La Joya bypass offers economic promise for western Hidalgo County

PEÑITAS — The incorporation of Peñitas in 1992 ensured progress wouldn’t pass the community by, the city’s first mayor said at the time.

Nearly two decades later, the luminous decision seems at its brightest point yet. Peñitas tripled in size in the past decade, making it Hidalgo County’s fastest-growing city. Wal-Mart and other new retailers have helped Peñitas set a record for sales tax collections the past two years with the city on pace to do it again this year.

And a long-awaited highway project conceived when Peñitas was still in its infancy has Efren Garza, a former mayor and city administrator, more optimistic than ever about the city’s future.

The La Joya bypass’ first phase is scheduled for construction by 2014 after transportation officials agreed on a plan to finance its $81 million cost. The proposed relief route offers drivers an option to bypass the stop-and-go traffic on western Hidalgo County’s main thoroughfare, diverting off U.S. 83 near Showers Road and heading north around Peñitas and La Joya before connecting back to 83 before Sullivan City.

The bypass will allow drivers to circumvent the school zones, low speed limits and traffic lights of that stretch of U.S. 83, resulting in nearly impassable streets for Friday night football and at other peak hours. But the bypass will also divert some of the 40,000 cars on that stretch of U.S. 83 away from the cities’ cores, potentially costing local businesses a reliable stream of customers.

It’s a possibility Garza — now the owner of a U.S. 83 taqueria and several other downtown properties — does not fret about. The route will provide local residents relief from the long-haul truckers and other drivers whose only purpose in the city is to get through it, he said. And the bypass around Peñitas will provide access it currently lacks to the nearby expressway, helping to overcome one of the obstacles the city faces in its efforts to attract new business to the city.

"The future is coming. You can’t hold back growth and progress," Garza said about the route. "You just make sure it doesn’t leave you behind."

ROAD FUNDING

Hidalgo County transportation officials finalized the framework this week to finance the bypass using several pools of money. Conceived in 1999 by the local Texas Department of Transportation district, the bypass has been stalled by a lack of funding even though it’s a necessity to clear the county’s sole remaining U.S. 83 bottleneck.

A final piece of the financing puzzle fell into place this week when the elected officials who sit on the county’s transportation planning board voted to direct $20 million in funding toward the bypass. Along with funding available from the Texas Transportation Commission, the $20 million commitment, toll revenues and a county-backed loan should be enough to fully fund its construction in 2014.

TxDOT district director Mario Jorge said four separate state and local governmental entities will eventually sign off on putting in their share of the funding for the regionally significant project. The county will also build an Expressway 83 overpass at Inspiration Road in Mission, continue an expansion of U.S. 281 to build it to interstate standards and complete construction on Business 83 in Mercedes to the Cameron County line, along with several smaller projects.

Both Hidalgo County commissioners and Hidalgo County Regional Mobility Authority board members agreed in principle to a deal this week that allows the county to initially develop the route before passing the project to the mobility authority for operation.

Mobility authority chairman Dennis Burleson said a small, $7.8 million commitment to the project from toll revenues will allow it to quickly generate a positive cash flow. Along with a proposed highway connecting the county’s international bridges to Expressway 83, the La Joya bypass is part of the mobility authority’s vision of a tollway system that could eventually finance other transportation needs.

Noe Garza, the Edinburg mayor pro tem and chairman of the county’s transportation planning arm, said a fully financed bypass allows the mobility authority to put its first project on the ground after investing more than $20 million in the Hidalgo County highway loop.

"This project will be a good opportunity for the RMA to show we can do it," Garza said. "Once it’s done, it will start bringing in revenue they need to get going."

 MOVING NORTH?

In La Joya and Peñitas, the existing U.S. 83 corridor passes through a developed area where businesses and schools line the road. The bypass would improve traffic safety and congestion caused by the area’s lack of an expressway system, but talk in western Hidalgo County inevitably shifts toward the relief route’s economic development potential.

Hidalgo County Precinct 3 Commissioner Joe Flores began working on the bypass in 2002 shortly after he took office, garnering support for it from city leaders, talking to landowners and partnering with TxDOT to refine plans for the route. Flores said extending the expressway to western Hidalgo County will improve the flow of local traffic in La Joya and Peñitas, provide residents a faster link to jobs in other parts of the county and eventually lead to greater growth in the area.

Both Peñitas and La Joya could look to expand their city limits to the north to take in future development along the bypass.

"We expect it will help us bring in carmakers, factories, distributors," Flores said. "You know if you build the infrastructure, you’re always going to bring in businesses."

And for existing businesses, the La Joya bypass still promises a bright future, said Billy Leo, the former La Joya mayor who owns food marts along the existing U.S. 83. When he looks outside his stores, Leo said, he sees out-of-control traffic that does more to hinder locals’ access to his business than it does to generate sales by drawing masses of motorists.

Leo said no one who has fought an expressway has ever won — and he doesn’t intend to try to be the exception. Instead, he takes a businesslike approach.

"What I may do is buy me some property along the toll road," Leo said. "I’ll buy property where they expect to build it, and I’ll wait for the traffic to come."

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Jared Janes covers Hidalgo County government, Edinburg and legislative issues for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4424.