Thread: Officials saw traffic coming

Officials saw traffic coming
Web Posted: 06/11/2005 12:00 AM CDT

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/mexico ... e9b81.html

Patrick Driscoll
Express-News Staff Writer

The perception of big trucks filing up area freeways isn't an illusion.

The North American Free Trade Agreement sparked an increase in commercial truck traffic in Texas, with mileage jumping 47 percent from 1993 to 1999, according to the Department of Public Safety.

Nearly 70 percent of trucks from Mexico come through Texas, almost half crossing at Laredo.

Vehicles with three axles or more account for 14 percent of the traffic on Interstate 35 near Windcrest, where a tractor-trailer rolled over Friday, according to the Texas Department of Transportation.

Trucks traveling through that area jumped from about 10,000 a day in 1990 to 25,000 in 2003.

"It's what we knew was going to happen on I-35," said Dale Picha, the department's traffic engineer in San Antonio.

While no statistics were available Friday on trucks involved in haz-mat incidents, the number of 18-wheelers involved in all wrecks in Bexar County increased by a fourth from 1996 to 2001, when 479 rigs were in wrecks, DPS reported.

Until alternate trade routes, such as proposed Trans Texas Corridor toll lanes and rail lines east of I-35, are built in the coming decades, motorists can expect to see more trucks on San Antonio's highways.

"There are more of us, we want more things and therefore there are more trucks," said Joanne Walsh, administrator of the local Metropolitan Planning Organization. "How else are we going to get everything we want as fast as we want it?"



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pdriscoll@express-news.net

Gee its a good thing they are building the NAFTA Highway to take the pressure off of I-35! Now they can let even more trucks in and have even more haz-mat spills.

While no statistics were available Friday on trucks involved in haz-mat incidents, the number of 18-wheelers involved in all wrecks in Bexar County increased by a fourth from 1996 to 2001, when 479 rigs were in wrecks, DPS reported

And I thought those Mexicans were such great drivers with high quality equipment.
Yuk yuk.