“Never” Is A Promise About I-35

“Never is a promise”, croons Fiona Apple, and TxDOT’s Marc Williams is her backup singer.

In a speech to the San Marcos C-of-C, the executive director, according to KXAN-TV, actually said construction work on Interstate 35 will “never conclude”.

Adding: “I can say that pretty conclusively”.

Never. Ever. Forever under construction. The punch line about highway projects is now the official line.

We have finally found an honest man in government.

I mean, if I found myself driving on 35 and there were no cones, Jersey barriers, shifting lanes, slashing ruts, missing stripes and stomach-dropping plunges, I wouldn’t know where I was.

Seems he was trying to spin it as a positive—our business and population boom draws its lifeblood from the state’s signature north-south road. So, he opines, if we’re always expanding it and improving it, it means Texas is doing well.

Fair point, Mr. Executive Director.

Thing is, we have places to be and people to see. Shouldn’t we building ahead of the commercial and population growth? Not always catching up to it?

Axios News reported the other day that Mexico has supplanted China as the leading exporter of consumer goods into the United States, quoting a trucking executive as saying that he sees a lot of retail manufacturing ramping up in our southern neighbor.

Assuming trends like that take shape over time, and are long-term, sounds like we need big thinking and crash-building of roads, right?

Not constant nibbling at I-35.

At least we have been leveled-with.