Ports to Plains Corridor

Ports-To-Plains Corridor
High Priority Corridor 38
Route information
Existed 2005 – present
Component
highways
Major junctions
South end Mexico-United States border in Laredo, TX
 
North end I-25 / US 6 / US 85 / US 87 in Denver, CO
Location
States
Highway system
High-Priority Corridors

The Ports-To-Plains Corridor, also known as National Highway System High Priority Corridor 38, is a highway corridor between the United States Mexico border at Laredo, Texas and Denver, Colorado. It is the southern third of the Ports-to-Plains Alliance. The reason for proposed improvements to this corridor is to expedite the transportation of goods and services from Mexico in the United States and vice versa. The Ports-To-Plains Corridor starts in South Texas and traverses through Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and ends in Denver, Colorado.[1]

The Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 made the Ports-to-Plains Corridor National Highway System High Priority Corridor 38 in 2005. The High Priority designation, which applies to 80 routes or groups of routes nationally, does not create any additional design requirements and does not have a separate federal funding source.[2]

Route description

The stack interchange between I-35 and Loop 20 in Laredo, Texas.

The Ports-to-Plains Corridor starts at the Mexico–United States border at a bridge crossing in Laredo, Texas, where it meets and runs concurrent with I-35, a six-lane freeway. North of Laredo, the route follows US 83, a two-lane highway to Carrizo Springs, Texas, where the route follows US 277 through Eagle Pass, Del Rio, Sonora, and San Angelo, Texas. North of San Angelo, the route follows US 87, a four-lane highway, through Big Spring and Lamesa and finally to Lubbock (An alternate route passes through Midland and Odessa instead of Big Spring.)

North of Lubbock, the route follows I-27 to Amarillo. North of Amarillo, the route is again marked as US 87 and returns to 4-lane highway. At Dumas, Texas, a spur of the route extends northwest to Raton, New Mexico, alternating between 2 and 4 lane state highways.

Continuing north from Dumas, Texas, the main route continues at U.S. 87, until north of the city of Stratford, Texas. At the Oklahoma/Texas border, the route changes to US 287. It passes through Boise City, Oklahoma, in the western panhandle.

Continuing north, the route follows US 287 through Springfield, Lamar, and Kit Carson. North of Kit Carson, the route follows US 40 to Limon, Colorado, where it joins I-70 for the final leg into Denver, Colorado, where the highway ends at an interchange with I-25/US 6/US 85/US 87.

The cities of Laredo, Eagle Pass, and Del Rio are each located on the U.S./Mexico Border and are gateways to trade between the two countries.

Future

In 1995, a study of a southern extension of I-27 to I-10[3] found that a full freeway extension would not be economically feasible, instead recommending limited upgrades to the three corridors studied: SH 349 via Midland and Odessa to east of Fort Stockton, US 87 via Big Spring to Sonora or Junction, and US 84 via Sweetwater to Sonora or Junction. Of the three corridors, the Sweetwater route came the closest to warranting a freeway.[4] The Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century, passed in 1998, designated I-27 as part of the Ports-to-Plains Trade Corridor, a High Priority Corridor from Mexico at Laredo to Denver.[5] This corridor crosses I-20 at Big Spring and Midland (via a split), and I-10 at Sonora.[6] It also forms part of the Great Plains International Trade Corridor, continuing north to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.[7] The part of the Ports-to-Plains Trade Corridor within Texas was a proposed Trans-Texas Corridor.[8] Some parts of this plan have I-14 possibly ending where I-27 will cross I-20.

See also

  • Caprock Chief, a former proposed passenger rail route along the corridor

References

  1. ↑ "Home - Ports-to-Plains Alliance".
  2. ↑
  3. ↑ Austin American-Statesman, Towns to vie for I-27 extension, July 18, 1995
  4. ↑ San Antonio Express-News, Engineers opt for improving 3 roads, May 14, 1996
  5. ↑ Ports to Plains study, Frequestly Asked Questions, accessed August 2007
  6. ↑ Ports to Plains study, Corridor Map, accessed August 2007
  7. ↑ Ports-to-Plains Trade Corridor Coalition, PTP Partners: Great Plains International Trade Corridor, accessed August 2007 Archived September 16, 2008, at the Wayback Machine.
  8. ↑ Texas Department of Transportation, Trans-Texas Corridor conceptual map, 2002
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