By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
The city’s consultant on a proposed second international bridge presented an update on the company’s work during Tuesday’s meeting of the international bridge board.
Michael Riojas, an engineer with RRP Consulting Engineers, gave the update on the international bridge project, joining the meeting via video teleconference.
Riojas told members of the bridge board, which is chaired by Mayor Al Arreola, the consulting engineers are still working to finalize a route linking the site of the proposed second bridge with U.S. Highway 90 and said the company would like to gather more positive written comments about the project.
“I know several of you have been involved in the development of the second international bridge, but I’m going to go through a little bit of background and then go through where we are on the second bridge,” Riojas told the board.
He said the project – formally titled the Acuña II-Del Rio International Bridge – “consists of building a new international bridge over the Rio Grande jointly with the city of Ciudad Acuña, Coahuila, and the city of Del Rio, Texas, to streamline cargo transportation traffic in both directions.”
“The new bridge connects directly to the Ports-to-Plains routes and future I(nterstate)- 27,” Riojas said.
He noted the new international bridge’s primary purpose will be to move cargo and commercial traffic over the Rio Grande. He said the new bridge will allow commercial traffic to be routed from the existing international bridge, which will enhance community safety by moving heavy truck traffic away from the two cities’ population centers, as well as decreasing pollution by “increasing efficiency and reducing wait times.”
Riojas said the new bridge will also enhance safety by allowing the eventual closure of the border crossing atop Amistad Dam.
“Our primary feasibility analysis started with the analysis of three different locations (for the site of the proposed new bridge), one upstream (of the existing bridge), one at the existing bridge and one downstream. After that analysis, we selected the location, as far as the bridge crossing, and this was done back in 2014,” Riojas said.
“Most significantly, we got an agreement on the bridge location. This agreement was signed by the city of Del Rio, Val Verde County, the state of Coahuila and the city of Acuña,” he added.
Riojas said Phase II of the feasibility study for the proposed second bridge identified two possible corridors to route traffic from the new bridge to U.S. Highway 90.
He said the study, completed in 2017, identified two preferred “alignments,” routes connecting the proposed second bridge to U.S. 90.
In 2022, Riojas said, the city and RRP began working on the application to obtain a presidential permit to construct the second bridge. The process began with an extensive environmental, archeological and cultural review of the area that would be impacted by the construction of the bridge and the routes leading to and from the site.
Riojas said the city and RRP hosted a public meeting in November 2022 at which the two proposed routes were unveiled.
“We had several public comments from that first meeting. We went back and looked at alternatives, refined the routes, meeting with property owners and listening to what some of the objections were, so basically instead of tying into Las Brisas and following Loop 79, we took a (new) route and tied it to U.S. 90 and from that public meeting, we had additional opposition on that as well,” Riojas said.
He said actual ground surveys are on hold until the city’s consultants “get the proposed route completed.”
“Our next steps: have an additional public meeting. Go back and present all the refinements on our routes and have a final public meeting. We went back and we looked at where we’re tying in. . . so we have that going on. We continue our coordination with our agencies, with TxDOT, with the State Department and all the regulatory agencies and the highway administration. We will continue our coordination with Mexican officials. . .including a meeting Friday to make this presentation to the Secretary of Infrastructure for the state of Coahuila and others. We are continuing our presentations to the Binational Bridges and Border Crossings Group, whose next meeting is March 13 in Mexico City,” Riojas said.
He said RRP will continue working on the environmental document and once that is completed, RRP will host a public hearing to present it. Once that public hearing is done, the application for the presidential permit will be submitted.
“At the public meetings, we’ve heard a lot of opposition (to the project) from local neighborhood people, but we haven’t received a lot of positive support, written comments of positive support for the project. We can still get those. One of the things is that by moving commercial traffic out of the downtown area, we’re increasing safety, so we really need to hear from the community that are seeing that (current) truck traffic. Moving that truck traffic would have a positive impact, and we need to hear from those people on that and give us their comments,” Riojas said.
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