Mike, I think we'll move into
the program and we'll go back to the
agenda in a little bit.
MR. BEHRENS: Thank you, Mr.
Chairman.
It's our custom when we go out of
town on these out-of-town meetings
where we hear from our local
district and from local
transportation leaders that are in
the area and in the community, so to
start with, I want to ask our Pharr
District Engineer Mario Jorge to
begin the presentation, and also
introduce our local guests that are
with us today. Mario?
MR. JORGE: Thank you, Mr. Behrens,
commissioners. It's a pleasure to
have you here in the district. We
thoroughly enjoyed last night, the
meeting with our employees.
Before I start my presentation, I
would like to have a couple of
individuals that are key partners in
our transportation system here in
the Valley that are essentially
hosting this event or this meeting
for us.
I'd like to introduce the mayor of
Brownsville, Mr. Eddie Trevino, who
is going to officially welcome the
commission, and I'll introduce our
Cameron County judge, Gilberto
Hinojosa, who will also do the
same. Mayor?
MAYOR TREVINO: Thank you, Mario.
Mr. Chairman, commissioners. I need
to deviate from my prepared comments
because, first of all, we're honored
by your presence and the fact that
we're having the opportunity to host
this meeting, but your actions at
the beginning of this meeting give
me a lot of pride, first of all, in
being a Texan, and in knowing that
clearly these ideals which you've
exemplified by allowing and paying
attention to some of the most
important treasures in my community,
clearly we must be on the right road
to doing something good in Texas,
and I commend you for allowing the
importance of the children to take
priority in this meeting.
MR. WILLIAMSON: Thank you.
MAYOR TREVINO: Obviously we're
honored to have you here. On behalf
of the partnership established by
the City of Brownsville and TxDOT,
we welcome you to Brownsville.
Mr. Mario Jorge, our district
engineer, and his staff, I use the
term visionaries for the fact that
they are always ready, prepared and
looking ahead. At our monthly MPO
meetings, TxDOT staff communicates
with us about our future needs and
our mutual challenges. They work
cooperatively with the city, Cameron
County, the Brownsville Navigation
District, to identify and address
solutions. The Rio Grande Valley is
well served by the efforts of these
topnotch professionals at the Pharr
District.
I
have some brief observations about
our transportation plans which I
think we all need to realize include
Mexico's infrastructure along with
their highway plans. The population
of Brownsville and Matamoros, our
sister city on the Mexican side,
total almost a million people. When
you factor in the entire Valley,
you're talking of over 4 million
people between both sides of the
border. Those are populations that
are extremely beneficial to the
region and obviously create unusual
challenges.
By
forming these partnerships, we try
to reduce these challenges and focus
on realizing the benefits by working
together.
For example, the wear and tear of
overweight Mexican trucks on our
state highways has been mitigated by
the fees imposed by the Port of
Brownsville for those vehicles.
Those fees have been used to repair
our highways on the overweight truck
corridor.
There are, of course, immense
economic benefits to be gained from
our international trade and
partnership with Mexico, along with
the Pacific Rim and the Asian
nations. Mr. Bernard List, our port
director, will address some of these
points later today.
In
addition, Brownsville and the Rio
Grande Valley connects, via new
highways in Mexico, to the Pacific
and Asia. The land bridge which you
will hear about is an example of a
way to cut transfer costs for
containers, allowing businesses and
trades to expand into South Texas,
something that is necessary.
You're going to hear from my good
friend, Judge Gilberto Hinojosa, and
others who will comment on the city
and county plans regarding our West
Rail Relocation project which is an
international project regarding the
relocation of the rails from both
Brownsville and Matamoros, allowing
for better economic development and
less congestion, better
environmental issues, and obviously
the most important issue I think
that's going to be addressed today,
the vision of the Cameron County
RMA. We're pleased and honored to
be a partner with them.
We're entering a time and period of
immense potential, but as I like to
tell the citizens of Brownsville,
especially the children, while
potential is nice, progress is even
better. With your help I am
confident that we will be able to
meet these challenges and build the
needed trade corridors and our
transportation infrastructure.
Good luck in today's work and in the
rest of your efforts on behalf of
the state of Texas. God bless you.
MR. WILLIAMSON: Thank you, Mayor.
(Applause.)
MR. JORGE: Thank you, Mayor. And
now I'll introduce the county judge
for Cameron County, Mr. Gilberto
Hinojosa.
JUDGE HINOJOSA: I'm Gilberto
Hinojosa and I'm the Cameron County
judge, and I want to welcome you to
South Texas and the Rio Grande
Valley. I want to welcome you
because what you have been talking
about, what you talked about this
morning, Mr. Chairman, and what this
commission has done, I believe, in
the last few years is present the
regional approach to our
transportation issues across the
state of Texas, and in being here
today, I think you recognize how
important South Texas is to that
regional approach.
What I want to first say before I go
into my presentation, besides
welcoming you and welcome to South
Texas on behalf of the Cameron
County Commissioners Court and the
people of Cameron County, and I want
to recognize most of my county
commissioners court is here. Edna
Tamayo, Precinct 4 commissioner,
David Garza, Precinct 3
commissioner, and I know John Wood
is back there, Precinct 2; the
Precinct 1 commissioner is under the
weather today as well. They're here
along with me and all these leaders
from the Rio Grande Valley because
they recognize the importance of
transportation in South Texas.
But I also want to say that your
staff down here, Mario Jorge and all
the people in the Pharr District
office and in the San Benito office
that you have, have got to be the
best in the state. If there's
anybody better, I'm going to travel
over there and see them, because
there's nobody that gives better
service to their local community
than these people who work in
transportation in the Rio Grande
Valley.
Sure, we get up in the morning and
it takes us a little bit longer to
get to work or to get to the mall or
to drop off our kids to school
because of all the construction
that's going on out there, but
that's a sign of the progress in the
Rio Grande Valley and the hard work
and commitment of resources that you
see by your staff, and I want to
congratulate you for that and the
rest of the people at TxDOT all
across the state of Texas.
The Rio Grande Valley has got a lot
of things going for it, as you
know. We have an expanding economy,
fast-growing population ‑‑ we're
going at a rate of about 30 percent
every ten years ‑‑ and a unique
geographical location. Eddie was
talking about there's about a
million people between here and
Matamoros and Brownsville, but if
you take the entire Rio Grande
Valley and northern Mexico, we're
about 3 million people.
We
have here in Cameron County
something that no other community in
the United States has: we have
three seaports, we have two
commercial airports and a county
airport as well, we have the Gulf
Intracoastal Waterway, we have
highways, rail, and all of these in
close proximity to Mexico.
There's a lot of challenges that we
have for the future, however, that
we are in the process of undertaking
today on a regional approach in
cooperation with your offices.
First I want to talk just briefly or
give you a quick overview of our
countywide railroad relocation
project.
Now, Cameron County probably has the
most advanced railroad relocation
project, if not in the United
States, in the state of Texas. We
are in the final stages of our West
Rail Relocation project here in
Brownsville where we're going to
move all rail lines about six miles
to the west, build a new
international bridge for the rail,
and eliminate at-grade crossings
that would have cost the state of
Texas somewhere upward of $60
million.
It's going to eliminate at-grade
crossings that are dangerous to the
public in a variety of ways. Not
only collisions are going to be
avoided but the problems that are
caused by emergency vehicles not
able to cross is going to be
eliminated and the congestion that
we have.
You've got to remember that these
rail lines were built when there was
only a couple thousand people in
Brownsville and in Matamoros, and
today, as Eddie said, we have a
million. We need rail but not in
the middle of town.
We
also are in the process of doing the
same thing for the northern part of
the county, and working on a plan to
relocate rail from San Benito and
Harlingen.
The Port of Brownsville has done a
lot. They've relocated the rail
lines to an area near Olmito, and
that, combined with the efforts of
the county, the city and all the
partners, including TxDOT, I think
will create a rail relocation
project that will be a model for the
United States and will make a big
difference in terms of safety and
cost savings for the state of Texas
and the local community. It will
eliminate about 80 at-grade
crossings throughout Cameron County.
We
also have one of the first regional
mobility authorities. Some of the
things that we talked about setting
up a toll system across the county
to meet infrastructure needs where
there isn't sufficient resources.
Today, again, TxDOT is working very
closely with us.
The Cameron County Regional Mobility
Authority ‑‑ which you're going to
hear from our chairman in just a
minute, Mr. David Allex ‑‑ has been
meeting almost every other week.
It's an active and strong board.
They are right now working on a
project of building a second
causeway to South Padre Island. As
you know, the number one segment of
the Cameron County economy is
tourism, and that is located
primarily in South Padre Island.
We're also looking at a west loop,
through the regional mobility
authority, around the city of
Brownsville, another road that may
be financed through tolls.
The last thing I want to just bring
up very quickly is this issue of an
interstate highway through the Rio
Grande Valley. You know, and we've
talked about many times, the fact
that the Rio Grande Valley is the
only community of this size in the
nation that does not have access to
an interstate highway. We believe
that it's not just important for the
Rio Grande Valley that we have
access to an interstate highway, but
it's important for the state of
Texas and across the rest of the
United States that we be linked to
the rest of the United States by an
interstate highway.
We
believe that there's enormous
potential for the extension of I-37
into the Rio Grande Valley to build
upon existing infrastructure. You
will receive a resolution presented
by David Garza, Commissioner Garza,
to talk about how we're united on a
regional approach to have this
interstate corridor into the Rio
Grande Valley. Again, this is
something that's good for us and
it's good for the people of the
state of Texas and the rest of the
United States.
We
have four international bridges just
in Cameron County, three of them
that are owned by Cameron County;
three seaports; two commercial
airports; we have an inland
waterway; ocean freight. We have
everything that's set up to be able
to connect up to an interstate
system that will benefit the rest of
the state of Texas if we are able to
accomplish this. And again, the
regional mobility authority is
looking at this project along with
TxDOT in order to be able to move
this along and get it done at least
in our children's lifetime, if not
our lifetime.
Again, our state will be made
stronger if Cameron County is
stronger economically. Cameron
County will only become stronger
economically if we have the
transportation infrastructure
necessary to develop the economy
which we all agree has an enormous
potential. We want to continue to
work with you, work with your staff,
work with the district office to
ensure that we can accomplish this
goal, and your presence here I think
is an example of your commitment
towards this goal.
So
thank you for being here again, and
we look forward to working with you
in the future.
MR. WILLIAMSON: Thank you, Judge.
(Applause.)
MR. JORGE: Thank you, Judge. And
we've have a tremendous partnership
with Cameron County for many years
in right of way acquisition, project
development, unlike any other, so
we've been very successful in
getting projects completed because
of their partnership with us.
Being in Cameron County, I would
like to just have the mayor from our
second largest city here in Cameron
County, Mayor Rick Rodriguez from
Harlingen, welcome the commission
also. Mayor?
MAYOR RODRIGUEZ: Thank you, Mario.
Good morning. My name is Rick
Rodriguez and I am the mayor of
Harlingen, Texas. It is my distinct
pleasure and privilege to represent
the city of Harlingen. I want to
extend a warm welcome to all of you
and a special thanks for your
presence and support here.
We
are pleased to have a strong
relationship with the Pharr
District, especially Mario Jorge,
Arnold Cortez, and of course our RMA
chairman, David Allex. We're also
committed to building infrastructure
that will carry us into the future,
and extending and building an
interstate that is crucial for our
future, therefore, I'm here to voice
our support for extending I-37 via
US 77.
We're also willing to not only
support you vocally and morally, but
we're also here to extend our
financial support to this project.
We're willing to commit $250,000 a
year for ten years, or $2.5 million.
I
know this commission is visionary
and therefore shares our vision
because building an interstate is
crucial to the growth and
development of our community. We
are working on several projects,
many of which include moving our
railroads out of our town, extending
our port and our airport. We
believe that building and extending
an interstate to the Valley is not
only needed but necessary. Please
know that we are here to support and
work with you in preparing our
region for future growth and
development.
Thank you again for being here and
thank you again for all the support
that you give us.
MR. WILLIAMSON: Thank you, Mayor.
(Applause.)
MR. JORGE: We'll go ahead and start
our presentation. My presentation
will be shared with some of our
partners, and again, it's an effort
to relay information about our
district, some of the goings-on and
some of the challenges that we
face. Some of the information may
be information that you have seen,
commissioners, but I think it will
be very informational for the
audience, some of the items that
we're going to cover.
This is a map of our district. We
cover the southernmost eight
counties in Texas. We have offices
throughout our district, and you see
there the blue square, that is our
Pharr District office located at 83
and 281 expressway; we have three
area offices.
One is in Pharr, located there in
pink. That office handles all the
projects in Hidalgo County and some
of the major projects in Starr
County, and they currently have over
$350 million under construction.
We
have an area office in San Benito
here in Cameron County, and they
handle all of the
Cameron/Willacy/Kenedy
responsibilities, and they are right
now handling $405 million under
construction.
And then we have our office in
Hebronville, the hometown of Mr.
Amadeo Saenz, and that office is
responsible for Jim Hogg, Zapata,
Starr and Brooks counties,
essentially handles all the rural
sections in our district and handles
all of our preventive maintenance
throughout the district.
Of
course, you see the several
maintenance offices that we have
throughout the district and they
handle the maintenance
responsibilities for each of their
respective areas.
The population of our district ‑‑
and this is on the U.S. side based
on the 2000 census ‑‑ is over a
million people. When you combine
the population of the north of
Matamoros, like the judge mentioned,
the population of the general area
is over 3 million people.
We
cover 2300 centerline miles, 111 of
which are freeway centerline miles,
and lane miles 5700 and growing with
a lot of the work that's going on on
the freeway. Daily vehicle miles
traveled is an important number that
indicates the activity that we have
in our district, and that is the
seventh largest volume in the state
of Texas, so it's very significant
to note that.
Now, our ability to function and
address the transportation needs of
our community is largely tied to the
operating budget that we currently
operate with. Our design budget
includes mainly in-house design work
and project management, and on an
annual basis it's $6-1/2 million.
Our maintenance budget includes both
in-house work as well as contracted
work, and as you well know, this
part of our work has become more and
more costly. Our district highways
are more urbanized in nature and
with the added capacity that we have
experienced, the demands to keep an
acceptable level of maintenance has
been difficult to meet. Rehab and
preventive maintenance are
prioritized unless funding is
available for added capacity.
Our construction volume currently,
as we discussed, is over $700
million ‑‑ actually, with the last
month's letting is pushed to $780
million which is a record high for
our district.
Our design consultant budget on an
annual basis runs somewhere around
$16 million. We're currently doing
as much as 75 percent of our work
contracted due to the demand that
the construction oversight has given
us. We manage over 30 active
contracts, 17 different firms are
doing work with us. In addition to
that, we have Texas Transportation
Institute from Texas A&M that does a
lot of research for us through an
interagency agreement.
Our right of way budget, you see
there, is $18 million. Our right of
way staff has been extremely
aggressive pursuing acquisition,
they've been very successful, but
besides our in-house staff, we also
have currently four acquisition
consultants working for us and
actively acquiring right of way.
And of course, our public
transportation budget, you'll hear
later on in the presentation from
Norma Zamora how we're putting those
funds to use in our regional
transportation system.
This shows the progression of our
letting volumes in the Pharr
District over the last 15 years. As
you can see, there has been a steady
increase. The NAFTA program which
was instituted by the commission and
came into effect in the mid to late
'90s, and the chart indicates the
rapid increase in letting around
that time.
And the challenge that we all face
and will continue to face for the
next few years is to maintain that
growth in letting over the next few
years by utilizing a lot of the
innovative financial tools that are
available to us, and again, by
introducing and working closely with
partners such as the RMA and MPOs in
order to bring even more options to
the table. And you're going to hear
a little bit more about those
initiatives later.
This slide as put together by our
planning staff in conjunction with
our MPOs and it indicates a
population projection comparison
between the Rio Grande Valley and
the other major urban areas in the
state. And again, this population
projection is based on the growth
rates that were experienced in the
previous decade. The Valley has one
of the highest growth rates in the
nation.
And as you can see down here, this
is the Rio Grande Valley population
as of the 2000 census, you can see
Austin and San Antonio above it. Of
course, Houston and Dallas are much
higher. As you project the growth
rate over the next 30 years, you can
see where we're going to wind up
being very close to Austin and San
Antonio, assuming the growth rates
are maintained.
This represents tremendous
transportation challenges for our
region, but as you heard throughout
the presentation, we are definitely
working in partnership to address
them.
Our district has the largest number
of international crossings in the
state. The existing international
crossings provide significant
challenges in the number of vehicles
and trucks that cross daily. The
daily freight and vehicle crossings
congest our arterials and add to the
safety concerns that we already
have.
A
recent provision in the SAFETEA-LU
highway bill created the Coordinated
Border Infrastructure Program which
will help us address some of those
needs for mobility and capacity at
or connecting to our existing
international crossings. And we'll
be working with our MPOs and bridge
owners, port directors and GSA to
identify those projects.
We've also been working with several
entities on proposed crossings which
you see there in red. The Anzalduas
Bridge which is proposed in Hidalgo
County south of Mission, we're
working with the local development
board in a pass-through financing
project to connect the Anzalduas
Bridge to the US 83 expressway. Of
course, the Donna Bridge is also in
the process of being worked on, and
we have some projects identified to
connect them.
The West Rail Bridge ‑‑ which you'll
hear a little bit more about
later ‑‑ is a project that is being
pursued by Cameron County and the
RMA. And of course, the Port of
Brownsville Bridge that you saw
yesterday, the location of the
proposed bridge that the port is
working on.
The next several slides are going to
show you some of the international
bridges which have the largest
volume of truck crossings. Now,
this is not one of them.
(General laughter.)
MR. JORGE: But I thought I would
start with a picture of our ferry in
Los Ebanos in Hidalgo County. As
far as I know, this is the only
hand-pulled ferry that is still
operational that I'm aware of, and
you can see how it functions. They
cannot operate, obviously, 365 days
because it depends on the flow of
the river. But I've taken it and
it's interesting. And when you get
there, you actually get out of the
car and you help out.
Let's talk about trucks now. This
is the Veterans International Bridge
in Brownsville. This bridge
currently carries an average of
16,000 northbound trucks per month
and 170,000 northbound passenger
vehicles per month. There is a
temporary border state inspection
facility operated by DPS at this
location, and we have a permanent
one planned in the next couple of
years. It also happens to be a
point of destination for the
overweight corridor from the Port of
Brownsville, as you saw yesterday on
the tour, with the steel slag bridge
also has a connection from US 77/83
which has been constructed to
interstate standards.
This is the B&M Bridge which is a
combination rail/vehicular bridge
operating in downtown Brownsville.
It currently carries an average of
200,000 northbound passenger
vehicles per month. Of course, the
West Rail Relocation project will
construct a new rail bridge west of
the city and allow this bridge to be
used exclusively for vehicular
traffic. And it also happens to be
the termini for the West Loop
project which is one of the projects
being proposed by the RMA and you
will hear about that later in the
program.
The Free Trade Bridge in Los Indios
south of Harlingen is another
Cameron County bridge which
currently handles freight. An
average of 4,200 northbound trucks
and 62,000 passenger vehicles per
month utilize the facility, and we
also have a temporary inspection
facility there.
The Pharr-Reynosa Bridge, located
directly south of Pharr along 281 in
Hidalgo County, carries an average
of 40,000 northbound trucks and
160,000 northbound passenger
vehicles per month. We also have a
border station facility and a
permanent is planned. It also has a
fast lane operating for northbound
freight.
We
have several projects being worked
on by TxDOT, Hidalgo County and the
newly RMA once they take shape which
will provide improved mobility and
connectivity to the bridge, and I'll
discuss some of these later.
You all have seen this before. This
is an aerial shot of a typical
temporary inspection facility
operated by the Department of Public
Safety, and we have one at three
locations. It's a five-acre site at
those facilities that will be
replaced with permanent ones.
The Port of Brownsville has been a
great partner with us over many
years in developing several
transportation projects. I will
cover those, but I would first like
to introduce our port director who
is going to provide the commission
an overview of operations and
proposed improvement projects at the
port, and then I'll review the
cooperation that has taken place on
many projects and what is planned
for the future.
So
at this time, I'll introduce our
port director.
MR. WILLIAMSON: Mario, if you would
permit me.
MR. JORGE: Yes, sir.
MR. WILLIAMSON: I have several
letters that during your
presentation I need to read into the
record and I'd like to do them at
break points so as to not overwhelm
us all.
As
most of you know, the legislature is
meeting in special session to
consider changes to the tax system
and the public education finance
system. Your senator and all of
your House members had to miss the
commission meeting here because of
legislative requirements and not
because they don't wish to be with
us. All of them expressed support
at various levels for what will
transpire today.
From Senator Lucio ‑‑ who is a great
transportation senator, I might
add ‑‑ I'll read it into the record.
"As you're aware from our frequent
conversations ‑‑ this letter is
addressed to me personally ‑‑ and
from the tours you've taken in the
area, there are many important
infrastructure improvements needed
in the Rio Grande Valley and in
Cameron County in general.
Development of these projects will
greatly increase mobility, enhance
safety, and bring a better quality
of life to the citizens I represent.
"One organization that focuses on a
regional approach is the newly
created Cameron County Regional
Mobility Authority. While created
only a year and a half ago, they
have focused on a plan that will
have immediate infrastructure impact
in the area. With hurricane season
coming, I'm particularly interested
and supportive of their efforts to
build a second causeway.
"As you know, I cannot attend the
commission meeting today but I know
the commission will have a fruitful
and informative visit to my Senate
district and I look forward to
discussing these issues with you in
the future. In my absence, I extend
my full support to the effort of the
Cameron County Regional Mobility
Authority and respectfully request
that you consider supporting the
agenda items on the calendar. Thank
you for your consideration. Do not
hesitate to call me. Senator Eddie
Lucio."
Eddie Lucio is a true transportation
senator.
Please go ahead, Mario.
MR. JORGE: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
At
this point I'd like to introduce a
great partner of our transportation
system in the Valley, and that is
the Port of Brownsville port
director, Mr. Bernard List. Mr.
List and I have something in
common: he just moved in from Miami
and I lived in Miami for about a
couple of years a while back and I
still have a lot of family in Miami,
so we have something in common. Mr.
List?
MR. WILLIAMSON: Welcome. We're
glad you're in Texas.
MR. LIST: Thank you, sir. Good
morning. My name is Bernard List,
and yes, I do come from Florida, I
was assistant director at the Port
of Miami. And thank you again,
commissioners, for hosting this
meeting in our area because that's
very important to us.
I
also went to Oklahoma State
University, so don't hold those two
things against me, please.
(General laughter.)
MR. LIST: We had the honor of
hosting the commissioners yesterday
at the port and we gave a
presentation, we went through a tour
of the port, and we were able to
showcase some of the highlights of
what is happening at our dynamic
port.
I
want to take a moment to address an
item that Commissioner Johnson asked
me on the way because I expressed
that we had just had a record year
of 5,185,000 tons of cargo through
the port, and he said, Are those
metric or short tons? I said, Those
are metric tons which are larger
than short tons. And then he said,
Well, how much is a metric ton? And
those numbers are a little rusty,
and I got the 2,200 correct but I
missed a little, so I went back and
checked and the correct answer is
2,204.6 pounds is a metric ton. And
then he asked me also about a long
ton and that's the British ton, and
that is 2,240 pounds. So now we got
it all straight.
MR. WILLIAMSON: That's not 2,240
stones?
(General laughter.)
MR. LIST: So anyway, you know, 5
million tons of cargo is
significant. It would mean about 6
million short tons in U.S. and
American tons. So in terms of ports
worldwide in this nation and within
Texas, that's significant. We were
talking about how our port is 42
feet deep and that's very
significant depth for any port.
Back to the business at hand, we
certainly want to take a moment to
acknowledge the good relationship
that we have with all the good folks
at TxDOT. Amadeo Saenz, of course,
is very interactive with us, and I
heard also yesterday that he was
hired by our own Nino Gutierrez at
TxDOT before he retired. Thank you,
Nino, good job. And also Mario
Jorge and Arnold Cortez are
significant in many of the things
we're doing here.
For example, the relocation of State
Highway 48 not only is a major
artery into the port but it
decongests all the mobility down to
South Padre Island, the tourism that
the judge mentioned earlier today.
Also the railroad relocation project
which is a major home run, and that
accomplished again through the
direction of Nino Gutierrez,
eliminates 79 of 87 railroad
crossings and that's of major
significance to our activity here.
In
addition to that, our overweight
activity, and as we explained
yesterday, our steel slag accounts
for about 2.4 million, metric tons
of our cargo, and a lot of that
moves over the roads and needs to
have that access to be able to carry
125,000 pounds each to make it
economically feasible for those
trucks to survive.
And finally, for State Highway 48,
the port donated 30 acres for
turnabouts and conservation easement
which is just another example of how
we've worked very closely together.
I'll go through this very quickly,
we have a tight schedule today. We
are the westernmost terminus of the
Inland Waterway System but also
we're the southernmost terminus ‑‑
and I think that's significant ‑‑ in
our location. Right against another
country we have deep water and we
have a lot of acreage and a lot of
benefits to offer.
Here you can see our growth,
significant. We had a record year
in '70 and this is our 70th year,
over 5 million metric tons. And our
overweight permit traffic is
growing, 44,200 in 2005, so we're
growing.
Our BRG rail traffic is
significant. We worked hand in hand
with our own railroad to accommodate
the steel that needs to go over to
Monterrey, Monclova, all the other
areas in northern Mexico where that
is processed, and as we discussed
yesterday, a lot of it comes back
into the United States through the
NAFTA umbrella to go to consumers
here in the states and other places
beyond.
Very important to us is our new
project, Dock 16 which will be a
duplication of Dock 15. It is a
deepwater facility that will allow
to duplicate the ability to bring in
heavy steel ships, container ships,
and other deep draft vessels, and it
avoids the congestion at one
terminal so we can get
simultaneously two large ships for
the terminal, you can handle both of
them, not impact them with demurrage
charges which could run up to
$60,000 per stay which would drive
the business away to another port.
And there is our proposed
international truck corridor which,
again, as we move on and the cargo
grows, the steel continues to grow,
this will avoid transporting over
the roadways and directly into
Mexico and out of Mexico.
We're also, in the Dock 15/Dock 16
area with our brand new Gottwald
Crane, capable of doing 25 moves an
hour for containers. We don't have
containers at this moment, we just
have a company that's established a
container facility, a bonded
facility that will already in the
next week or so be able to house
oceangoing containers. Hapag Lloyd
has already made a commitment to
drop and pick their containers here
at the Port of Brownsville, and this
is our first step towards
containerization.
We're looking at short-sea shipping
which would be like a feeder service
between us and Houston to start
out. We know that the Far East
cargo, a lot of it coming all-water
from the Far East through the Panama
Canal zone will come straight into
our area for consumption into the
Valley.
It
is every day more costly bringing it
down via truck and congesting
highways and so on, and if we can
get this on the water with the
higher fuel prices and everything,
we believe and our numbers show that
it would be a significant savings to
the consumers, H.E.B., Wal-Mart,
Home Depot, all those folks in the
Valley and across the river as
well. So we're working very
diligently on making this happen,
and our crane ‑‑ which is in the
above picture ‑‑ has the capability
of handling container ships.
On
that, I'll take a moment to talk
about our land bridge ambitions, and
that would be, for example, from
Lazaro Cardenas bring more line haul
container activity into the Port of
Brownsville over the rail, what you
call piggyback or double-stack
container cars to bring them into
the Port of Brownsville to further
ship them from Brownsville to other
destinations on the water, on the
rail truck, or short-sea shipping
again into the Port of Houston. So
we're going to be working also with
TxDOT and some other folks on making
this a reality in the near future.
We
have a proposed deepening project
going to 55 feet seven miles in.
That would even make us a more
outstanding and attractive facility
for larger vessels, larger companies
to look at us as a real player.
We're also looking at maybe coming
in 45-46 feet all the way into our
turning basin ‑‑ which is here at
the end ‑‑ but at 42 feet we could
actually bring in a container ship
with 4,000 TUs, 5,000 TUs, so this
is evidence that we are prepared to
take on the container business.
MR. WILLIAMSON: Hang on a second,
Bernard.
MR. LIST: Yes, sir.
MR. WILLIAMSON: Can you go back?
MR. LIST: Yes.
MR. WILLIAMSON: So the last part of
that sentence, oil and gas offshore
platforms, so you envision that they
could be constructed and towed out.
Is that why you make a reference to
that?
MR. LIST: That part there, yes,
sir. One of our tenants is AmpHel
and they have like 2,200 full-time
employees repairing and fabricating
parts or fabricating rigs, and
that's another part of our deepening
justification and widening
justification because a lot of those
units are very wide and when they
come in and come out and turn, it
becomes a real challenge. So we
certainly want to move forward with
that. Right now we're doing our
deepening and widening study with
the Corps in Galveston and that will
take some time, but have to go
through all those steps and all the
environmental challenges to be able
to get to the point where we'll
start that deepening and widening.
They can do pretty much everything
but they're larger units and with
the storms ‑‑ in the past the storms
coming up, there is a bigger market
out there that they're not capturing
that they could capture if they had
a deeper, wider entrance here.
MR. WILLIAMSON: Thank you.
MR. LIST: You're welcome.
And this is what I touched on
before, the proposed rail canal
project and it would be what you
call a land bridge from one side of
Mexico all the way over. It's what
they call a dry canal versus the
Panama Canal. And in some countries
they talk a lot about just a highway
generally from one port to another
port, and then beyond on the water
or on the land as well.
And that is my presentation today.
Thank you. If you have any
questions?
MR. WILLIAMSON: Whose railroad car
is that looking at us?
MR. LIST: The railroad engines
belong to the district which is the
Brownsville Navigation District, and
the BRG is a creation, like a
subsidiary of the BND, they have
their own board. We work hand in
hand. The assets belong to the
district, and basically it's ten
engines that it's the power to move
the cars. The cars come over a lot
from Mexico, what used to be TSM,
and now it's Kansas City Southern de
Mexico, so the cars are supplied by
them. They come through UP to us
but our engines are the ones that do
all the work over in the Port of
Brownsville and move the cars over
the bridge into Mexico and back.
MR. WILLIAMSON: Members, do you
have questions of this gentleman?
MS. ANDRADE: Thank you.
MR. LIST: Thank you.
MR. WILLIAMSON: Thank you for that
presentation. And Mario, while
you're walking up, my very good
friend, longtime friend, Rene
Oliveira dropped by a letter
personally.
"I
write with warmest regards thanking
you for selecting Brownsville for
your commission meeting. We're
grateful for your interest and
thoughtfulness.
"As you have seen from your time in
Cameron County, there are important
transportation improvements that
will enhance international commerce
and improve mobility and safety in
our communities.
"I'm proud of the work done by our
Cameron County Regional Mobility
Authority which was formed over a
year ago, three members comprise.
The members are experienced,
visionary persons who have begun an
aggressive strategic plan focused on
financing projects for the quickest
manner possible.
"I
regret not being able to attend
today due to the special legislative
session. I offer my support to the
mobility authority and ask for
favorable consideration on the
agenda item. Thank you for being in
Brownsville. Please do not hesitate
to call."
Please continue, Mario.
MR. JORGE: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I
wanted to show you a slide and
identify some of the projects that
the port has been a key ally with us
and some of the future projects
planned that will improve the
connectivity to and from the port
and really to the city of
Brownsville and Cameron County.
What you see here is a railroad
relocation project. Here's the Port
of Brownsville, here's 77/83. This
railroad relocation project which
Mr. List alluded to has already been
completed after many years of hard
work by the port and county and the
State of Texas and the federal
government. That is already in
place.
The project that is currently under
construction to complete the
expansion of State Highway 48 ‑‑
which also Mr. List mentioned ‑‑
that goes all the way to Port Isabel
is a critical link for us, and I
will tell you that without the port
being an ally, we probably would not
have been able to succeed on that
project. It took many years of
difficult negotiations on various
issues, but I will say that the port
did a couple of things that really
helped our cause.
One was they dedicated a 1,000-foot
wide conservation easement that
helped us mitigate some endangered
species issues. We constructed a
bridge that will handle those
endangered species but without the
port dedicating 1,000 foot of their
own land as a conservation easement,
that project would not have been a
success.
The second issue that they assisted
us tremendously in is digging a
pilot channel from the ship channel
across 48 which facilitated the
flooding of Bayou Grande which has
been creating a very serious dust
problem and which has created health
problems in some of these areas, and
also addressed some very difficult
habitat concerns that Fish and
Wildlife had for many years. This
effort has been applauded by many,
many environmental agencies, groups
and local communities, so it was a
great effort on their part.
We're building a bridge also to
cross that channel into the Bayou
Grande to maintain that flow, so
that was a huge accomplishment.
That helped us with the wetland
mitigation that we needed for the
project. So those two things were
extremely important for us.
The other project I want to mention
to you is FM 511 which FM 511 is
designated on the ISTEA legislation
as a segment or leg of I-69. We're
in the process of developing this
project. We are purchasing right of
way, as we speak, sufficient right
of way to allow us to construct a
future controlled access facility,
although in the meantime we'll have
a four-lane divided highway. It's
going to provide a loop on the east
side of Brownsville, connection
directly into the port. It will
have room for future dedicated truck
lanes when the time comes and when
we can identify funding mechanisms
with the RMA.
And that project, the port is
dedicating a significant amount of
right of way to the department, to
the state, so we're very thankful
for working with them on that.
We
also have a project that we're
working with the City of Brownsville
and Cameron County which is to
create and east loop connection from
the Veterans International Bridge, a
new location and then around on 511
to connect back to the entry point
near the port. And again, as you
can see, this creates a mobility
corridor on the east side of
Brownsville that will facilitate
freight traffic and vehicular
traffic to and from the port, as
well as for the general area on the
east side of Brownsville. A very
important project, mobility project
that we're working with them on, and
the RMA is going to be a big part of
this.
We
also have, as you know, an
Intracoastal Waterway that we are
part of. It's within the boundaries
of our district. The causeway
bridge spans this particular
waterway and connects Port Isabel to
South Padre Island has had
significant work done. One of the
projects that was installed within
one year of the collapse due to the
barge accident in 2001 is a collapse
detection project that is a system
that activates gates, flashers and
overhead message boards in case of a
span collapse. It's a very
technologically advanced system
based on fiber optics and it's one
that we're very proud to have
installed.
Using the Pier Protection Program
that the commission approved for
causeway bridges in the state, we
installed several concrete dolphins
designed to withstand the impact
from forward-loaded barges and those
have been installed in front of the
piers extending approximately 500
feet from each side of the
Intracoastal on all four corners.
Makes us sleep well at night.
We
followed the research
recommendations on a process to
provide extended life to the
concrete footings and columns in the
very aggressive marine environment,
so we've installed a cathodic
protection system on the entire
bridge and we're really confident
that this will delay the start of
corrosion and prolong the life of
the bridge as long as we can.
And of course, in conjunction with
the RMA, we will continue to develop
and work on the project to construct
a second causeway to South Padre
Island. There are many
environmental and financial issues
that need to be considered in the
evaluation of the preferred
corridor, but it is, nevertheless,
an important project and it is on
the agenda for the RMA, so I'll let
them cover that later.
Our major corridors, just a quick
rundown. Everything you see here in
black is expansions that have been
completed over the past few years.
This is roughly about 30 miles of
work already completed to six-lane
expansion. Everything in red is
currently under construction which
is about 70 miles. It's the source
of a lot of aggravation for
motorists but they do see the
progress that's being made. And the
green is proposed projects that
we'll have in the next couple of
years.
We
work with three MPOs in our
district ‑‑ I think we're the only
district that has three MPOs. First
of all, Hidalgo County MPO which is
a TMA with over 200,000 in
population; the director is Mr.
Andrew Canon. Harlingen-San Benito
MPO is an urban MPO; Mr. Juan
Sanchez is our director. And
Brownsville MPO, also another urban
MPO, which Mark Lund is the
director. You can see how they are
very close together and we'll see
what happens with the next census
whether we can have a Valley-wide
MPO.
At
this time I'm going to ask Andrew
Canon, as the spokesman for the
three MPOs, to give a quick
presentation on some of the
important items that the MPOs are
looking at.
MR. WILLIAMSON: And while you're
walking up, Representative Escobar
sent us a letter thanking us for
having our monthly meeting in
Brownsville, and endorsing the
projects that will improve mobility,
enhance safety and bring a better
quality of life to the
organization. He specifically
endorses the focused countywide and
regional transportation vision of
the Cameron County Regional Mobility
Authority. He fully supports it and
encourages us to move forward on the
agenda item, and we appreciate him
taking the time to send the letter.
MR. CANON: Thank you,
commissioners.
This morning I'd like to introduce
myself. My name is Andrew Canon. I
have the honor and privilege of
being the director of the Hidalgo
County MPO. I'd also like to
introduce my planning partners. I
have Juan Sanchez with me here today
from the Harlingen-San Benito MPO,
as well as Alfonso Vallejo,
representing the Brownsville MPO
today.
The Lower Rio Grande Valley is home
to some of the greatest cross-border
growth within the state. Reynosa is
the only border city that has an
increase in maquiladoras and
employees in 2005. The amount of
maquiladoras have increased
significantly here along the Texas
border in the Lower Rio Grande
Valley region. Reynosa exported a
dollar value increase by almost 151
percent in the last five years. In
comparison, Juarez had an increase
of 39 percent. Our growth is quite
spectacular that we're undertaking
here in the Valley that you'll hear
about and that you've heard more
about this morning.
Cameron and Hidalgo counties have a
total of eight existing bridges
along our border with proposed four
additional bridges: two within
Hidalgo County, the Donna Bridge and
Anzalduas Bridge; and two within
Cameron County, the Port of
Brownsville Bridge and the West Rail
Bridge.
These bridges are necessary to
support the growth that the region
is undergoing. For example,
Matamoros, Mexico has a population
of approximately 700,000 citizens
living directly across the border
from Brownsville. Reynosa has an
estimated population of 1.2 million
people, and the Hidalgo County
urbanized area boundary alone is
worth noting that it was the only
urbanized area to double in size
between the 1990 and the 2000 census
populations in the state of Texas.
Hidalgo County UAB encompasses
800,000 people. Hidalgo County,
Brownsville, and Harlingen-San
Benito all have a forecasted
population rate of 4 percent. This,
compounded by the fact that Mexico
has an estimated growth rate of 12
percent, makes us one of the fastest
growing areas in the state, if not
the fastest growing.
Along the way to address this is
that the Hidalgo County MPO recently
has undertaken the initiative and is
about to sign a memorandum of
understanding with the City of
Reynosa and with the City of Rio
Bravo ‑‑ they serve as ex officio
members of my policy board ‑‑ and we
hope to be able to do this and to
have this memorandum of
understanding in place so that we
may coordinate our efforts better
across the border on what our
planning needs and our congestion
needs over the next 25 years may be.
The great growth within the Lower
Rio Grande Valley brings with it
other aspects as well, such as the
amount of traffic moving north and
south across our bridges for
commercial and personal purposes.
The Pharr Bridge is the only bridge
in the Lower Rio Grande Valley that
has experienced a dramatic increase
in truck traffic. There has been
approximately a 27 percent increase
in northbound truck traffic within
the past five years on the Pharr
Bridge alone. Another example is
that from Brownsville to Zapata in
2005 there were 958,793 northbound
truck crossings alone, accompanied
by 23,500,000 passenger vehicle and
buses coming northbound across our
bridges. As you can see, the amount
of congestion that we have is
growing insurmountable compared to
our population growth.
As
a part of our increased truck and
freight traffic along the border,
the amount of commodities crossing
logically have increased
significantly as well. The steel
trade has increased significantly
after the bridge at Los Tomates
opened operations to the Port of
Brownsville. From 1997 to 2004, the
imported steel has increased from
1.2 to 2.2 metric tons, or an
increase of 81.5 percent. Steel
arrives to our area from such
countries as Brazil, Venezuela, the
United Kingdom, Korea, Mexico, and
of course, the U.S.
Along with this, rail traffic to and
from Mexico has not slowed either.
Brownsville and Hidalgo both have
seen dramatic growth in the amount
of dollars for imported goods
shipped into and out of Mexico in
the last five years. Brownsville
has seen a 31 percent increase in
rail traffic within the last five
years.
I'll move on to the mobility plan.
As the chairman clearly stated to us
yesterday afternoon and this
morning, local areas have now been
provided the opportunity to identify
our potential needs and address the
mobility concerns that we have over
the next 25 years. Along with
identifying these potential needs,
we've also been given the
opportunity to address how the local
areas could address financing or
future mobility needs in our
projects. Thus, the Texas
Metropolitan Mobility Plan has been
developed.
The Hidalgo County MPO, as one of
eight larger MPOs in the state, has
been undertaking and working on the
TMMP over the past several years.
The Hidalgo County MPO has
identified a $787 million shortfall
for Hidalgo County alone over the
next 25 years. To address this
shortfall, Hidalgo County, working
with citizens groups, board members,
staff, TxDOT and other entities have
been coming up with local
initiatives to address our financial
needs over the next 25 years.
These two slides present two
initiatives that were undertaken and
presented to my board recently, one
being a possible additional toll at
bridges to capture those vehicles
that are coming across and using our
roadways on a daily basis, and the
other being a local sales tax
initiative. This is just two of
five initiatives that we have at the
moment that we're working on to
address our needs over the next 25
years.
Along with that, on October 31,
2000, Chairman Williamson met with
the 17 non-TMAs in Austin to kick
off a similar initiative to the
TMMP. This initiative entitled the
Texas Urbanized Mobility Plan, or
TUMP. Mario and Jorge and myself
co-chair this panel and we've been
working diligently with the 17
smaller non-TMO MPOs around the
state to also address their needs
over the next 25 years, as well as
identifying any initiatives they may
have to address these needs.
I
will say that we've made a great
deal of progress and that we're on
time to meet our June deadline that
we have for our draft to the
commission for review and our
September final submission of our
document.
I'll speak briefly on some of the
initiatives undertaken by the
Hidalgo County MPO, one of these
being our congestion management
system which is quite instrumental
in what we do in preparation of
identifying our needs over the next
25 years.
The Hidalgo County MPO has the data
collection of over 500 lane miles
within Hidalgo County. We have a
consultant that drives out these 500
lane miles for us on a yearly basis,
information is captured in
two-second intervals via GPS
accompanied by a video. It's become
quite a useful tool in public
involvement. It allows us to be
able to click on several of the
links, any of these identified red
lines that we have on this map, and
we can show the public what it is
that was seen at the time that the
system was driven out.
That's important for us because we
don't want to identify areas that
have construction taking place at
this time as an area that has
serious congestion problems because
the congestion may be due to the
construction that's undertaken,
therefore, we know that the problem
is actually being addressed.
We
also moved on to a CMS Tier 2
approach ‑‑ and it was an analysis
of four corridors, those corridors
listed there: FM 88 in Weslaco, 907
in Alamo, 495 in Mission and 10th
Street which is one of the busiest
arterials that runs through the
middle of McAllen ‑‑ to do a
real-world analysis of how we could
address the congestion concerns of
these communities.
I
will say that the City of Weslaco
has moved forward with one of our
initiatives identified and they are
now looking at the possibility of
installing raised medians along FM
88 as a part of their access
management initiative to help
relieve some of the congestion
problems that they're suffering
there in that city as it grows quite
quickly.
And I'd also like to say that for
the first time we have a regional
model coming down to our area from
TP&P up in Austin. Along with our
three independent models that we use
and to forecast out our needs over
the 250-year horizon that we have
to, this is going to be an
incredible tool for us to use since
we know that we are on a regional
basis and that the traffic does not
stop or begin at our boundaries or
at our county line.
I
would also like to say that this
regional approach gives more
emphasis to the need for the
formation of a possible one regional
MPO to be the voice of the region as
a whole instead of three independent
MPOs.
Also, in Hidalgo County, one of the
initiatives we've undertaken and
partnered with Cameron County and
the MPOs here is we work with all of
the EMS providers within Hidalgo
County and we are soon to release an
RFP for a non-destination,
non-radioactive HAZ route study.
Along with the I-69 possibilities
that we have here, any interstate
corridors, we realized that this was
something that we needed to look at
with the increased truck traffic
that we have from Mexico to assure
the safety to the population and to
the citizens of Hidalgo County and
Cameron County as well.
Harlingen and San Benito, it's worth
noting, already has such a hazardous
route in place within their city
limits, so we're hoping to work in
conjunction with this.
That's all I have for you today.
Any questions?
MR. WILLIAMSON: Do you find that
the mobility plan we've asked you to
develop is revealing anything you
didn't already know?
MR. CANON: Yes, sir. I think what
the mobility plan has done is
actually shined a light on what we
weren't looking at before. We knew
the dollars that we had over the
next 25 years, we knew what was
probable to be able to be built out,
we knew where we thought we were
going, but the mobility plan has
done for us is shine a light on that
shortfall that we really didn't give
that much emphasis to. We sort of
looked at the side of what we knew
we were going to be building, we
never sat down and took into
consideration, in conjunction with
our population growth, how much of a
gap we would have that would
continue to grow over that 25 years,
and thus, leave us in a bigger hole
if we don't address it now.
So
I think it's been an incredible tool
for us to use and I think it's a
significantly valued tool for the 17
non-TMA MPOs as well.
MR. WILLIAMSON: Thank you.
Any other questions?
MR. HOUGHTON: Yes. You glossed
over ‑‑ or I didn't pick up on it
real quick ‑‑ the three independent
MPOs acting as one.
MR. CANON: Yes, sir.
MR. HOUGHTON: Is there any movement
to merge all the MPOs?
MR. CANON: I know that there was a
movement a couple of years back on
this initiative, and I guess what I
should say to be politically
correct, this is sort of a personal
initiative that I have. I think
that we as a region need to resonate
our voice as one up to Austin as
well as up to Washington, D.C., I
think any time that we resonate
independently and separately as
three separate entities instead of
one whole. Also, as a whole being
equivalent to the size of Austin,
would give more impact to what we
have to say possibly. I think it's
important.
Half of my staff ‑‑ I have a staff
of nine ‑‑ half of my staff actually
live in Cameron County or drive from
further away into Hidalgo County.
We know that our traffic congestion
and the concerns that we have for
the movement of people and goods do
not stop at our urbanized boundaries
or at the county line. It seems to
me somewhat silly, if you will, for
me to undertake initiatives for
Hidalgo County and then have them
stop at the county line when I know
that my planning partners are
undertaking duplicate initiatives
within Cameron County. Instead of
doing it three times, I think we
could do it once as a whole and have
a greater impact and better benefit
to the citizens of Cameron and
Hidalgo counties.
MR. HOUGHTON: Thanks for answering
that. I didn't mean to put you on
the spot.
MR. CANON: It's no problem at all.
MR. HOUGHTON: Thank you.
MR. WILLIAMSON: It's a difficult
thing, and it's a thing that's best
spoken of, I think, from the state
level and not in a demanding way but
in a this-is-what-we-think way, and
over time the county judge will
decide if he agrees or not, and over
time the mayor will decide if he
agrees or not.
MR. CANON: Absolutely.
MR. WILLIAMSON: I mean, some things
we think we ought to say to the
local and regional leaders this is
what you should do, some things we
say this is what we think you should
do.
MR. CANON: Yes, sir. And I have a
policy board tonight and I know that
that will come up again at my board
meeting, as well as the Cameron
County policy board meetings that
are held here. My board is very
concerned about congestion and the
movement of people and goods
throughout the county and throughout
the Lower Rio Grande Valley, as well
as we realize that our borders don't
stop at the river. These
communities that are south of the
river are just as impacted and
important to us as they would be if
it was any community on the north
side of the river.
MR. WILLIAMSON: Thank you very
much. Hope?
MS. ANDRADE: I'd just like to say
one thing. I just need to
congratulate you on recognizing the
need to work together. I mean, it's
just fantastic that you're all able
to do that. So congratulations and
thank you for doing that. It makes
our job a lot easier too.
MR. CANON: I appreciate that.
MR. WILLIAMSON: I didn't get to
serve with Mr. Escobar but I did get
to serve with Mr. Solis ‑‑ in fact,
we sat right next to each other. He
also sent a letter.
"I'm writing to express my
appreciation for your being in
Brownsville today. As you have seen
from the tours you've taken, we have
many improvements in this area that
are necessary, and our organization
known as the Cameron County Regional
Mobility Authority is very
important. I fully endorse their
program and endorse the item on the
agenda.
"Call me if I can answer any
questions."
Jim is a nice guy. Go ahead.
MR. JORGE: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I
think Mr. Canon responded very
eloquently on that question. It's a
difficult issue to be addressed and
it's one that we've already been
discussing with several of our local
leaders, and you're right, Mr.
Chairman, that's something that I
think as a region we'll have to make
that decision.
MR. WILLIAMSON: But we would never
want a county judge or a mayor or a
city council person or a
commissioner to think that we were
telling them what ‑‑ we will never
tell you about that kind of stuff
what you should do, you've got to
make that decision yourself. We
just happen to believe that local
execution and planning is better.
It's been effective in North Texas
for a number of years, although
we're admittedly going through a
little bit of a rough patch right
now over a toll road. But generally
speaking, it's permitted North Texas
to speak with one voice, and
frankly, I think that had a lot to
do with our decision to allocate
money and not projects which I think
has been a tremendous help to
everybody.
But to the extent that the judge and
the commissioners court and the
leaders of the community can figure
out how to speak regionally and plan
regionally, we think that's a good
idea.
Where else are we going, Mario?
MR. JORGE: The next speaker I'd
like to introduce is Ms. Norma
Zamora. She's our director of the
Brownsville Urban System, and she's
going to talk about the regional
transit service plan that I know
Commissioner Andrade has been very
forward in asking us throughout the
state to implement a regional plan,
and Ms. Zamora will speak to that.
So Norma?
MR. WILLIAMSON: Welcome.
MS. ZAMORA: Good morning. Again,
my name is Norma Zamora. I'm the
director of the City of
Brownsville's transit department,
the Brownsville Urban System. It is
my pleasure to again welcome each of
the commission members and all of
the TxDOT employees from Austin,
Pharr and other parts of the state
of Texas to Brownsville.
It
is my pleasure to talk to you today
about public transportation and I
want to take this opportunity to
thank each commission member for all
that you do to support public
transportation in South Texas. I
also want to extend a special thanks
to Commissioner Andrade for heading
the statewide effort to procure the
requirements of
House Bill 3588.
My
presentation will provide an
overview of our federal- and
state-funded transit systems, and
more importantly, to provide you
with a status report on the progress
of our region's response to
House
Bill 3588 as it relates to public
transportation.
For the purposes of the regional
transportation planning effort, the
Statewide Study Group opted to
define the service area boundaries
as the COG boundaries whi
