23 YEARS LATER, B'VILLE WAITING FOR PROMISED EAST LOOP

(Ed.'s Note: It's been 23 years ago since an overwhelming majority of Cameron County voters approved a bond issue for transportation projects. After more than two decades of being promised an East Loop that would divert heavy (and hazardous ) truck traffic from International Boulevard that passes next to elementary and high schools, churches, businesses and neighborhoods, Cameron County and the City of Brownsville are making noises about actually building it. Local residents remember that it was in 1993 that then-Cameron County Judge (and later U.S. Ambassador to Mexico) Tony Garza, included the project as part of Project Road Map, an ambitious undertaking to upgrade the county's thoroughfares. Plans called for 74 separate projects throughout Cameron County. Among Project Road Map's more ambitious components was a plan to extend Expressway 77-Highway 83 past Lincoln Park to the proposed site of the Los Tomates International Bridge, what we now call Veterans International Bridge. It would also convert Highway 48 into a four-lane highway, and create a loop beginning on Elizabeth Street and stretching to the Port of Brownsville. That last one is the so-called East Loop. This photo was taken just today near the Four Corners area and shows the proliferation of truck traffic. How much longer will they have to wait before the promise becomes reality?)