WASHINGTON, DC The new five-year federal transportation bill signed into law in December creates a congressionally designated Texas highway corridor that will be Interstate Highway 14 in the future.

The designated Central Texas Corridor begins in West Texas and generally follows U.S. Highway 190 through Killeen, Belton, Bryan-College Station, Huntsville, Livingston, Woodville and Jasper before terminating on State Highway 63 at the Sabine River. 

Texas Senator John Cornyn sponsored the I-14 corridor designation amendment in the U.S. Senate.  It was authored and presented in the U.S. House of Representatives by Texas Congressman Brian Babin of Woodville with support from Congressman Blake Farenthold of Corpus Christi, both members of the House Transportation Committee.

The Strategic Highway Coalition has been working for more than a decade in support of Texas highway improvements that will improve access between major U.S. Army installations at Fort Bliss, Fort Hood and Fort Polk and the Texas strategic deployment seaports that support them - the Port of Corpus Christi and the Port of Beaumont.

A stretch of U.S. 190 serving the Fort Hood-Killeen area and extending approximately 25 miles west from Interstate 35 at Belton to Copperas Cove is already at interstate highway standard.  It will be renamed as I-14 and added to the national interstate highway system once a technical review is completed and the Federal Highway Administration, the American Association of Highway and Transportation Officials and the Texas Transportation Commission approved the new designation.  That process could be completed within the next year.

A feasibility study of upgrading the U.S. 190 corridor prepared for the TxDOT and completed in 2012 set the stage for designation of future Interstate 14 by Congress.  It recognized the benefits of a high volume east-west highway that will serve a vast section of Texas between Interstate 20 and Interstate 10. 

Officials anticipate the future interstate will consist of upgrades to the existing U.S. 190 roadway and that additional studies will be needed to determine specific local routing alternatives.  U.S. 190 improvements will take place incrementally over time as funding becomes available and traffic demand grows with the state's population and freight traffic.