South Texas Set for Over $1.5 Billion Investment in Road Infrastructure

The benefit will impact the international trade logistics sector.

The budget for the development of new highway infrastructure in South Texas for the next three years amounts to $1,751,959,948, according to the Rio Grande Valley Metropolitan Planning Organization (RGVMPO).

The projected resource for 2024 is $325,445,036, an increase for 2025 of 27.41% with $414,660,648 and 144% for 2026 with $1,011,854,264, explained Luis Diaz, interim executive director of the agency.

Military Highway

Today, RGVMPO follows up on several projects in their planning and execution stage, among them, Diaz spoke of six, such as the circuits in the east and west around the metropolitan area of Hidalgo County, Texas, the overweight corridor for trucks SH365 on the military highway.

Also the extension of the second access bridge to South Padre Island; the corridor that will connect commercial traffic from the Donna International Bridge and Pharr International Bridge via I-69.

Active Participation Network

Improvements from the Military Highway to  I-69 to the South 281 Freeway South, as well as the development of a new loop between the Port of Brownsville and the city, and the project under construction in Pharr via Highways 281-I69.

Díaz said that RGVMPO emerged in 2019 after the merger of three Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs), from the cities of Hidalgo, Brownsville, Harlingen-San Benito, and currently they have consolidated a network of active participation, with technical committees, civil society groups, in addition to authorities and agencies.

Productive region

The road infrastructure resource will be generated in collaboration with agencies such as the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), Federal Transit Authority (FTA), U.S  Department of Transportation (USDOT), Texas Department of Transportation  (TxDOT), Regional Mobility Authority  (RMA), local governments and transit agencies, with the aim of generating a productive region, with infrastructure adequate to the needs of commerce, customers and suppliers.