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April 18, 2000 9:10 AM, EDT

Truckers crossing the border at Laredo, Texas, will now be able to use a new $60 million bridge located 6 miles north of the downtown area.

With the April 15 opening of the World Trade Bridge, Laredo gets its fourth link spanning the Rio Grande River into Mexico. It also means that truckers will not be able to use the three downtown bridges anymore. Commercial trucks will be diverted at the Bob Bullock Loop interchange, 8 miles north of the city, onto a new road leading to the span.

Yet to be completed is a reconfigured interchange connector between Interstate 35 and the new bridge. The northbound part of the interchange should be completed in October, but the rest will not be finished until 2002. Connections on the Mexican side might not be ready either.

Laredo is the busiest U.S. port of entry on the Mexican border. The three bridges connecting Laredo to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, had 2.7 million truck crossings in 1999.

For the full story, see the Apr. 17 print edition of Transport Topics. .