CAMERON COUNTY REGIONAL MOBILITY AUTHORITY

On June 22, 2004 Cameron County Commissioners Court authorized the County Judge to file a petition to the Texas Transportation Commission to create a Regional Mobility Authority (RMA) for the Cameron County area and it was approved by the Texas Transportation Commission on September 30, 2004 . The Commissioners Court formally approved the conditions set forth by the Texas Transportation Commission for the RMA and subsequently appointed the Directors of the RMA. Shortly afterwards, Governor Rick Perry appointed David Allex of Harlingen as the Chairman of the RMA.

The Cameron County Regional Mobility Authority (CCRMA) held their first official meeting on February 25, 2005 . The purpose of the Cameron County Regional Mobility Authority is to provide the area with an opportunity to significantly accelerate needed transportation projects and have a local entity in place that will make mobility decisions that will benefit the community, while enhancing the economic vitality and quality of life for the residents in the Lower Rio Grande Valley . It is extremely important that our transportation infrastructure improvements continue to keep up with the population growth that Cameron County is experiencing.

The CCRMA will assist the citizens of South Texas by providing congestion relief, traffic safety, enhanced mobility and viable alternative routes in this era of time conservation. The CCRMA will work with the numerous cities in Cameron County and its neighbor to the South, the State of Tamaulipas to construct projects at a much more rapid pace. The CCRMA is working very closely with the Texas Department of Transportation (TXDOT) on several on-going projects in Cameron County . The initial projects that were submitted with the RMA application to the Texas Transportation Commission were the West Loop project in Brownsville and the second causeway in the Port Isabel/South Padre Island area. A very aggressive project schedule has been prepared for both of these projects and, through the use of a TXDOT evergreen contract, a tier two toll feasibility study for the West Loop project in Brownsville has begun. We are in the process of getting Port Isabel and South Padre Island to approve resolutions for the second causeway project. Cameron County has already approved a resolution.

In addition to the above we are working with TXDOT on nine pass-through toll projects. These nine projects are throughout the County and will not result in a toll for the end users. Project schedules were also developed for these projects and we anticipate that construction could begin as early as December 2006.

These are only a few of the things that the RMA is working on. We do have authority to undertake projects related to highways, rail, air and seaport, as well as having the ability to undertake projects in Mexico .