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Laredo Outer Loop

Started by Chris, January 08, 2020, 05:22:48 AM

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edwaleni

Quote from: The Ghostbuster on February 28, 2022, 05:13:22 PM
Since Laredo doesn't have suburbs, maybe they should start building some. Then we can worry about if Laredo will need an outer bypass.

Chicken or egg eh?

Which comes first, the suburb or the road that allowed it?


jgb191

#26
^  Good point about building highways before suburban development, but at this point I don't have any reason to believe there will be a lot of additions to the Laredo "metro area" at least until (perhaps years) after I-69W is completed.  Years ago there was a proposition for a bypass around Corpus Christi (similar one to this proposal around Laredo), but that idea was very short-lived.  For both cities, even before you exit city limits, there is nothing but empty fields of land all around.  Despite being the 59th largest city in the country (in fact, larger than the sports cities like Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Orlando, Salt Lake, Buffalo, St. Louis), Corpus Christi's MSA is 130th in the country, even cities far smaller than Corpus Christi and Laredo have larger MSAs than these two.  Furthermore, the nearest town of any size to Laredo is located almost 40 miles away.
We're so far south that we're not even considered "The South"

Bobby5280

I think they could still build the outer loop bypass from Rio Bravo up to the TX-255 Camino Columbia Road, but only as a 2-lane road in order to establish the corridor and protect ROW. It would be a waste of money to build more than that at this point.

Loop 20 still needs to be the top priority for highway projects in the Laredo area. Still, the Laredo area is growing. The pace isn't as rapid as the fastest growing areas in Texas such as New Braunfels and San Marcos, but it's still significant. One forecast says Laredo will go from roughly 270,000 people to 488,000 by 2046. Building a modest truck bypass route outside the current reaches of the metro could end up being a good investment. 20 years actually goes by pretty fast. It will probably take TX DOT several years to study and plan this thing before any construction begins.

kphoger

Quote from: ethanhopkin14 on February 25, 2022, 01:54:46 PM

Quote from: kphoger on January 13, 2020, 01:09:40 PM
Other than a handful of grandfathered-in carriers, US truckers cannot carry a load into Mexico and Mexican truckers cannot carry a load into the USA.  Rather, each drops the trailer off in a drayage yard on one side of the border, then a dedicated drayage trucker picks it up and takes it across the border to another drayage yard, where it's picked up again for the rest of its journey.

Commercial traffic will cross the border at Colombia or any other far-out POE in large numbers only if the prohibition of cross-border trucking were lifted.  Heck, TX-255 and the Colombia POE were constructed with the anticipation that truckers would be allowed to carry long-haul loads directly between Monterrey and San Antonio (and that the Mexican side of the bypass would connect to it, and that all commercial traffic would be required to use it).  However, other than a brief trial program with a short list of carriers a few years ago, that expectation never became reality.  With the completion of now-I-69W and the World Trade Bridge–which connects directly to the actual bypass on the Mexican side–TX-255 is just a huge detour that truckers have no reason to make because they have to head back into the city anyway to drop their trailers off in drayage yards, which are located in town.  Now that tolls have been removed from TX-255, I see no reason why traffic counts would increase at that crossing.  Any new crossing point on the other side of town will likely be seen as similarly useless:  why head way outside of town to cross the border, just to head back into town again on the other side?

Serious question.  What about all the trucks and busses I have seen with a Texas License Plate and a Tamaulipas or Nuevo Leon license plate? What's the legality there?

Quote from: kphoger on February 28, 2022, 02:46:29 PM
Trucks:  I assume those are the grandfathered carriers to which I referred.  AIUI, their legal status goes back decades, predating the short-lived (2011-2014) pilot program.  I don't remember offhand if the carriers picked for the pilot program were allowed to continue cross-border long hauls or not after the pilot program was axed, but the old grandfathered carriers never stopped.  If you want to look up a specific carrier, then I'd start here.

ethanhopkin14:

1.  I'm intrigued that you frequently see trucks in the US with Tamaulipas and Nuevo León license plates.  I've hardly ever seen Mexican state-tagged trucks in Mexico, let alone on the north side of the border.  Pretty much all the Mexican trucks I see, on both sides of the border, have federally issued license plates like this.  For example, on my way home from work this afternoon, I passed a dual-plated trucker.  Both the trailer and the cab had a Texas state license plate and a Mexican federal license plate.  Do you tend to see Mexican state-issued license plates on the cab or on the trailer?

2.  I decided to take my own advice:  I looked up the carrier (based in Apodaca, NL) of that trucker I passed on the website I linked to, and–sure enough–it's on there.
Keep right except to pass.  Yes.  You.
Visit scenic Orleans County, NY!
Male pronouns, please.

Quote from: Philip K. DickIf you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use them.

ethanhopkin14

Quote from: kphoger on March 03, 2022, 06:37:23 PM
Quote from: ethanhopkin14 on February 25, 2022, 01:54:46 PM

Quote from: kphoger on January 13, 2020, 01:09:40 PM
Other than a handful of grandfathered-in carriers, US truckers cannot carry a load into Mexico and Mexican truckers cannot carry a load into the USA.  Rather, each drops the trailer off in a drayage yard on one side of the border, then a dedicated drayage trucker picks it up and takes it across the border to another drayage yard, where it's picked up again for the rest of its journey.

Commercial traffic will cross the border at Colombia or any other far-out POE in large numbers only if the prohibition of cross-border trucking were lifted.  Heck, TX-255 and the Colombia POE were constructed with the anticipation that truckers would be allowed to carry long-haul loads directly between Monterrey and San Antonio (and that the Mexican side of the bypass would connect to it, and that all commercial traffic would be required to use it).  However, other than a brief trial program with a short list of carriers a few years ago, that expectation never became reality.  With the completion of now-I-69W and the World Trade Bridge–which connects directly to the actual bypass on the Mexican side–TX-255 is just a huge detour that truckers have no reason to make because they have to head back into the city anyway to drop their trailers off in drayage yards, which are located in town.  Now that tolls have been removed from TX-255, I see no reason why traffic counts would increase at that crossing.  Any new crossing point on the other side of town will likely be seen as similarly useless:  why head way outside of town to cross the border, just to head back into town again on the other side?

Serious question.  What about all the trucks and busses I have seen with a Texas License Plate and a Tamaulipas or Nuevo Leon license plate? What's the legality there?

Quote from: kphoger on February 28, 2022, 02:46:29 PM
Trucks:  I assume those are the grandfathered carriers to which I referred.  AIUI, their legal status goes back decades, predating the short-lived (2011-2014) pilot program.  I don't remember offhand if the carriers picked for the pilot program were allowed to continue cross-border long hauls or not after the pilot program was axed, but the old grandfathered carriers never stopped.  If you want to look up a specific carrier, then I'd start here.

ethanhopkin14:

1.  I'm intrigued that you frequently see trucks in the US with Tamaulipas and Nuevo León license plates.  I've hardly ever seen Mexican state-tagged trucks in Mexico, let alone on the north side of the border.  Pretty much all the Mexican trucks I see, on both sides of the border, have federally issued license plates like this.  For example, on my way home from work this afternoon, I passed a dual-plated trucker.  Both the trailer and the cab had a Texas state license plate and a Mexican federal license plate.  Do you tend to see Mexican state-issued license plates on the cab or on the trailer?

2.  I decided to take my own advice:  I looked up the carrier (based in Apodaca, NL) of that trucker I passed on the website I linked to, and–sure enough–it's on there.

I see the trailers with the dual plates, but mostly buses like this.

kphoger

Quote from: kphoger on March 03, 2022, 06:37:23 PM
1.  I'm intrigued that you frequently see trucks in the US with Tamaulipas and Nuevo León license plates.  I've hardly ever seen Mexican state-tagged trucks in Mexico, let alone on the north side of the border.  Pretty much all the Mexican trucks I see, on both sides of the border, have federally issued license plates like this.  For example, on my way home from work this afternoon, I passed a dual-plated trucker.  Both the trailer and the cab had a Texas state license plate and a Mexican federal license plate.  Do you tend to see Mexican state-issued license plates on the cab or on the trailer?

Quote from: ethanhopkin14 on March 05, 2022, 11:13:12 PM
I see the trailers with the dual plates, but mostly buses like this.

And you see them with Tamaulipas and Nuevo León state-issued plates?  I only recall having seen federal-issued plates on buses like that.

Keep right except to pass.  Yes.  You.
Visit scenic Orleans County, NY!
Male pronouns, please.

Quote from: Philip K. DickIf you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use them.

roadman65

Quote from: Scott5114 on January 24, 2020, 05:29:12 AM
Quote from: The Ghostbuster on January 09, 2020, 06:20:57 PM
I doubt the area needs any more Interstate designations.

I-69L!!

It's getting I-27 now due to a new bill signed into law by Biden yesterday.
Every day is a winding road, you just got to get used to it.

Sheryl Crowe



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