PERMIAN BASIN (KMID/KPEJ) – Last week, the U.S. Senate gave the Ports-to-Plains Corridor the name of Interstate 27.
The bill designates the route running through Midland and Big Spring, which local officials say is a big move for the Interstate’s future.
“We sat down with the Cruz office and had several discussions with them as well as some of our other federal officials and what we said was look, about 60% of all economic impact of this route, the population, and otherwise is all tied back to Midland and Odessa. It makes sense for that primary route to come through here, so what they instead did was designate I-27 West through here, so I-27 East going through Big Spring and I-27 West coming through Midland and Odessa, and so that makes it a lot more sense to keep it a primary route opposed to an ancilary route,” said James Beauchamp, the Midland/Odessa Transportation Alliance President.
The route will be divided into three sections:
- One from Laredo near Sonora
- From Sonora to Abernathy
- And from Abernathy to Dumas
MOTRAN says our area would account for around 34% of all the population along the Interstate, with Midland/Odessa accounting for 26% of all the GDP in the area, and 30% of all state-wide freight in Texas.
“I don’t think that I-27 works without Midland and Odessa. It connects via an interstate ultimately, Midland and Odessa, to probably about 85-90% of our state’s population, the workforce, and the economic engine from a GDP Perspective. Having those strong connections not just one of them, but all of them, together, is really critical to us,” continued Beauchamp.
The Interstate is still far from becoming reality, as there is currently no date for the beginning or completion of construction.
