Few projects can do more to help secure a brighter future for West Texas than to extend Interstate 27 in both directions. The move would further connect the region, its products and its people to the rest of the country while enhancing its economic vitality.
Two champions of this bipartisan vision remain U.S. Reps. Jodey Arrington, R-Lubbock, and Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo. The two, along with other lawmakers, filed the Ports-to-Plains Highway Act of 2021, an updated version of legislation filed almost a year ago.
Both versions have the same end in mind: procuring federal designation for a north-south Interstate 27 corridor that would ultimately stretch from the nation’s southern border with Mexico all the way to the northern border with Canada, providing the opportunity for widespread commercial development along the route, according to a news release regarding the announcement.
Expanding the route, which has been a regional priority for the past two decades, would bring other benefits as well. It would relieve congestion on other north-south interstate corridors such as I-35 to the east and I-25 to the west. As the state’s population continues to grow, the number of vehicles of the state’s roadways also will grow, adding to the urgent need for another north-south Texas interstate corridor.
Expanding I-27 has also been on the radar of state officials with Gov. Greg Abbott directing the Texas Department of Transportation to study the feasibility of extending the highway from the northern Panhandle to Laredo.
The best way to bring this long-sought initiative to life is to designate it a federal highway. It is the means by which the project becomes a priority and gains additional weight. According to Arrington, this is the next step in the Ports-to-Plains interstate system, which would extend the approximate 120 miles of I-27 south from Lubbock to Laredo and north from Amarillo to the Canadian border.
“Establishing a four-lane, federal highway from West Texas through the Heartland is critical to enhancing America’s agriculture and energy dominance,” Arrington said in our story. “This investment in rural America will strengthen the supply from the largest agricultural and energy production centers to the rest of the country.”
It is impossible to overestimate the importance of West Texas producers who bring to market food, fuel and fiber from the oil production areas across the Permian Basin to the sprawling cotton patch of the South Plains to the cattle industry of Amarillo and the Panhandle.
According to projections, the expansion would increase the state’s Gross Domestic Product by $55.6 billion in its first 20 years. Likewise, other estimates suggest the project would add as many as 17,000 new construction jobs and save some half billion dollars in safety improvements because of an expected 20 percent decrease in accident rates.
“A future interstate designation along the Ports-to-Plains Corridor is catalytic for the future of trade in the United States,” John Osborne, chairman of the Ports-to-Plains Alliance, said in our story. “Not only will we increase the efficiency of transporting imports and exports to our primary trading partners but this project offers tremendous safety benefits for travelers."
This is a project that will take time and concerted effort, but it is also one that has the potential to be transformative for all of West Texas.