Brownsville city manager discusses transportation issues

BROWNSVILLE, Texas - Brownsville City Manager Helen Ramirez has explained how her city is working on a regional to improve transportation ahead of major developments at the Port of Brownsville and the growth of SpaceX at Bob Chica.The biggest development at the port is construction of a liquefied natural gas export terminal by NextDecade. At the height of construction it is expected that 5,000 workers will be on site. The Rio Grande Guardian International News Service pitched this question to Ramirez:There was a discussion about the city setting up a committee to look at how you transport 5,000 workers into the Port of Brownsville in a year’s time for construction of the LNG export facility. How are your preparations going for handling traffic concerns as the LNG project ramps up?Ramirez responded:“What I would say is that the City of Brownsville is bringing different players into that discussion because it's not only the city, right? It's Cameron County, it’s the county RMA, it’s TxDOT, it’s the RGVMPO, it’s NextDecade. It's also SpaceX because SpaceX has over 2,000 workers. So what we're doing is collaborating. There's a subcommittee on transportation that NextDecade has created. But, we're even creating a subset of that. Like, what what are we all doing, right? Because what NextDecade did was put $12 million worth of donations for improvements. See, here you have a company that knows that their impact on the community (is great), and (so they) donated $12 million in improvements for their employees. “But it goes beyond the ingress and egress to that facility. What about the traffic synchronization. I'm going to tell you a story. Many SpaceX employees live in Brownsville, and we would get complaints saying, why isn't Boca Chica (Boulevard) synchronized. Well that takes a million dollars. And we did it. We have accomplishment it and if you go through Boca Chica it is synchronized and it has a great traffic flow. But what I would say is between traffic synchronization, new roads, road improvements, those are conversations on a regional level that we're having. So that's important. We have to continue the conversation, and everyone, even NextDecade, realizes they have to put in their fair share for improved roadways.” Here is an audio recording of the interview.Go to www.riograndeguardian.com to read the latest border news stories and watch the latest news videos.