I have worked this corridor for fifteen years, and the single most common mistake I see out-of-market capital make is assuming Eagle Pass has the crossing capacity its trade numbers imply. It does not. The trade volume here is genuinely extraordinary. The infrastructure carrying it is a single-track railroad bridge opened in 1922, which moves three quarters of the value, and — per U.S. Customs and Border Protection — one commercial truck inspection lane, which moves the rest.
That gap between what moves and what it moves through is the reason this market exists as an opportunity at all, and it is the reason the timing is so easy to get wrong. This page is the plain-language version of what is here today, what is permitted, and what has actually been built.
What exists today: two bridges, very different jobs
Eagle Pass has two international bridges to Piedras Negras, Coahuila.
Bridge I — the Eagle Pass–Piedras Negras International Bridge — carries passenger vehicles and pedestrians. CBP's border wait-time feed reports no commercial vehicle capability at Bridge I.
Bridge II — the Camino Real International Bridge — opened in 1999 and is where all commercial vehicles entering Eagle Pass are inspected. The bridge deck has six lanes. TxDOT's early record describes them as three in each direction; the City's economic development corporation currently publishes four inbound and two outbound. We have not been able to source an official document reconciling those two descriptions, and no public record states the northbound passenger-versus-commercial split of the deck itself.
What is directly observable is the inspection capacity, and it is the number that governs throughput. CBP's live feed reports Bridge II at a maximum of one commercial vehicle inspection lane against seven passenger vehicle lanes.
One lane. For a port of entry that moved $43.57 billion in 2024 — and $11.0 billion of that by truck.
The trade volume, and why it matters more than it looks
Trade through Eagle Pass–Piedras Negras grew from $7.72 billion in 2005 to $37.14 billion in 2023 to $43.57 billion in 2024. But the headline conceals the shape of it: 74.7% of that value moved by rail and only $11.0 billion by truck (BTS TransBorder, port 2303). Finished vehicles and beer from Nava, Coahuila alone accounted for $19.85 billion by rail — 46% of the port's entire trade.
For scale on the same basis: Laredo moved $331.20 billion in calendar 2024, of which $281.97 billion by truck. On total trade Laredo is 7.6× Eagle Pass. On truck trade it is 25.6×, and it has 27 commercial inspection lanes to Eagle Pass's one. Eagle Pass is not a small Laredo; it is a rail gateway with a truck bottleneck attached. That distinction — and not the headline growth rate — is the whole investment case, and the whole risk.
What is permitted but not built
Two new or expanded crossings hold U.S. federal permits.
The Camino Real expansion would add six lanes to the existing bridge, taking it to twelve. The Presidential Permit was signed 20 June 2025. A design contract was awarded in September 2025. Before any expansion work can start, the City must finish a $23 million approach-roadway realignment. That work was re-registered on 10 August 2026 — owner United States of America (GSA), $10,037,263 — with construction scheduled 2 August 2027 to 2 October 2028 and a TxDOT letting in November 2027. The current public target for the six new lanes is October 2029.
Puerto Verde Global Trade Bridge is a proposed new crossing north of the city in Maverick County, with a Presidential Permit issued 31 May 2024 to Maverick County as permittee. It would bring six commercial lanes, two rail bridges and a 20-mile toll corridor (per the STB record). Its rail component, the Green Eagle Railroad, received Surface Transportation Board approval in April 2026 but is not financed.
Neither crossing has broken ground on the U.S. side.
The asymmetry nobody prices: Mexico finished what it controls
This is the part that does not appear in any data subscription, and it is the most reliable predictor of what actually gets built here.
On the Camino Real project, Piedras Negras and the State of Coahuila reported their port-of-entry works 96% complete in September 2024. By September 2025 the customs modernization — roughly one billion pesos — was reported operationally ready pending minor technical details. On 11 February 2026, Coahuila broke ground on the Ruta Fiscal roadway expansion serving the bridge: Phase 1 of 5, 100 million pesos, within a five-phase program of roughly 8 kilometres and over 500 million pesos.
On Puerto Verde, Mexico has pledged $300 million and folded the project into President Sheinbaum's federal infrastructure program, with Banobras directing implementation under a 51% public / 49% private structure.
One correction worth stating plainly, because it is often reported loosely: the new lanes over the Rio Grande are built on neither side. Mexico has completed everything within its own control and is waiting. That is a different thing from having built half a bridge — and it is a far more useful signal.
How I would use this page if I were deploying capital here
The honest summary is that this corridor has a credible path to becoming what Laredo became — and it is roughly where Laredo was in the mid-1990s, with permits in hand and concrete not yet poured. Laredo's World Trade Bridge opened in 2000 with eight commercial-only lanes and now moves 15,000 to 18,000 trucks a day, about 40% of all truck crossings on the U.S.–Mexico border.
If you are underwriting land here on the strength of these projects, the number you need is not the trade growth rate. It is the years between the permit and the pour, and the cost of carrying ground across them. That is covered in carrying costs for border land and in the broader Maverick County land investment guide.
Common questions
How many international bridges does Eagle Pass have?
Two. Bridge I (Eagle Pass–Piedras Negras International Bridge) carries passenger vehicles and pedestrians. Bridge II, the Camino Real International Bridge, opened in 1999 and handles all commercial vehicle inspections.
How many commercial lanes does the Eagle Pass port of entry have?
CBP’s border wait-time feed reports a maximum of one commercial vehicle inspection lane at Camino Real (Bridge II), against seven passenger vehicle lanes. Bridge I reports no commercial capability.
How much trade crosses at Eagle Pass?
$43.57 billion in 2024 (BTS TransBorder, port 2303), up from $7.72 billion in 2005. But 74.7% of that value moves by rail and only $11.0 billion by truck. A demand estimate anchored to the headline figure would be scaled to roughly four times the truck-borne base — worth knowing, because the headline is the only trade statistic this market publishes about itself.
Is the Camino Real bridge expansion under construction?
No. As of August 2026 no ground had been broken on the U.S. side. A $23 million approach-roadway realignment must finish first, and the current public target for the six new lanes is October 2029.
When will Puerto Verde open?
Mexico targets 2027 operations on its side. On the U.S. side the project holds a Presidential Permit but has not begun construction, and that permit expires 31 May 2029 if construction has not commenced.
Sources. CBP Border Wait Times feed (retrieved August 2026); Eagle Pass Business Journal (2024–2025); FreightWaves analysis of U.S. trade data (2024); Federal Register 90 FR 27435 and 89 FR 48247; TDLR TABS2026006714; Zócalo (2024); El Financiero (2025); La Prensa de Coahuila (2026); The Geography of Transport Systems (Laredo World Trade Bridge). Verified as of August 2026; project statuses change and every figure should be re-verified before it is relied upon.