Which new/future interstate is most likely to be done and completed first?

[TheBox]

Among the polls listed, I predict US-290 from Houston to Austin.

I would like to add a project worth considering.  Instead of I-69W from Victoria to Laredo, I'd like to see an interstate highway from Corpus Christi to Laredo running along or parallel to TX-44 from Corpus Christi to Freer and then US-59 from there to Laredo.  Already at IH-standards from Corpus Christi to approaching Robstown (including bypassing around Clarkwood), it's still mostly a four-lane divided highway from there to San Diego (TX).  Bypasses around Robstown, Agua Dulce, Alice/San Diego, and Freer would be needed, and would need an overpass or two through Banquete.  This highway has been talked about since the late 1990's among locals along the way.  Getting around Robstown and Alice would be a great time-saver.  Driving through Alice can sometimes take over a quarter-hour on TX-44 for only a five-mile stretch.

Isn't/wasn't that part of the I-69 system with potentially the speculated interstate designation I-6?

[Bobby5280]

Yeah, the maps drawn up by groups such as the Alliance for I-69 do show a "leg" of the I-69 system running from Freer thru Alice and to Robstown. The Interstate would patch into the new freeway being built between Robstown and Corpus Christi.

I don't know about the "I-6" designation since the route would be relatively short and it would be yet another Texas intra-state. On the other hand, there isn't anywhere else in the contiguous 48 states where an I-6 route could be built. At any rate, it could be a long time before the Freer-Corpus Christi freeway gets built, even though there are legit arguments for it. Laredo is the busiest in-land port of entry in the US and Corpus Christi is a significant Gulf port city. An Interstate linking the two would help move commerce better. Plus Laredo is a pretty good sized city now and Corpus Christi isn't all that small either.

If they did use I-6 for that route I'd hope they would leave room for extending it over the new bridge and Corpus Christi Bay and then farther East. They could extend it along TX-35 by Aransas Pass and Rockport. A tunnel-bridge combo could get the road across Copano Bay. The point is the TX-35 corridor could be developed to serve port towns like Port Lavaca as well as work as another alternative route for hurricane evacuation.

[sprjus4]

If they did use I-6 for that route I'd hope they would leave room for extending it over the new bridge and Corpus Christi Bay and then farther East. They could extend it along TX-35 by Aransas Pass and Rockport. A tunnel-bridge combo could get the road across Copano Bay. The point is the TX-35 corridor could be developed to serve port towns like Port Lavaca as well as work as another alternative route for hurricane evacuation.

This is definitely far fictional, and is not necessary at all. US-59 / US-77 handles the traffic more than adequately and is to be upgraded into the mainline of I-69.

Building a parallel freeway plus a multi-billion dollar bridge-tunnel is fantasy land.

[jgb191]

Among the polls listed, I predict US-290 from Houston to Austin.

I would like to add a project worth considering.  Instead of I-69W from Victoria to Laredo, I'd like to see an interstate highway from Corpus Christi to Laredo running along or parallel to TX-44 from Corpus Christi to Freer and then US-59 from there to Laredo.  Already at IH-standards from Corpus Christi to approaching Robstown (including bypassing around Clarkwood), it's still mostly a four-lane divided highway from there to San Diego (TX).  Bypasses around Robstown, Agua Dulce, Alice/San Diego, and Freer would be needed, and would need an overpass or two through Banquete.  This highway has been talked about since the late 1990's among locals along the way.  Getting around Robstown and Alice would be a great time-saver.  Driving through Alice can sometimes take over a quarter-hour on TX-44 for only a five-mile stretch.

Isn't/wasn't that part of the I-69 system with potentially the speculated interstate designation I-6?

I would have called it I-4 because it hovers similar latitudes as I-4 across the Florida peninsula.  But I don't remember it being apart of the I-69 corridor.

[The Ghostbuster]

IMHO, the Interstate 69W corridor should have gotten the Interstate 6 designation, with 69C being a 3di of either Interstate 2 or Interstate 37. 69E should have been the mainline 69 corridor.

[jgb191]

If memory from my childhood and teenage years serves me best:  from all the local news and city/county newspapers, I have heard that I-37 was originally going to be extended from Calallen to Brownsville, and the Calallen to the C.C. Bay segment a part of the Corpus Christi to Laredo interstate back around 1990 or so.  Then early 1990s, the need for Houston to Brownsville segment arose and then plans adjusted to upgrade US-59 from Houston to Victoria, and US-77 from Victoria to Brownsville as one interstate highway, then late 1990s that segment was then to be included in the I-69 extension from Indiana to Mexico.  In fact until a decade ago, Brownsville had been the control city for direction and mileage on US-77 out of Victoria until it changed to Corpus Christi only several years ago.

Also sometime during 1990s, a proposed split just south of Kingsville would branch into two interstates, one to Brownsville (keeping on US-77) and the other to McAllen by building a new highway to just north of Falfurrias (maybe around Premont), and then getting on US-281.  Then I heard of another proposition to upgrade the length of US-281 from I-37 at Three Rivers.