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The Laredo of yesteryear – the image is of a dusty, hot Texas border city with streets forever clogged by queues of trucks crossing the Rio Grande — is gone.

	Michael James - Transport Topics
	The World Trade Bridge, five miles east of downtown Laredo, has relieved the city’s commercial truck congestion since its opening on April 15.

It still may be hot and dusty, but the opening of the World Trade Bridge five miles north of the city center on April 15 and the closing of the two downtown bridges to truck traffic has recast the flavor of Laredo.

Trucks are still omnipresent but they no longer dictate the flow of traffic in the heart of the city.

The effects of the changes in the pattern of truck movements have reverberated throughout the region. Trucks used to line up for hours on key lanes leading to Bridge No. 1, the venerable span at the foot of Convent Street, and Bridge No. 2, a later, more modern addition that marks the southern terminus of Interstate 35 (the other end is Duluth, Minn.). Longtime residents tell horror stories about spending several hours in their cars, inching down I-35 to go into Mexico. By contrast, the same trip today takes no more than 15 minutes.

The Laredo gateway handles more international cargo than any other land-based port of entry in the United States, according to U.S. Customs, the vast bulk of it carried by trucks. But now that always-growing traffic is funneled away from downtown and to two broad bridges constructed up river expressly for trucks, with plenty of room for access and expansion.

For the full story, see the July 24 print edition of Transport Topics. .