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.