JBS extension not necessary

A book was written and a movie made titled "A Bridge Too Far." But there's nothing epic or exciting about the possibility of extending a road too far in southeastern Ector County. In fact, some would say that too much money already has been spent working on the southern end of JBS Parkway.

But maybe all that activity is what fuels officials into thinking that they can translate a couple of inches of progress (in the form of two interchanges) into a couple of miles of more pavement.

Ector County commissioners were being wooed last week to throw in with the City of Odessa and Texas Department of Transportation to extend JBS for two miles south of its current dead-end at Interstate 20.

Matt Squyres, city public works director, told commissioners the city is considering contracting with the Texas Department of Transportation to extend the road from Interstate 20 south to FM 3503. Though TxDOT would contract with the city, Squyres said the city would like to enter an interlocal agreement with the county.

The local cost of the project would be around $3 million, but Squyres said $490,000 of that would likely be covered by federal funds secured by U.S. Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Midland.

Now let's stop right there. Is this a project that is crucial to any strategic plans at this time?
We'd have to say no.

But that has been the justification for the other two costly investments to make JBS Parkway a major point of entry to the city.

When the Family Dollar distribution center and Telvista built where the isolated mile or so of JBS dead-ended into I-20, TxDOT came along and decided the area deserved its own exit and interchange. That project has been complete for some time now.

Then it became a priority to revive a long abandoned plan to construct an interchange to hook up one of the major streets leading to the University of Texas of the Permian Basin and a burgeoning retail shopping district (as well as new hotels) with that lonely miles or so of JBS south of Business 20 and the railroad tracks.

And that made sense because Odessa otherwise would have a major interstate exit from which motorists wouldn't be able to reach the main part of the eastern city.

So the overpass at Business 20 and JBS, which some still claim at too high a price, is nearing completion.

But this could be time to pull the plug on JBS for now. The proposed two-mile extension really wouldn't accomplish much. Maybe it would provide better access to a recently constructed electric generating facility, but that's not exactly a high traffic location. And the extension would hook up with a lightly traveled road that has no development along with it.

Maybe someday that area will be ripe for more industrial development. But considering the current economic climate, that's not too likely anytime soon. And do we really need to be spending more public funds on roadways that don't provide any immediate benefit?
Let's give JBS Parkway a rest until more development can really be fully justified.