As originally published in Texas Border News monthly
By Roy Martinez
It’s the newest bridge that spans the Rio Grande River in fact it has been open to traffic for slightly less than three year.
The official name of this International Port of Entry is Alliance International Bridge. Most in the Rio Grande Valley know it as the Donna Bridge, which links the City of Donna with the Mexican State of Tamaulipas and the Mexican city of Rio Bravo.
The bridge officially opened for traffic in December of 2010 and despite the security concerns across the border back then and economic woes worldwide and a limited amount of the hours the bridge is open, the Donna Bridge has consistently grown in crossing traffic.
According to bridge director Josue “Josh” Garcia, Jr. “from the time that we started we have doubled our crossings for the day. If you put the number of crossing coming north and going south about it’s about 100,000 cars crossing on a monthly basis.”
One little known fact of the Donna bridge is that it is the widest single-span in the Rio Grande Valley with eight lanes, accommodating four lanes in each direction. It is built to be able to withstand the weight on dozens of trucks if you lined them up bumper to bumper in all eight lanes.
Garcia says right now the bridge is only open to passenger and pedestrian traffic, and adds, “Currently we don’t have commercial traffic, and we don’t because infrastructure wise we are not ready for that yet. We do not have x-ray machines; we have not been given the go ahead by Homeland Security thru Customs and Border Protection.
Another little known fact says Guerra, “Our bridge does not have any restrictions on it. We can start carrying commercial traffic tomorrow if Homeland Security says you can start, we do not have any restrictions on our presidential permit.”
Commercial traffic may not be too far away especially now that the new Puente Buluarte in Mexico, which forms part of the new Durango-Mazatlan Highway, is now fully operational. This new highway will bring Mexican grown produce to South Texas on route to other eastern points.
Garcia excitedly adds, “that is really going to help, from what we have read, about this Buluarte Bridge traversing the Sierra Madre, we have read the articles and we are very excited we don’t think it is going to be very long before we get commercial traffic here in Donna, we don’t know when, hopefully sooner than later and so we want to be ready to handle the commercial traffic. We hear all kinds of numbers on the increase of commercial traffic specifically in produce so we are aware of what the news is telling us.”
As far as an economic impact Garcia speculates, “ Think that one of the reasons we have been able to attract Walmart, and is the fact that we have an international bridge.”
He pointed out that is obvious that they want to attract the international crosser. Mexican shoppers cross at Donna as they head to the outlet mall in Mercedes. And because of that the City of Donna has donated land and partnered with the Rio Grande Development Council and Valley Metro for a new Park and Ride to be built adjacent to the bridge in Donna. They will be breaking ground before the end of the year or at the beginning of next year.
As was reported by our Publisher Roberto Gonzalez in an Exclusive story in the November 2010 issue of Texas Border Business, Developer Mike Rhodes has launched Alliance River Crossing on over 900 acres adjacent to the Donna Bridge.
Rhodes Enterprises, Inc. plans include commercial/retail development with approximately 6.5 million square feet of industrial development. The Rhodes development will also include mixed-use commercial/retail and office space and a Master Planned community.
So the future looks bright for the Donna Bridge stay tuned. TBB
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