Leaders of the Texas Department of Transportation, Texas Department of Public Safety and Cameron County are saying transportation upgrades are needed in the Valley.

During a Thursday hearing with the Texas House of Transportation Committee in Brownsville, Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño Jr. met with state lawmakers to push for more funding for transportation upgrades he says are long overdue.

"These are investments that should have been going on over the last several decades, and so that's why we're playing some catch up," Trevino Jr. said.

Some of the projects the judge is pushing to secure funding for include the second causeway, a new state highway and improvements to the I-69 Highway.

“The Valley is the largest metropolitan urban area in the entire United States that does not have its own connection to the interstate system,” Trevino Jr. said. “That has hindered and really hurt our development from an economic development."

The judge said he hopes the ideas discussed during the hearing will be up for discussion at the January 2023 state legislative session.

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