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What is the future of the ports to plains corridor
The Ports-To-Plains Corridor is an existing highway corridor between the United States Mexico border at Laredo, Texas and Denver, Colorado. The reason for proposed improvements to this corridor is to expedite the transportation of goods and services from Mexico in the United States and vice versa. The Ports-To-Plains Corridor starts in South Texas and traverses through Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and ends in Colorado.
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The Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 made the Ports-to-Plains Corridor a National Highway System "High-priority corridor" known as Corridor 38. The High-priority designation, which applies to 80 routes or groups of routes nationally, does not create any additional design requirements and does not have a separate Federal funding source.
Present status
As of June 2008, the Ports-to-Plains Corridor starts as a Six-lane Interstate in Laredo, Texas. North of Laredo, the route takes the Texas portion of United States Highway 83, a two-lane highway, until Carrizo Springs, Texas. Out of Carizzo Springs, the route follows United States Highway 277 through Eagle Pass, Del Rio, Sonora, and San Angelo, Texas. North of San Angelo, the route follows United States Highway 87, a four-lane highway, through Big Spring and Lamesa and finally to Lubbock (An alternate route passes through Midland and Odessa instead of Big Spring.)
North of Lubbock, the route follows Interstate 27 to Amarillo. North of Amarillo, the route is again marked as U.S. 87 and returns to 4-lane highway. At Dumas, Texas, a spur of the route extends northwest to Raton, New Mexico, alternating between 2 and 4 lane state highways.
Continuing north from Dumas, Texas, the main route continues at U.S. 87, until north of the city of Stratford, Texas. At the Oklahoma/Texas border, the route changes to United States Highway 287. It passes through Boise City, Oklahoma, in the western panhandle.
Continuing north, the route follows U.S. 287 through Springfield, Lamar, and Kit Carson. North of Kit Carson, the route follows US 40 to Limon, Colorado, where it joins Interstate 70 for the final leg into Denver, Colorado.
The cities of Laredo, Eagle Pass, and Del Rio are each located on the U.S./Mexico Border and are gateways to trade between the two countries.
Future construction
Plans for future construction are not listed on the Corridor organization's website at this time.