Two crossings are permitted. One is in design. One is in court.
Eagle Pass has one commercial international bridge. Its expansion is permitted and unbuilt. A second crossing is permitted and unbuilt. Here is where each project stands, verified against primary sources — and what the gap between the permit and the pour costs anyone buying on the headline.
Permitted is not built.
A presidential permit authorizes a project. It does not fund it, design it, acquire the right-of-way, or pour concrete. Every project below has cleared a headline-generating milestone. Not one has broken ground.
Camino Real International Bridge Expansion
Six lanes to twelve, at the existing commercial crossing.
Where it stands: Presidential Permit signed 20 June 2025 (90 FR 27435). Design contract awarded to LJA — the top-ranked firm — on 16 September 2025, a week after Council moved to reject that recommendation and rebid. The negotiated design fee has not been made public.
Timing: A $23M approach-roadway realignment must finish first — re-registered 10 August 2026 to the GSA at $10.04M with construction running 2 August 2027 – 2 October 2028, and a TxDOT letting in November 2027. It has now slipped roughly thirty-four months from its original October 2024 date. Expansion follows, targeting October 2029 at ~$60M — a single-source Coahuila statement of 26–29 May 2026, unconfirmed on the U.S. side, where in April 2026 city officials said no execution dates or total investment had been defined. No party has said who pays. Mexico's port of entry was reported 96% complete in September 2024 and operationally ready by September 2025; Coahuila broke ground on its approach roads in February 2026. The six new lanes over the river are built on neither side. Sources: Federal Register (2025); City of Eagle Pass RFQ #2025-028 and design agreement authorised 19 May 2026; TDLR TABS2026006714 and TABS2026027376; TxDOT 2027–2030 Laredo District Rural TIP (CSJ 0922-10-042); EPBJ (2024, 2025); POSTA (May 2026).
Puerto Verde Global Trade Bridge
A new commercial truck and rail crossing north of the city, in Maverick County.
Where it stands: Presidential Permit of 31 May 2024 — the permittee is Maverick County, with Puerto Verde Holdings as developer. Congress exempted the bridge from pre-permit environmental review under 33 U.S.C. §535d; that NEPA obligation is deferred, not removed, and still sits before construction.
Timing: Mexican side funded and moving, $300M pledged. The U.S. side is unsettled. The County's 65% stake is a non-binding MOU (26 March 2026) with the valuation study still outstanding and the developer retaining managing control. The County Judge who championed it was suspended in May 2026 and lost his primary runoff to a candidate on record against private-investor deals. The City voted unanimously in April 2026 that it will not enter any MOU. Permit expires 31 May 2029 if construction hasn't commenced. Sources: 89 FR 48247; Maverick County MOU (April 2026); City of Eagle Pass minutes (April 2026); Houston Chronicle (July 2026); KSAT (May 2026).
Green Eagle Railroad
A 1.3-mile freight rail connection linking the border to Union Pacific track, part of the Puerto Verde system and a proposed 20-mile trade corridor.
Where it stands: The Surface Transportation Board approved construction and operation on the Southern Rail Alternative in April 2026.
Timing: Approval is not a start date. The project still needs operating agreements with Union Pacific and BNSF, financing, and environmental mitigation, with status reports due to the STB. There is organized local opposition in Seco Mines and Hopedale. Source: Surface Transportation Board decision, April 2026.
State Loop 480 North
Roughly six miles of new roadway completing the northern section of the loop, with overpasses at US 57, FM 1588, and the Union Pacific line, running to US 277 north of Eagle Pass.
Where it stands: TxDOT project in right-of-way acquisition, with acreage still outstanding.
Timing: Bids opened 7 April 2026; awarded conditionally by TTC Minute Order 117161 on 30 April 2026. TxDOT has published no construction start date. Its project page still shows a September 2027 letting and is out of date. US 277 is part of the congressionally designated Ports-to-Plains corridor running north toward I-27 and the Panhandle. Source: Texas Open Data Portal, TxDOT Bid Tabulations (de7b-7dna); TTC Minute Order 117161, 30 April 2026; TxDOT Ports-to-Plains corridor.
The announcement-to-asphalt gap is where capital gets hurt.
None of this argues against the corridor. The trade is real, the projects are real, the Mexican side is moving. The argument is about timing — the one variable almost nobody entering this market has underwritten.
Five to ten years of carrying cost
Land bought on a 2026 headline may not see the infrastructure that justifies the price until the early 2030s. Property tax, financing, and opportunity cost across that window is the most underestimated line in every model we review.
The map moves before the market does
Loop 480 North and a Puerto Verde crossing would route freight north and around the city rather than through it. Ground well-positioned for today’s traffic pattern is not automatically well-positioned for the one being built.
Approval is not inevitability
Projects at this stage get delayed, rescoped, and occasionally shelved. Two of the four above have already slipped or stalled on the Texas side. A plan that assumes all four land on schedule is not a plan.
Mexico is ahead of Texas
Mexico committed first on both crossings and is reported almost complete on Camino Real while Texas designs. Which side commits first has been the most reliable predictor of what actually gets built here, and it is not visible from a data subscription.
Both things are true: this corridor is repricing, and none of it is built yet. Only one of those is in the price.
Maintained from primary sources and updated as projects move. What each scenario does to absorption, land values, and phasing runs in the quarterly Border Capital Report. Status is reported as of August 2026 for informational purposes only; it is not a forecast or investment advice, and you should verify current status independently before committing capital.