Quicker Route to BIBE?

[SHANEA]

NOTE:  It appears by skimming this article that there is going to be a quicker route to the BIBE area from the I-20 corridor.

http://www.mywesttexas.com/site/printerFriendly.cfm?brd=2288&dept_id=475626&newsid=17543610

12/03/2006
Topolobampo not sure La Entrada port  
Bob Campbell<br>Staff Writer
Midland Reporter-Telegram  

The Mexican Pacific seaport of Topolobampo is usually mentioned in connection to La Entrada al Pacifico trade corridor, but that is still to be decided by coastal competition for development money from the government of new President Felipe Calderon.
 
Similar ports to the south at Mazatlan and Manzanillo are also in the running, according to Midland-Odessa Transportation Alliance leaders.

In the short term, construction is about to get started on a 16 1/2-mile reliever route north and northwest of Midland to connect Interstate 20 and State Highway 349 to speed truck traffic between Ciudad Chihuahua and Lubbock.
MOTRAN President James Beauchamp said which port is designated "will depend on how folks on the coast lobby for the project.

"The ports at Mazatlan and Manzanillo are a little bigger and better developed, but folks in the state of Sinaloa working with the new administration make a case for Topolobampo," he said. "It's got to be dredged 4-5 feet, but that's nothing in the world of dredging."

The hubbub is about spending $20-$30 million to upgrade a port for big metal containers like those unloaded in Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calif., but Topolobampo already off-loads a lot of grain and Pemex-Cemex products and could process U.S. bulk shipments of lumber, chemicals and other products now, Beauchamp said.

Pemex and Cemex are Mexico's national oil and gas and cement companies.

"It wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing if it never became a containerized port," he said. "They could handle oilfield equipment and heavy machinery."

Noting the states of Sinaloa and Chihuahua still must accomplish road and rail improvements through Copper Canyon north of Topolobampo, Beauchamp said Texas Pacifico's South Orient line from Presidio to Brownwood needs a $70-$80 million revamping. The Mexican rail company moved several shipments of granite flakes south across the border from Dallas last summer, but it cost $15,000 a trip and the train could only go 10 mph, he said.

Drew Crutcher of Odessa, MOTRAN's immediate past president, said better coordinated operating hours at the Ojinaga-Presidio crossing and increased trade with Fortune 500 companies in Ciudad Chiuhuahua are also important.

"We need to build more road in the McCamey area and the loop around Lamesa, but the latest word we have from TxDOT is they will start the first phase of the reliever route in the spring," Crutcher said.

"Contracts for the second phase, the south portion of it, should be let within six months after that. The reliever route is a key piece for us because we'll be able to run from Lubbock all the way down to Ojinaga."

He said another benefit will be taking trucks off Loop 250 with the route north from I-20 on Farm-to-Market 1788 to the reliever route.

The $36 million project's first phase will be over 11.5 miles of uncut land from Highway 158 to the existing 349 (Lamesa Highway) four miles north of Midland.

Then the final five miles of the two-lane road will be laid from 158 west to County Road 60 and 1788 just north of Highway 191.

TxDOT engineer Ajay Shakyaver said last April that more than 40 underground utilities have to be relocated or buried deeper "because some big pipes carrying petroleum products are fairly shallow" along the route.

Crutcher said new MOTRAN President Steve Castle of Midland will be accompanied by Past President Robin Donnelly and Beauchamp on Monday to TxDOT's annual meetings in Washington with federal transportation officials.
 
©MyWestTexas.com 2006