Business View Civil and Municipal | January 2021

49 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL JANUARY 2021 A Transload Facility Serving San Angelo and the Concho Valley Region www.splrr.com COMING SOON SAN ANGELO RAIL PARK SAN ANGELO, TEXAS Planning and Development Department, and other business and civic organizations throughout San Angelo. Looney notes, “We all work together, very cohesively, to ensure that we’re retaining our existing businesses as well as recruiting new ones.” San Angelo, a city predicated on positive alliances, has recently entered a new public- private partnership with South Plains Lamesa Railroad, LTD., a multimodal facility provider, for the development of a 180-acre rail port. The port will allow the delivery of bulk freight imports and exports to the U.S. and Mexico, thus enhancing the efficiency and profitability of industry in the Concho Valley. “There will be millions of dollars invested in the rail port,” Andrews reports. “And that’s a big success, in that the City doesn’t have to take on the role of entering into the rail business. They’re providing a more economical mode of transportation to our local businesses, such as our agricultural and manufacturing communities, and we’re providing the property for them to build out this facility.” Andrews notes the emphasis in economic development in San Angelo is based on “planes, trains, and automobiles,” adding, “We just completed a study for an I-27 corridor, which would be a new interstate. Some parts of that interstate do exist already, but the extension of the I-27 (Ports-to-Plains) as a federal highway would run from Laredo, Texas on the Texas- Mexico border – which is now the largest port in the U.S.– all the way up through the State of Texas, through San Angelo, splitting off to Midland-Odessa, and eventually terminating in Alberta, Canada. So, that’s an exciting program.” State and local leaders are also working on another interstate program: Interstate 14 (aka the Gulf States Strategic Highway or Forts- to-Forts). This would intersect with the I-27, making San Angelo a major distribution center. Supporters of this program see it as a potential gateway from Augusta, Georgia to Texas, one that could connect important military bases and ports along the way.