South Padre Island 2nd Causeway

[Plutonic Panda]

Sen. Juan Hinojosa is pushing for a second tolled bridge in South Padre.

MCALLEN, Texas — State Sen. Juan Hinojosa says he is helping with efforts to find the funding for a second causeway for South Padre Island.

Hinojosa is a member of the Senate Committee on Transportation. He met recently with Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño, Jr., and Cameron County Regional Mobility Authority (RMA) Executive Director Pete Sepulveda, Jr., to discuss the project.

"A second causeway is extremely important for South Padre Island and Cameron County and the whole Valley,"  Hinojosa said. "Most of the people that visit South Padre Island are from Hidalgo County. So, we are working on expanding Monte Cristo Road in Hidalgo County all the way to the second causeway."

Cameron County RMA has made a second causeway one of its top projects. Asked how his discussions with Judge Treviño and Chairman Sepulveda went, Hinojosa said:

"I spoke with Chairman Pete Sepulveda and County Judge Trevino last week about what we need to do to make the second causeway a reality. I believe the environmental studies have been completed. There were some issues in terms of whether the RMA and Cameron County could use some of their fees that they generate to be able to part of the causeway, which I think they can. We may have to clarify that this coming (legislative) session."

https://riograndeguardian.com/sen-hinojosa-its-time-to-get-the-funding-for-a-second-spi-causeway/

I'm not too familiar with the area(yet). Will be interested in seeing progression of this.

[rte66man]

Sen. Juan Hinojosa is pushing for a second tolled bridge in South Padre.

MCALLEN, Texas — State Sen. Juan Hinojosa says he is helping with efforts to find the funding for a second causeway for South Padre Island.

Hinojosa is a member of the Senate Committee on Transportation. He met recently with Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño, Jr., and Cameron County Regional Mobility Authority (RMA) Executive Director Pete Sepulveda, Jr., to discuss the project.

"A second causeway is extremely important for South Padre Island and Cameron County and the whole Valley,"  Hinojosa said. "Most of the people that visit South Padre Island are from Hidalgo County. So, we are working on expanding Monte Cristo Road in Hidalgo County all the way to the second causeway."

Cameron County RMA has made a second causeway one of its top projects. Asked how his discussions with Judge Treviño and Chairman Sepulveda went, Hinojosa said:

"I spoke with Chairman Pete Sepulveda and County Judge Trevino last week about what we need to do to make the second causeway a reality. I believe the environmental studies have been completed. There were some issues in terms of whether the RMA and Cameron County could use some of their fees that they generate to be able to part of the causeway, which I think they can. We may have to clarify that this coming (legislative) session."

https://riograndeguardian.com/sen-hinojosa-its-time-to-get-the-funding-for-a-second-spi-causeway/

I'm not too familiar with the area(yet). Will be interested in seeing progression of this.

Doesn't look like TxDOT has gone any father than the above-mentioned environmental study.
https://www.txdot.gov/inside-txdot/projects/studies/pharr/south-padre-access.html
https://www.permits.performance.gov/permitting-projects/south-padre-island-2nd-access

[MaxConcrete]

The second causeway project makes no sense to me when you look at the location and cost. The mainland side of the proposed crossing is only about 3 miles north of the existing bridge, so it won't save much time or distance compared to the existing bridge. The proposed toll bridge location requires an 8 mile bridge, compared to about 2.3 miles of the current bridge. The proposed toll bridge is listed at $385 million, plus another $225 million for the land-side toll road (total $610 million). The online documents suggest there are big challenges with getting environmental clearance.
Info from https://ccrma.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/CCRMA-Project-Status-Report-2017_Final.pdf

It seems far more sensible to expand the existing crossing if more capacity is needed, maybe only the westbound side for evacuation. The  existing causeway opened in September 1974, so it's probably going to need major work before 2050.

I think the promoters of the second bridge are hoping it will promote a lot of real estate development. There's still plenty of vacant land along Route 100 on the Island, and I don't think another bridge will speed up development of that land.

More interesting to me are the comments by Senator Hinojosa in the news article link. He's suggesting that the Senate Transportation Committee is going to be more willing to authorize more toll roads in the next session.