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What road am I even on?
By ErinPradia in The Erin Express
February 7, 2012

As I was driving down U.S. Highway 59 from Victoria to Goliad this afternoon, I saw a sign that read "Future Interstate 69 corridor."

My first thought was, "Oh great. Another name for U.S. Highway 59." Between U.S. Highway 59, U.S. Highway 59 Business, the sections of U.S. Highway 59 that are also U.S. Highway 77 and that special little section that is also parts of Loop 463, I am never quite confident where in the Crossroads some is referring to when they say "you take U.S. Highway 59..."

When I got back to the newsroom I started to research exactly what the Interstate 69 Corridor is meant to do. This is what I found:

The I-69 corridor starts on the Texas-Mexico border with crossings of the Rio Grande at Laredo, McAllen, and Brownsville. The corridors proceed north and east along U.S. 59, U.S. 281, and U.S. 77 to near Victoria, Texas, where they join and follow U.S. 59 northeast to the Houston area.

From the Houston area, Interstate 69 will continue to follow the U.S. 59 corridor north, bypassing Cleveland, Shepherd, Livingston, Lufkin, and Nacogdoches. From the Nacogdoches area, I-69 will continue to the northeast, passing near Carthage and crossing into Louisiana to the east, and then continuing eastward to I-49 around Stonewall.

What are your thoughts? Will this change be helpful? Or will it merely complicate matters?

Personally, I think I'll resort to directions the good old fashioned way, "You drive past where the big red barn used to be and drive by the new school and make a left. Go over two big bumps and make a right. If you get to the railroad, you went too far."