Plans for a major trade route that would cut through Amarillo, Texas, on its way from Mexico to Canada took an important step forward late last week as the U.S. House approved a bill to define the path
of the Ports-to-Plains Corridor.
While the trade corridor's route through most of Texas already had been specified, this bill defined the corridor's path along hundreds of miles of highway north of Amarillo, from Dumas through Oklahoma, New Mexico and Colorado.
The northern route of the four-lane trucking corridor, which planners expect to finish building within 10 to 15 years, will be determined in future years.
Proponents of the bill, which the Senate passed in June and now awaits President Bush's signature, said it would help lawmakers secure additional federal and state funding for the massive project.
The unanimous vote in the House last week was "an important step in the Ports-to-Plains Corridor becoming a reality," said Republican Rep. Larry Combest of Lubbock, Texas.
Kevin Evans, president of the Lubbock-based Ports-to-Plains Trade Corridor Coalition, said that by defining more of the highway route, the vote laid the groundwork for continued construction work on the corridor.
"This adds a really big chunk of our road to Canada," Evans said. "It's the difference between being able to complete the network and just being part of a network. Now the road is going somewhere."
Congress established the southern portion of the trucking corridor route in previous years. It will originate at the U.S.-Mexico border in Laredo. From there, it will travel north along various existing highways in Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado and New Mexico on its way to Canada. In Lubbock, it will connect with Interstate 27, which runs through Amarillo.
The Ports-to-Plains corridor is expected to become the second lucrative trade route intersecting Amarillo. Interstate 40, which cuts through Amarillo on its way from North Carolina to Los Angeles, is already one of the nation's busiest east-west trade corridors.