“It’s a project that’s been on the table for a long time,” Valdez said. “I can tell you that in 2003 or maybe 2004 the city was initially looking at building a fifth bridge, I think when Mayor Betty Flores was there they were developing a presidential permit application with the department of state, and I think the former county judge approached the city and wanted the county to be part of this bidding process, and I think the city said “no, we’re going it alone.”

After getting the ‘no’ from the city, Valdez says the county then told the city it would go through the process of building its own bridge next, which resulted in the creation of two potential projects for a permit. presidential.

Valdez says such a stance has caused the city and county to file various lawsuits such as Martha Escamilla, Maria Gloria Gonzalez, and Webb County v. City of Laredo No. CVQ-00450-D2 and Webb County, Texas v. City de Laredo, et al., Case No. GV 403943.

Ultimately, when Valdez took office years later, a new city administration with former Laredo town mayor Raul Salinas came together and ended this litigation in 2007 through of a resolution, as they agreed that the lawsuits hurt only the same taxpayers that the two entities represented.

Valdez says the litigation did not serve to build a new bridge because it only reduced the chances of obtaining a presidential permit for the construction of said bridge.

“Since there was litigation, the State Department has backed down and said ‘since you have litigation and there are competing claims, we are not going to authorize any presidential permits until this is not resolved,” Valdez said. “The resolution has passed and the lawsuits have been terminated.”

Once that was finalized, Valdez says he and the city came together to come up with a project where they could complete the bridge through a partnership. He says a bridge near the county would be good as it would help bring them more revenue which the county government needs as their sources of funding are limited compared to the city.

“I said we (should) work with the city because the city has experience working with bridges like they have the Laredo bridge system, so we hired an engineering firm to come and study the sites, study the city site, study the county site and see which is the best site, and if there is another option or a different site, we will let them tell us,” Valdez said.

After the studies were completed, Valdez said the engineering firm told them the best site for the new bridge would be farther south than the two entities had planned on the DD Hachar property. After that, he said they quickly started developing an application with the city and county working together to get the presidential permit, as he said a trust was also authorized by the site owners to do so. .

“When you have this process, there are always three entities: the city, the county and the state of Tamaulipas,” Valdez said. “The person who was involved in this on the Mexican side, on the Tamaulipas side, is the owner of the property on that side which is Glafiro Montemayor. I work with him, and he said ‘we have investors, investors who are going to invest money to be able to build the bridge near Tamaulipas.

After negotiations with Montemayor and the other representatives of the three entities, Valdez said it was proposed that the investors of such a project would then invest the money in an account that the Webb County government would hold, so that the two parties were paying their respective share of the money, but no money was deposited in the first two months into the project account.

After a further extension of another 30 or 60 days, no money was deposited, which Valdez says is why the project was put on hold and never happened because there was no funding for this on both sides.

“It’s stayed that way until now for it to happen,” Valdez said. “But, I think it’s a good project as long as everyone is on board and everyone is involved. Because you can’t have half a bridge because you need the Tamaulipas State, Nuevo Laredo, City and County to work together to make this happen.”

For this reason, he believes that this project continues to move forward, he hopes that the funding is there because it is the most important factor for this project to become a reality or not.

Valdez said he doesn’t think Webb County alone can take on the huge project because it would be expensive and the county has other expenses to pursue.

For Valdez, he thinks the best way to do things would be for the city and county to form a partnership where the city might be able to manage the bridge and provide an incentive or money to the county for its share in the project.

He also thinks that if the county can find enough private investors for the project, that would be another way for the project to be developed without too much hassle on both sides of the border.

“The project has to be front and center and everyone knows what they’re doing,” Valdez said.

Valdez says having a county and not a city in charge of a bridge is something unique because it has never been done.

“It’s the first time,” Valdez said. “The county funding it is pretty rare. Again, you’re talking millions of dollars, I don’t know if the county has the linkage capacity to do it on its own. Ideally the county is the city and the city is the county, and we are one.”

He also thinks the idea of ​​continuing to build an outer loop to I-35 should be considered if a new bridge is built, as it would cause huge congestion in the area and lead to many traffic problems.

For these reasons, Valdez says the southern county municipalities of Rio Bravo and El Cenizo need to be informed about every step of this project because what is built will affect them the most.

He says that during his tenure as a county judge, they saw the potential of this project and the many ways it would lead to growth as he knows more businesses would move to the area and create new jobs. Valdez says the bridge is deeply needed because the city’s growth and the development of more southern county communities is where the region can grow the most.

“The city and county can only grow north and south because to the west you have the riverbanks and to the east you’re kind of limited in growth,” Valdez said. “It will benefit the city, the county, Rio Bravo, El Cenizo but people have to be ready for it.”

As more growth is expected from this for southern areas of the county, he says property prices and other assessments such as property taxes will increase because of this.

Valdez said with all the litigation behind the entities and the consensus of wanting to expand and develop the region, it’s time for all the agencies to work together to make this happen, but through united collaboration.

“I think there are still a lot of questions that need to be answered and to make sure people are up front,” he said. and taxpayers need to be aware of what is going on. »