PHARR, Texas (Border Report) — A new International Bridge Trade Corridor that will connect international bridges with border highways has been years in the planning and comes as Rio Grande Valley politicians hold key positions in Austin.

Gov. Greg Abbott, R-Texas, on Monday announced that he has asked the Texas Transportation Commission, and the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) for $150 million to start a 13-mile segment of the non-tolled road. The 4-lane divided road would connect South Texas cities from Pharr to Donna, and provide direct interstate access for commercial trucks from Mexico at several international ports of entry.

This includes connecting trucks arriving at the Pharr International Bridge, the No. 1 port of entry for fruits and vegetables from Mexico, which brings in $40 billion in trade with Mexico every year.

Abbott made the IBTC request before a draft of the state’s Unified Transportation Program is expected to be released this week, which will lay out a decade of transportation infrastructure plans and priorities for the Lone Star State.

“Strengthening our ports and roadways infrastructure to support international trade will help Texas remain the No. 1 exporting state and a global economic powerhouse,” Abbott said in a statement. “This project will bolster international trade and accelerate throughout at border checkpoints to better move freight and improve security.”

“It will avoid all the traffic jams, the bumper-to-bumper traffic. Also, many times these commercial trucks are a risk to our local residents. So this is a good way to expedite commerce and to make it safer for our communities and to be able to accommodate continued growth in trade with Mexico,” Texas State Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, D-McAllen, told Border Report on Tuesday.

Hinojosa is vice chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, “a key” appointment to helping line up funding.

But he points out that he’s not the only Valley lawmaker who has worked on this.

He calls it a “team effort” and says this project has been years in the making and has required buy-in from every major mayor in the Rio Grande Valley including from the cities of Pharr, Edinburg, Mission and McAllen.

Hinojosa said several South Texas politicians and appointees hold key posts to urge those in Austin to make it happen.

That includes Texas state Rep. Terry Canales, D-Edinburg, who is chairman of the House Transportation Committee.

“It’s a challenge to overstate just how important IBTC is to the Rio Grande Valley,” Canales said. “Fully funding IBTC has been a priority for me for many years.”

In March, Abbott appointed Alex Meade, of Mission, Texas, to the Texas Transportation Committee, which oversees TxDOT.

Meade was the city manager of Pharr for several years and is the executive vice president of a bank. He was nominated by Hinojosa and when his appointment came there were big smiles and expectations for future infrastructure and transportation growth in the Rio Grande Valley.

In essence, he was like the lynchpin to projects that Hinojosa says have been in the works and planning for years.

The city of McAllen is expanding the Anzalduas International Bridge to soon accept full-cargo commercial vehicles, and Mexico also is pitching in by expanding and building a second span of its segment of the Pharr International Bridge.

“We have a very strong Valley delegation. We work together as a team,” Hinojosa said. “This is not just for the benefit of Pharr or Mission only, or even Hidalgo County, for that matter. This has benefits for the whole Valley. So we are taking very much a regional approach.”

But the $150 million will not be enough. “That’s why it’s so important the IBTC Corridor will be part of the Texas highway system to help qualify for formula funding from the state,” Hinojosa says.

Once fully funded, the corridor should be finished by 2026.

Hinojosa says that will have economic benefits not only for South Texas but for the entire border and state.

“Looking to the future, commercial trade with Mexico will not diminish, it will continue to increase and not by the millions — but by the billions,” Hinojosa said. “Not only in The Valley but along the border, all the way up to El Paso from Brownsville.”