President Bush has signed legislation designating the Ports-to-Plains commercial corridor, an effort to create a four-lane highway route through Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Colorado,
according to the Associated Press.
Four years ago, Congress determined that the route was a high priority to accommodate a potential increase in traffic as a result of the North American Free Trade Agreement. But it left it to the states to identify the route. The route designation, which Bush signed last week, should aid state officials in getting federal funding to develop the highways.
The legislation, sponsored by Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., identifies two routes for the Ports-to-Plains corridor, since one favored route would have excluded New Mexico and the other would have left out Oklahoma.
The agreed-upon trade route would enter the country in Laredo, Texas, and run to Dumas, Texas. At Dumas it will split with the main branch going through the Oklahoma Panhandle to Denver and another spur running to Raton, N.M.