City Council hears update on Ports to Plains Alliance before December 9, 2024 meeting

Prior to the regular Lamar City Council meeting on December 9, 2024, a presentation was made by Lauren Garduno concerning the Ports to Plains Transportation Alliance.  Mr. Garduno is President and CEO of the organization and is based out of Abilene, Texas.  The Alliance is led by mayors, council persons and other local elected leaders, economic development officials and businesses from Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Nebraska, and Wyoming.  The Ports to Plains Alliance is based in Lubbock, Texas and is a non-profit organization organized in 1998 with the purpose of promoting and improving the transportation corridor from Laredo, Texas, to Denver, Colorado.  About 14 years ago, a partnership was formed with two additional corridors, the Heartland Expressway and the Theodore Roosevelt Expressway.  Together, the 3 corridors make up a 2,300-plus mile economic development corridor linking 9 U.S. states to Canada and Mexico.  The Alliance has over 200 members currently.

Mr. Garduno explained that the Ports to Plains Alliance is working towards a 4-lane divided highway along the entire proposed route from Laredo to Canada.  The purpose of the project is to “open the Midwest” and make it safer and more effective for our commerce and products to move up and down this corridor.  It was spurred by the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), whose goal was to promote trade between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.  NAFTA lifted tariffs on most goods produced by the 3 nations.

According to Mr. Garduno, the volume of trade along the corridors is continually growing, necessitating expanded infrastructure to accommodate this.  Projected numbers show that by 2050, traffic along the corridor will more than double.  Mexico is the United States’ largest trade partner and we share similar commodities and goods with them.  Twelve of the nation’s top 20 feedlots sit along this corridor, he said, so the cattle industry is very well served by the corridor.  Laredo is currently the largest port in the nation in terms of dollar amount and freight and the area is currently trying to add more highway lanes and capacity there to accommodate the traffic. Garduno went on to say that 46% of cattle on inventory in the United States are transported via the Ports to Plains corridor, so its importance can’t be understated.  Also, 40% of the nation’s cotton is grown in the panhandle of Texas, also along the corridor. The three largest oil reserves in the U.S. reside along the corridor, in Texas, North Dakota and New Mexico.

As our country tries to depend less and less on China, the need for improvement to the corridor becomes even more urgent and important.  Prior truck mobility and environmental studies done in Lamar showed the need for a solution.  The planned “reliever route” east of town that would direct trucks around the downtown area, has been stalled for years due to a lack of transportation funding, which relied on Federal and state gas taxes.  Garduno said that while CDOT did improve Main Street which has helped, they “changed direction” in Colorado and have little interest in Lamar’s reliever route project.  He said that New Mexico “got creative” in their funding and were able to spend $135 million on improving 4-lane divided highways between Clayton and Raton.  Texas ran out of funding as well, but have utilized a “Super Two” highway design, which is a 2-lane highway with wide lanes with alternating passing lanes.  He said Oklahoma has had little progress with their project, although Federal money paid for a reliever route in Boise City to help with traffic there.  The long-term goal is to have the entire corridor designated as I-27, parts of which already exists in Texas and would merge with U.S. Highway 287 through our area.

Mr. Garduno then took questions from Council.  Mayor Kirk Crespin told Garduno that in his talks with CDOT, he felt that they hadn’t heard much about Ports to Plains in the 15 years he’s been involved with city leadership.  He said that his opinion was that CDOT was more concerned about the I-25 corridor and the front range and has little interest in a future interstate and wondered how their focus could be shifted east. He said he felt there was “little momentum” going forward.  Garduno replied that until there is a new director for CDOT, there won’t be much progress.  He said Texas has gotten more aggressive with political lobbying and that the Ports to Plains Alliance is trying to do the same in Colorado.  Crespin then said (concerning the need for the reliever route) “We can see the commercial traffic and we know it’s important and that if we can build it out it would mean huge dollars for southeast Colorado.  It’s not an issue of no interest”.  He asked what the city could do to help, whether it is signing a resolution, writing letters to State Representatives and the Federal government.  He said that if those people aren’t aware of the Ports to Plains project, he felt letters would be ineffective.

Councilman Brent Bates agreed with what Mayor Crespin said, adding that he would like to hear feedback from towns who have had truck traffic diverted around their downtown areas.  He said “We know we need the reliever route as we see what’s happening on Main Street but what happens to all of our businesses and new businesses over the past 10 years if traffic goes around us?”  He said he wants more information from other “relief route communities” to see what they think the benefits have been versus what they thought they’d be getting.  He gave Garduno his email address and asked that that information be sent to him.  Mr. Garduno assured him that he would do that for him and then thanked Council for listening to his presentation and that he would keep them informed of progress as it happens.

By Barbara Crimond