Texas Allows Overweight Trucks

Texas Governor Rick Perry signed legislation that will permanently allow trucks to transport overweight freight between the Port of Brownsville and Mexico.

The corridor allows trucks carrying primarily break bulk steel but also other cargoes to be loaded to Mexican truck weight limits. Without the corridor, said the port’s Deputy Director Donna Eymard, shippers would have to use two trucks instead of one and the steel Brownsville handles would move to Mexican ports.

Brownsville is one of the U.S.’s largest steel ports, handling more than 2 million tons during 2008. Virtually all of the port’s import steel goes to mills in northern Mexico to be processed. After processing, some of it is then re-exported.

Port Director and chief executive officer Eduardo A. Campirano said in the port’s statement that “this is great news for the state, the port, the county, the city, and the consumer. The overweight corridor program helps to insure the sustainable growth of the Port – the economic engine for the Rio Grande Valley and Northern Mexico.”

Contact Janet Nodar at jcnodar@bellsouth.net.