The Texas Department of Transportation recently announced preliminary plans for a new bridge to North Padre Island, offering two alternatives for the crossing.
The green alternative would expand the existing bridge — potentially adding a second level over the current causeway.
The orange alternative would construct an entirely new bridge, landing in the Sea Pines neighborhood of Padre Island.
Ted Morris, a Padre Island neighbor who lives just off Sea Pines Drive, said he supports a new bridge but strongly opposes any route that would bring a highway through his neighborhood.
"It's very quiet, a lot of kids riding bikes and e-bikes and um school bus routes and it's just a very quiet if they routed a highway through Sea Pines it's not gonna be the same and there's no one gonna be out here living here presently that's gonna be happy with that," Morris said.
Morris made his position on the orange alternative clear from the start.
"Sea Pines is a definite no," Morris said.
Neighbors across the bay in Flour Bluff share the same concerns. Shirley Thornton said the character of the Sea Pines community is worth protecting.
"When I think about the people who live at Sea Pines, they bought out there for a reason they're out away from everyone they have this quiet little their own little community and when people decide that that's how they they want to live. and then they find it's one thing to have a road come through, it's another to have a regional parkway come through," Thornton said.
Thornton described what the green alternative would look like in practice.
"They talked about a double-decker, kind of a, you know, a second level which would bring it over, which would just bring it over the existing bridge," Thornton said.
TxDOT worked with concerned neighbors to narrow the proposals down to just two options. With both Morris and Thornton opposed to the orange alternative, the causeway expansion remains the preferred option for these Intracoastal neighbors.
There is currently no timeline or cost estimate for the project.
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