Route Funds Mulled

By Karen Smith Welch, Amarillo Globe-News, Texas

May 16–Improvements to the Ports-to-Plains Trade Corridor, which cuts through Amarillo, could be funded by public-private partnerships meant to create cheaper, faster ways to get West Texas goods to market, officials said Tuesday.

The state should concentrate on making the Ports-to-Plains Trade Corridor a true intermodal Trans-Texas Corridor that would move more than cars, trucks and people, according to a study by the Texas Department of Transportation.

Wind energy and ethanol could travel via corridor-based transmission lines, and the highway could facilitate more train shipments if new railroad terminals are built, TxDOT Lubbock District Engineer Randy Hoffman said Tuesday.

“These commodities need to get to other areas of Texas, we believe, and this study confirms there are opportunities along the Ports-to-Plains Corridor to do just that utilizing private investment dollars or public-private investment partnerships,” Hoffman said.

Visit the Texas Department of Transportation Web site to view a study outlining enhancement and economic development opportunities for the Ports-to-Plains Trade Corridor, which travels from Laredo into Colorado via Amarillo. Find the “Inside TxDOT” headline and click on the headline that says “Trans-Texas Corridor Rural Development Opportunities: Ports-to-Plains Case Study.” The Ports-to-Plains Corridor extends for 1,390 miles from Laredo through the Oklahoma Panhandle and Eastern New Mexico to Denver. It is part of a larger 2,333-mile chain of highways that extends to Montana’s border with Canada.

Wider right-of-way might be required to incorporate other modes of transportation into the corridor, officials said.

“The concept of putting it all together in one footprint, as the terrain will allow, is probably the right thing to do,” said TxDOT Deputy Executive Director Steve Simmons.

But Hoffman said the state also has the option to view West Texas as a “virtual corridor,” taking advantage of transportation assets already in place.

“Possibly, you could see freight rail deviate from the highway corridor, so to speak,” he said. “Traditionally, you think of all these different modes, perhaps, in one corridor. But I believe in West Texas, we have to have more of an open mind. It may be more of a virtual corridor.”

The study proves economic opportunities can be developed that will generate private dollars to help pay the cost of the building, improving and maintaining Ports-to-Plains, said Michael Reeves, president of the Lubbock-based Ports-to-Plains Trade Corridor Coalition.

The study also sets up Ports-to-Plains as a test case for analyzing opportunities for transportation development in other rural parts of Texas, said Donald Ludlow of Cambridge Systematics Inc., which conducted the research.

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