Feasibility study approval brings I-27 extension a step closer to reality

Big Spring is one step closer to adding another interstate highway to its collection.

Although the decision isn’t yet set in stone, Gov. Greg Abbott signed House Bill 1079 Monday, giving the Texas Department of Transportation the go-ahead to conduct a study on the potential extended route of Interstate 27, which currently connects Amarillo and Lubbock. The idea behind the bill is to study the feasibility of extending the route northward to Texas’ border with Oklahoma near the town of Stratford, Texas; and southward all the way to the West Texas border town of Laredo, providing infrastructure for enhanced trade with Mexico. The TXDoT study will “... evaluate the feasibility of, and the costs and logistical matters associated with, improvements that create a four-lane divided highway which meets interstate highway standards to the extent possible” according to a press release issued by the Ports-To-Plains Alliance, which, according to their website, is “...a grassroots alliance of communities and businesses whose mission is to advocate for a robust international transportation infrastructure to promote economic security and prosperity throughout North America’s energy and agricultural heartland including Mexico to Canada.”

Newly-elected Big Spring Councilwoman Gloria McDonald, who is also a Ports-To-Plains Alliance board member, said I-27 could bring great economic benefits to Big Spring.

“The biggest impact that an interstate

can do for Big Spring is, it gives us a crossing of interstates. It would be 27 and 20. We would be the sixth city in the state of Texas to have two interstates that cross. Industries look for that kind of transportation relief. They will go to even a smaller city if there’s four ways out without congestion.”

If Big Spring did attain that distinction, our hometown would be in elite company among Texas cities; other cities in the state with the distinction of crossing interstates include Amarillo (I-40, also a terminus of I-27), Houston (I-10 and I-45), San Antonio (I-10 and I-35, also a terminus of I-37), Dallas (I-20, I-30 and East I-35), and Fort Worth (I-20, I-35, also a terminus of I-30). Interstate 10 also meets the terminus of Interstate 20 in deep West Texas, but the junction isn’t in a populated area; the nearest town is Kent, Texas, about six miles to the west.

Although the Interstate Highway system is a federal program, McDonald said the feds often bow to the more local wisdom of the State when it comes to routing Interstates.

“The federal will follow the state,” she said. “The federal will do nothing without state approval. I can go to (19th Congressional District Representative) Jodey Arrington, and he can go to his boys all day long, and they’ll say ‘Yeah, that’s great!’ but if the State doesn’t support it, they’re not going to fight for us. But if the State is for it and if all the state government...which they have, the Legislature, being the Senate and the House, have passed it, the governor has signed it. Which means, it’s a ‘go’ to do the study.”

Gloria said the study should take about two years to complete.

“The study, I thought, would be 5 to 10 years,” she said. “That’s a lot of miles from Stratford, Texas, to Laredo, Texas, to do a study...through every town, to see about what houses they have to buy, how many stores they have to close, to build a highway. But they’re supposed to have a report in 2021, which is huge. For this kind of thing, that’s fast.”

Big Spring is already nearly set to host an Interstate Highway along the route of what is currently U.S. Highway 87.

“I always tell people it’s built to Interstate standards. That’s true and it’s not true,” McDonald said. “The roadbed and the width is built to Interstate standards. They did that in the beginning anticipating this. What they would have to do is go back and put some exits and entrances. That would be the only repair.”

McDonald said the added entrances and exits connected to the planned Interstate would lead to big expansion on the west and north sides of town.

“Our Airpark would explode,” she said.

Contact Staff Writer Roger Cline at 432-263-7331 ext. 235, or by email at reporter@bigspringherald. com.