Eagle Pass Representatives Meet to Discuss U. S. Highway 57 Expansion to Four Lanes
By: Ricardo E. Calderon, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc., Copyright 2025
City of Eagle Pass, Texas representatives met with LAN Engineering representatives on Wednesday, June 25, 2025, to discuss the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) project to expand U. S. Highway 57 from Eagle Pass to Moore, Texas, a 98 mile stretch of a two-lane highway, into a divided four-lane highway to connect the Port of Eagle Pass-Piedras Negras to U. S. Interstate Highway 35 and the entire United States and Canada transportation systems and markets.
Participating in the U. S. Highway 57 expansion meeting were Eagle Pass City Manager Homero Balderas, Eagle Pass Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) Director Placido Madera, Eagle Pass Water Works and Sewer System General Manager Jorge Barrera, State Representative Heriberto Morales, Jr., Eagle Pass-Maverick County Economic Development Alliance President Morris Libson, Jr., and LAN Engineering Vice-President of Business Group Director Tom Ellis, P. E.
TxDOT has contracted LAN Engineering as a consultant to develop and design the U. S. Highway 57 divided four-lane highway construction project.
TxDOT has approved the U. S. Highway 57 expansion project subject to the availability of public funding for the project in the near future.
The Eagle Pass-Piedras Negras Port of Entry is the lone Texas-Mexico border without a four-lane divided highway connecting their key U.S.-Mexico international trade to the major U. S. and Canadian Interstate highway systems. The City of Eagle Pass has been planning and working diligently to obtain TxDOT’s coveted approval of the desperately needed highway expansion from two to four lanes for many years. Eagle Pass’s advocacy and presentation of the highway expansion project merits and needs has finally won the attention of TxDOT.
With Eagle Pass and its Mexican sister-city, Piedras Negras, Coahuila population growth, significant international trade increase, and huge traffic increase in recent years cries for TxDOT to give priority to the antiquated two-lane U. S. Highway 57 project for expansion into a modern four-lane divided highway system in the best interests of both countries, public safety, and projected future growth and demand.
As increased vehicle traffic grows each year on U. S. Highway 57, the number of traffic accidents and fatalities has also increased. The current two-lane U. S. Highway 57 is a public hazard and extremely dangerous to travel on due to significant traffic flow in recent years.
The U. S. Highway 57 expansion project is in the hands of TxDOT and its Laredo District Office under the direction of Roberto “Epi” Rodriguez, P. E.
Eagle Pass representatives will continue to promote and advocate for the expedient expansion of U. S. Highway 57 into a four-lane divided highway until it is funded and constructed. The highway expansion project is anticipated to be transformative for the Eagle Pass-Piedras Negras Port of Entry economy, population growth, and public traffic safety.
