Many eyes have been set on the Gateway City for months worldwide with the talk of the Binational Park. Even though the project is in the beginning stages it’s trying to gain momentum to benefit both sister cities. The Rio Grande divides Laredo and Nuevo Laredo but a Binational Park project could join the two cities closer than ever before. Rick Archer Founding Principal at Oakland Partners architect was the person who was chosen to be the architect for the project.

Archer says that the thousand-acre park will preserve the ecosystem on both sides of the river and a bridge will join the two countries.

“There is the part that is more parks like on the sides of the river and those will only be accessible to people that country or anybody who passes through Border Patrol with proper documentation”, said Archer.

On the other hand, project officials say they asked if there could be a part of the bridge that people can use without using any form of documentation. Federal officials said there wouldn’t be a problem with this but if people would like to go across to the other country, they would have to pay a fee at the end of the bridge and take proper documentation.

However, this is all still in the concept phase and many details need to be ironed out. The Binational Park project is still in the beginning phases but both cities are making efforts to start on the right foot. The City of Nuevo Laredo has invested 72 million dollars to fix sewage in town since this affects the Rio Grande and on the U.S side, conservative groups are trying to preserve the river and native species in that area.

Archer says this project will take many years to bring to fruition.

“I would say Laredo can do this in 10 years, but it’s not going to happen in years, it’s not going to happen in two years this is a multiyear project. We need to gain momentum and get the first project off the ground”, said Archer. Archer says the first stage of the project will be the groundbreaking and then the park will be done in phases. Archer says that they will have a binational treaty in December. Another one of the projects will be a monarch sanctuary since this butterfly is an endangered species.