Interstate 69 in Texas

Interstate 69 (I-69) is an Interstate Highway that is in the process of being built in the U.S. state of Texas. It is part of a longer I-69 extension known as the NAFTA superhighway, that, when completed, will connect Canada to Mexico. In Texas, it will connect Tenaha and the Louisiana segment of the route through the eastern part of the state and along the Texas Gulf Coast to Victoria, where it will split into three branches: I-69E to Brownsville, I-69C to Pharr, and I-69W to Laredo. The first segment of I-69 in Texas was opened in 2011 near Corpus Christi. The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) approved an additional 58 mi of U.S. Highway 77 (US 77) from Brownsville to the Willacy–Kenedy county line for designation as I-69, which was to be signed as I-69E upon concurrence from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). FHWA approval for this segment was announced on May 29, 2013. By March 2015, a 74.9 mi section of US 59 had been completed and designated as I-69 through Greater Houston. , short segments near the southern terminuses of the three branch routes (I-69E, I-69C, and I-69W) have also all been completed. These branches are planned to be connected to the rest of Interstate 69.

Route description
The congressionally designated I-69 corridor begins at the Mexico–U.S. border with three suffixed routes:
 * I-69W begins at the entrance to the World Trade International Bridge, which connects to Federal Highway 85D (Fed. 85D), near the border in Laredo. It is cosigned with both US 59 and Loop 20 (Bob Bullock Loop) and extends 1.4 mi to I-35 (which connects to Fed. 85 south of the border). It will continue on US 59 east to George West, where it will intersect I-69C, it will then intersect I-37 east of George West, and it will then continue east to Victoria.
 * I-69C (with connections to both Fed. 40 and Fed. 97) begins in Pharr at I-2 and is designated for 18 mi through Edinburg and cosigned with US 281. It will continue north along US 281 to George West, where it will intersect I-69W and terminate at this point.
 * I-69E begins just north of the Veterans International Bridge at Los Tomates, which connects to Fed. 101/Fed. 180 near the border in Brownsville and continues for 58.9 mi through Olmito, where it intersects I-169, and through Harlingen, where it intersects I-2, past Raymondville to the Willacy–Kenedy county line, and cosigned with US 77; it is also cosigned with US 83 from Brownsville to Harlingen. The route will follow the US 77 corridor north to Corpus Christi, where a 7.8 mi segment is already designated as I-69E and cosigned with US 77 and also intersects I-37, and it will then continue north to Victoria.

I-69W and I-69E will merge just south of Victoria, where mainline I-69 will follow US 59 northeast to Fort Bend County. In Greater Houston, I-69 follows US 59 (Southwest Freeway) from Fort Bend County to the west loop of I-610. I-69 then follows US 59 (Eastex Freeway) from the north loop of I-610 to the Montgomery–Liberty county line. The segment of US 59 inside the I-610 loop, through Downtown Houston, was approved for designation as I-69 by the FHWA on March 9, 2015, and approved for signage as I-69 by the Texas Transportation Commission on March 25, 2015.

From Houston, I-69 will follow US 59 to the north, serving Cleveland, Shepherd, Livingston, Lufkin, Nacogdoches, and Tenaha. From Tenaha, the I-69 mainline will head east into Louisiana along the US 84 corridor. In Texas, an Interstate route designated I-369 will proceed north along US 59 from Tenaha to Texarkana, serving Carthage, Marshall, and Atlanta. I-69 was originally planned to go to Carthage then leave US 59 to head in a east direction into Louisiana.

History
The federal legislation designating the south Texas branches as I-69 suggested that these routes may be designated as "I-69E" (east, following US 77), "I-69C" (central, following US 281), and "I-69W" (west, following US 59). The AASHTO Special Committee on Route Numbering rejected the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT)'s request for these three designations along the proposed I-69 branches, citing that AASHTO policy no longer allows Interstate Highways to be signed as suffixed routes. Stating that the I-69E, I-69C, and I-69W designations for the three I-69 branches south of Victoria were written into federal law, the initial denial of TxDOT's applications were subsequently overturned by the AASHTO Standing Committee on Highways, and the approval for the I-69E, I-69C, and I-69W branch designations were confirmed by the AASHTO Board of Directors, pending concurrence from the FHWA during the AASHTO Spring Meeting on May 7, 2013. During this same meeting, the section of US 83 between Harlingen and Peñitas was conditionally approved to be designated as I-2, with FHWA concurrence. The US 83 freeway in south Texas was widely anticipated to receive an I-X69 designation instead of I-2. In any case, Texas is proceeding in the same fashion as Indiana, conducting environmental studies for its portion of I-69 in a two-tier process. The mainline route through Texas will be approximately 500 mi. On June 11, 2008, TxDOT announced they planned to limit further study of I-69 to existing highway corridors (US 59, US 77, US 84, US 281, and State Highway 44 [SH 44]) outside transition zones in the lower Rio Grande Valley, Laredo, Houston, and Texarkana.

Texas originally sought a public–private partnership to construct much of the route through Texas as a privately operated toll road under the failed Trans-Texas Corridor project. On June 26, 2008, however, TxDOT announced that they had approved a proposal by Zachry American and ACS Group to develop the I-69 corridor in Texas, beginning with upgrades to the US 77 corridor between Brownsville and I-37; the Zachry American/ACS Group plan calls for the majority of the freeway to be toll-free; the only two tolled sections would be bypasses of Riviera and Driscoll.

Original plans for the route included a potential overlap with the "TTC-35" corridor component as well, but the preferred alternative for that component follows I-35 south of San Antonio instead of entering the Lower Rio Grande Valley.

Recent and future improvements
Since July 2011, Texas has been proceeding with upgrading rural sections of US 59, US 77, and US 281 to Interstate standards by replacing intersections with interchanges and converting two-lane stretches to four lanes by adding a second roadway to the existing roadway and adding one-way frontage roads. Some bypasses will be built around some cities with some of them being known as a relief route.

A stated goal of TxDOT's I-69 initiative is that "existing suitable freeway sections of the proposed system be designated as I-69 as soon as possible". A bill was introduced and passed by the House of Representatives that allows Interstate quality sections of US 59, US 77, and US 281 to be signed as I-69 regardless of whether or not they connected to other Interstate Highways.

Meanwhile, TxDOT has submitted an application to the FHWA and AASHTO to designate 75 mi of US 59 in the Houston area and 8 mi of US 77 near Corpus Christi as I-69, as these sections are already built to Interstate standards and connect to other Interstate Highways. In August 2011, TxDOT received approval from the FHWA for a 6 mi segment of US 77 between I-37 and SH 44 near Corpus Christi and was approved by AASHTO in October 2011. Officials held a ceremony on December 5, 2011, to unveil I-69 signs on the Robstown–Corpus Christi section. On May 29, 2013, the Robstown–Corpus Christi section of I-69 was resigned as I-69E.

At the May 18, 2012, AASHTO meeting, 35 mi of US 59 (Eastex Freeway) from I-610 in Houston (on the loop's northern segment) to Fostoria Road in Liberty County were also approved as ready for I-69 signage, pending concurrence from the FHWA. The FHWA later granted concurrence and with the final approval of the Texas Transportation Commission, the 35 mi stretch was officially designated as I-69. It was announced on February 6, 2013, that the FHWA had approved a 28.4 mi segment of US 59 (Southwest Freeway) from I-610 in Houston (on the loop's western segment) to just southwest of Rosenberg; the transportation commission gave final approval later that month and signage was erected on April 3, 2013. The remaining segment of the original 75 mi submission (the section within Houston between the northern and western sections of I-610) was approved for designation as I-69 by the FHWA on March 9, 2015, and approved for signage as I-69 by the transportation commission on March 25, 2015.

On May 29, 2013, the transportation commission gave approval to naming completed Interstate-standard segments of US 77 and US 281 as I-69. On July 15, 2013, the Interstate markers were unveiled. US 77 through Cameron and Willacy counties are signed as I-69E. That includes 53 mi of existing freeway starting at the international boundary in the middle of the Rio Grande in Brownsville and running north past Raymondville. The 13 mi of US 281 freeway in Pharr and Edinburg are signed as I-69C.

On November 20, 2014, the transportation commission voted to add two new sections totaling 6.1 mi to I-69 in south Texas. The first section is 1.6 mi of newly finished freeway near Robstown in Nueces County and was co-designated as I-69E/US 77, and the second section is a 4.5 mi section of new freeway on the north side of Edinburg in Hidalgo County which was codesignated as I-69C/US 281. The designations were approved by the FHWA and by AASHTO making a total of 192 mi of I-69 in Texas (including I-2).

On May 24, 2019, both the Texas House of Representatives and Senate approved a 10-year extension of highway funding needed for I-69.

The southern terminus of the I-69 designation is to be extended to the Fort Bend–Wharton county line. This project was scheduled for completion in 2022. The northern terminus of I-69 will also be extended to Cleveland. This project was scheduled for completion in by end of 2022 but got delayed to 2023 due to weather and supply chain issues. Both of these segments have since been completed and are awaiting approval to be designated as I-69. AASHTO approved the extension in 2024. Although the Riggs Cemetery, established in 1892, lies in the path the freeway in Liberty County, TxDOT is choosing to preserve it. Work to extend I-69 northward to Shepherd and south to Victoria are in various stages of planning, development, design, and construction.

There is no timeline of when I-69 in Texas will be completed as there no funding to complete it entirely. Various portions of US 59 are being upgraded to Interstate standards with some bypasses being constructed. Construction on building a new alignment in Nacogdoches to bypass an interchange began in 2019 and is scheduled to be completed by mid-2025. TxDOT also held a public meeting on August 3, 2023, on the planned $115-million reconfiguration of the US 59 and US 259/Business US 59-F (Bus. US 59-F) interchange just north of Nacogdoches, although construction is not scheduled to start until 2029. This meeting came about one year after the last public meeting and discussed how the horseshoe-style intersection would be removed with the addition of flyover bridges. A bypass for Diboll is under construction and is scheduled for completion in 2025. US 59 was redesignated on the unfinished bypass on May 25, 2023 with the former alignment becoming Bus. US 59-H. The bypass for Corrigan started construction in late 2022 and is scheduled for completion in 2028.