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The president of the Starr-Camargo Bridge Company has urged TxDOT to add a new east-west corridor from Matamoros to Camargo to the Texas-Mexico Border Transportation Master Plan it is developing.\\xa0

Sam Vale made his case at a stakeholders meeting the Texas Department of Transportation held recently in Reynosa. Bridge leaders from South Texas, Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon were present.\\xa0

\\u201cIf you look at valid traffic studies, not made up just to promote an issue, you will find out that, if you look at Laredo, even if they double World Trade, even if they build 4 and 5, even if they get the road to Colombia, if all of that happens in the next four or five years, there is still going to be 1,500 trucks per day that don\\u2019t make it across,\\u201d Vale said.

\\u201cSo a border corridor also makes it possible for them to use other facilities in a relatively short time and the important thing is it makes business grow. As business grows we all make money and have a better quality of life.\\u201d

Vale is a member of an advisory board that makes recommendations to TxDOT on border transportation issues. He was responding to similar remarks made by Leonel Cant\\xfa Robles, the secretary of economic development for Reynosa.

Timoteo \\u201cTim\\u201d Juarez, Jr., manager for international trade and border planning for TxDOT, said he \\u201ctotally agreed\\u201d with Vale\\u2019s analysis. Juarez chaired the meeting in Reynosa.

VIPs at the TxDOT meeting in Reynosa included Mission Mayor Armando O'Ca\\xf1a and Reynosa Mayor Maki Ortiz. Bridge leaders from Cameron County, Pharr, McAllen and Mission were also present.

Editor's Note: The above podcast features the raw audio from the TXDOT meeting in Reynosa, Tamaulipas. Most of the conversations were in Spanish.

Editor's Note: Click here for the full story in the Rio Grande Guardian.\\xa0

To read the new stories and watch the news videos of the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service go to www.riograndeguardian.com.