Could new highway hurt area?
By JIMMY GALVAN Managing Editor

While some believe the the Strategic I-14 would provide an enomomic thrust for Jasper, there is a chance the loop it would form might hurt downtown businesses.

Jasper Economic Development Corporation Executive Director Tom McClurg believes commerce might be diverted from downtown businesses in the form of traffic flow.

One of the early projections for the highway would have it coming into Jasper County between U.S. Highway 190 and State Highway 255. It would create a loop around Jasper.

"Utlimately, you would see businesses moving towards the loop if it forms that way," McClurg said. "Businesses are going to go where they get the greatest attention and that might happen.

"That would be cause for strategic planning by the city and county," McClurg said.

He said the upside would be the opportunity for Jasper County to land a major industry in this region.

"It would dramatically change the opportunities for us with the East-West route," McClurg said.

He said once the fourlane construction is completed on U.S Highway 96, it will become "a major North-West artery. Anything coming out of Beaumont, going north, comes right through Jasper on Hwy. 96."

The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) will soon begin work on a feasibility study for an East-West corridor, that is the brainchild of the Gulf Coast Strategic Highway Coalition.

The announcement was made two weeks ago as the TxDOT Commission voted to move forward with the study that will cost an estimated $2 million.

The study corridor would generally follow U.S. Highway 190 through East and Central Texas and would follow I-10 in West Texas all the way to the New Mexico state line.

The study will address the feasibility and route analysis requirement for the 800-mile corridor in Texas.

Included in that study will be the feasibility of upgrading the designated corridor to a fully controlled access facility with a rail component.

The TxDOT plan calls for an East-West route to cross the Hill Country just north of San Antonio.

It would loop around Houston and tie back in to I-10 at the Louisiana state line.

The Gulf Coast Strategic Highway Coalition has proposed an alternative East-West route.

According to the coalition's website, the East- West alternative has many advantages:

It runs north of the environmentally sensitive Hill Country, passing just south of Fort Hood and linking Fort Bliss, Fort Hood and Fort Polk.

It misses the San Antonio, Austin and Houston air quality regions.

It ties in to a Louisiana highway corridor that is being improved and can accommodate substantial infrastructure expansion.