The Texas Department of Transportation announced on March 10 it will conduct an environmental impact assessment of a proposed causeway linking Nueces County to North Padre Island. TxDOT will seek a consultant for the study within a few weeks. It has included the proposed causeway in its Statewide Long-Range Transportation and Texas Freight Mobility plans.

The Corpus Christi and Port Aransas city councils and the Nueces County Commissioners Court all approved resolutions supporting a second bridge.

State Rep. Todd Hunter, R-Corpus Christi, in a recent media release, said the project is “vital to hurricane and disaster preparedness and could make a life-saving difference for the residents of the Coastal Bend.”

Presently, the JFK Causeway is the only link between Corpus Christi and North Padre Island. Whenever causeway traffic is blocked, motorists traveling in either direction must detour through Port Aransas.

A chosen route for the proposed span has not been announced.

chuck@thepicayune.com

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