It’s better to know what’s coming around the bend ahead of time, than not to know, right? The Texas Department of Transportation is telling us that with the expansion of the Panama Canal slated for completion in 2014, TxDOT needs to ensure the state’s transportation system is prepared for the additional freight traffic the development is expected to generate.
To begin planning necessary transportation improvements now, TxDOT is creating the Panama Canal Stakeholder Working Group to facilitate the movement of increased freight through the state. Representatives from the port, agriculture, trucking, manufacturing, government, oil and gas, and rail industries have been invited to participate in of the group.
The bad news here for riders is the “increased freight through the state,” starting in 2014. The good news, we hope, is that this freight will likely not take the back roads that we cherish. But for those who take the superslabs to get to the back-road-rich areas, or those who commute by bike to work, this means more dicing with the semi-tractor trailers. The bottom line is that traffic, which had already been increasing in our urban areas, will get worse, faster than we thought.
There’s more about it here.
