Presentations on Brownsville-South Padre Island Airport expansion, the Second Causeway project, and the Master Thoroughfare Plan highlighted the SPI City Council meeting of Wednesday, May 16.
Council heard an update on the Second Causeway presented by Cameron County Regional Mobility Authority (CCRMA) Executive Director Pete Sepulveda. He stated that since his last visit before City Council back in October, they have done some changes at the staff level to try and complete the final phase involving the environmental documents.
Reviewing the history of the project, Sepulveda explained that the CCRMA took over the project about eight years ago from TxDOT. “Originally TxDOT, the Texas Department of Transportation, was developing the project, and then they got to a standstill and advised the County Judge at that time that they would no longer develop the project,” he said. “The only caveat was that we would have to get a loan from TxDOT in order to develop the environmental traits of the document.”
Sepulveda emphasized that they have submitted a draft environmental impact statement and have revised it once to address comments from the Federal agencies reviewing the document. “After I was here the last time, we made a recommendation to the Board. We felt that we needed to change the direction that we were going in with the consultant we had at that time,” he announced, adding that a new firm was selected to help close out this phase of the project.
By KEVIN RICH