NEWS — City’s bridge consultants present new route at public meeting

By Karen Gleason

The 830 Times

The city’s consultants on a proposed second international bridge presented a fourth alternative route between the planned bridge and a major area highway during a public meeting at the Del Rio Civic Center on Wednesday.

Slightly more than 100 people attended the meeting, which began

at 5:30 p.m. in the Red Oak Ballroom at the civic center. The public meeting was hosted by RRP Consulting Engineers, a San Antonio firm hired by the city to work towards plans for a second international bridge connecting Del Rio and Ciudad Acuña, Coah., Mexico.

Also attending the meeting were city elected leaders, including Mayor Al Arreola, Councilman J.P. Sanchez, Councilwoman Ernestina “Tina” Martinez and Councilman Randy Quiñones, as well as city staff, including City Manager Shawna Burkhart and Assistant City Manager Manuel Chavez.

Michael Riojas, RRP Consulting Engineers’ project manager, welcomed those attending and said the project would “promote economic growth and development in Del Rio by providing an alternate international bridge crossing to avoid traffic congestion downtown and to provide connectivity to the Ports-to-Plains corridor.”

“The whole intent of a second international bridge is to move commercial traffic from the existing bridge over to the new bridge. By having a new bridge, a newer facility, the latest technologies, we will be able to reduce traffic congestion and increase traffic mobility,” Riojas said.

As he has in past meetings, Riojas reviewed the history of the project, which started with a 2014 feasibility study begun that looked at six possible crossings over the Rio Grande as potential sites for the new bridge.

“We pared it down to three crossings; basically, one upstream of the existing bridge, about halfway between Amistad Dam and the existing bridge. (The site) was outside Mexico’s ecological conservation zone, it had low banks on both sides of the river, providing for a shorter bridge than the other sites and had the lowest cost associated with engineering and construction,” Riojas said.

He said the second location was the existing international bridge,

and that project would have included widening the existing structure, but added this would not have met the objectives of the project, which were to remove commercial traffic from the downtown areas of both Del Rio and Ciudad Acuña.

Riojas said the third location considered was about four-and-a-half miles downstream of the existing bridge.

“But the terrain there is covered with ravines and gorges, and basically, there was no suitable place to have a port of entry or port facilities, and then also it was in the ecological conservation zone in Mexico and in a critical habitat area on the U.S. side of the Rio Grande,” Riojas said.

The upstream location was eventually selected and agreed on as the prospective site for the second bridge, he said.

Riojas said engineers then began looking at routes from the proposed bridge site to U.S. Highway 90 northwest of Del Rio. He noted those routes were unveiled in a public meeting in November 2022.

“Because of the public comments we had (with one of the routes), coming along Las Brisas (Boulevard), we came back and looked at a third alternative route, which tied in at Agua Dulce Road in that area,” Riojas said.

Public comments gathered during a second public meeting led to the development of a fourth connector route, he said.

He said the new route would join U.S. Highway 90 across from Lorina’s Cantina.

Riojas said the engineers have to follow “the NEPA process” in preparing to apply for a presidential permit for the bridge.

He then turned the microphone over to Joseph “Jake” Cortez, an environmental scientist with RRP Consulting Engineers, who discussed “the environmental process and review that goes on with the project.”

He said RRP began the environmental review by defining the area to be studied.

“Within that study area, the potential constraints for the development of the project are identified. These constraints may include factors related to the human environment, such as schools, churches and community facilities; natural resource areas such as floodplains, wetlands, habitats; physical constraints which include terrain and existing structures and also includes cultural resources which may include archeological sites and historical buildings,” Cortez said.

“The National Environmental Policy Act, otherwise known as NEPA, mandates that projects receiving federal funding requiring federal approvals or permits undergo the review process to assess impacts on both the human and the natural environment. (This) project will require federal approval and/or federal permits before its construction can begin,” he added.

Cortez said any impacts to the human and natural environments will be documented in the environmental assessment document.

“Environmental studies will examine various subjects, including air quality, community impacts, environmental justice, hazardous materials, threatened and endangered species, traffic noise, vegetation and habitats, waters and wetlands, among others,” he said.

He went over a preliminary timeline for the environmental review process.

“Our goal for this project is to begin construction around 2028; however, the schedule is still subject to change,” Cortez said.

Riojas then returned to the microphone and told the audience that public comments had to be gathered on all of the routes being proposed.

“The new route. . . is a new location, so we had to have this public meeting to get comments on that as well. We’ll then be assembling all of the public comments and coming back with a preferred alternative (route),” Riojas said.

He said once the environmental document and schematics for the preferred route are completed, the engineers will schedule a public hearing, an official proceeding during which anyone attending would be invited to speak for or against the route presented.

If the environmental document results in a “finding of no significant impact,” also known as a FONSI, the city and RRP will apply for a presidential permit for the project, he said.

“We want to get the presidential permit done in 2025, and after we get the presidential permit, we want to get the funding in place so we can start securing rights-of-way, and we can start the design process,” Riojas said.

He said the whole point of Wednesday’s meeting was to show the fourth route and solicit written public comments on it.

Riojas directed anyone who wished to comment to fill out a comment card, adding RRP staff members were present to assist anyone who needed help in doing so.

Riojas thanked those who attended and said he and Cortez and other members of the RRP team would be available following the formal presentation to answer questions from individual audience members. 

The writer cn be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com.