Free Republic

U.S. Highway 281 Presentation >> Priority 1: Spend $75 million to build five overpasses in Falfurrias.>> Priority 2: A $13 million Ben Bolt overpass at Farm-to-Market Road 2508 is proposed to create a safer school zone and eliminate another traffic barrier.>> Priority 3: Dedicate anywhere from $40 million to $104 million to build tolled relief route around Premont or upgrade the existing route with tolled freeway lanes.>> Priority 4: A $50 million project in George West to build connectors to U.S. Highway 59 and Interstate 37.McALLEN -- Whether the route is eventually called Interstate 69 or the Trans-Texas Corridor, four...

Ideas for Trans-Texas Corridor-69 are slowly but surely rolling right along. The concept, which was known as Interstate Highway 69 until 2002, has been around for more than a decade, but Gaby Garcia, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Transportation's turnpike division, said it's getting closer to becoming a reality. "What we're looking at now is taking all the comments we've received and identifying a narrowed study area," Garcia said. "That's where we get a specific area where people can say, 'How would this affect my property?' " Right now, she said, the projected path for the corridor cuts a...

ALICE — The rich tradition of election hanky-panky is alive and well in South Texas, according to Eric Opiela, who, with his recent loss in a state representative race, counts himself as its latest victim. But to those who oversee elections here, the ghosts of the legendary "Duke of Duval" George Parr and the crooked politics of years past have been exorcised. Opiela, a Republican lawyer from Karnes City, lost the District 35 race on Nov. 2 to Yvonne Gonzalez-Toureilles of Alice by about 835 votes out of more than 45,000 cast. Although he carried five of the district's seven...