TxDOT revises "Reliever" route

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE; March 29, 2006

Engineer describes one-way frontage road system for new highway

MIDLAND – A proposed new section of West Texas highway –described both as a ‘reliever route’ to reduce future truck traffic congestion on Loop 250 and as the first section of the La Entrada al Pacifico in the United States – has reached another milestone.

Gary J. Law, a planning engineer for the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), told a local audience at the Center for Energy and Economic Diversification that Tuesday night’s meeting to explain the effect of consolidating the $36 million of local, state, and federal funding to enable TxDOT to acquire all right-of-way and oversee the construction of the entire road network along the route –both one-way frontage roads and main lanes –was the last in a series of public meetings about the project.

Law said that construction is expected to start in the Spring of 2007 on the eastern portion of the route –from State Highway 158 west of Midland to connect with State Highway 349 north of Midland.

The 16-mile connector has been promoted by the Midland-Odessa Transportation Alliance [MOTRAN] as the first link in an eventual trade route spanning from the Pacific Ocean in western Mexico through the Midland-Odessa area to the American heartland. The La Entrada al Pacifico route runs from the port of Topolobampo in the Mexican state of Sinaloa, through Chihuahua City and Presidio-Ojinaga to the Midland-Odessa area.

Law said that the first phase of the project calls for building half of the eventual freeway type facility –a two-lane highway. He said that the latest revision in the project was to build one-way, rather than two-way frontage roads for the ultimate build-out.

Local residents visited with TxDOT personnel both before and after a formal presentation by Law, who is the Director of Transportation Planning and Development for TxDOT’s Odessa District office.

For more information, contact Gary J. Law, Director of Transportation Planning (432) 498-4712.