The only road to SpaceX has seen traffic grow more than tenfold in five years — now TxDOT wants to expand it

Anyone who has visited SpaceX’s headquarters, the new city of Starbase, or Boca Chica Beach knows there’s only one narrow, bumpy road in and out — but a 14-mile stretch of that highway is about to get an overhaul. 

In the coming years, the Texas Department of Transportation plans to widen the narrow two-lane State Highway 4, also known as Boca Chica Boulevard, into a divided four-lane highway to ease traffic congestion. 

The project would expand the roadway from Farm-to-Market Road 1419 to the city of Starbase’s LBJ Boulevard and add a 3.75-mile-long bicycle lane from Quicksilver Avenue to LBJ Boulevard towards Boca Chica Beach. 

The project cost has not yet been released, and the state doesn’t need to acquire any further right-of-way. Construction bids are expected to be released by the summer of 2026. 

TxDOT expects the project to reduce traffic congestion, the frequency of crashes, and improve overall safety. 

Major traffic increase

What was once a quiet route to the beach has seen traffic grow more than tenfold in just a few years — and is on track to nearly triple again in the decades ahead.

In 2019, about 645 vehicles used the road each day. By 2023, that number had jumped more than sevenfold to 4,683 daily vehicles.

The growth has not slowed. 

From 2023 to 2024 alone, daily traffic rose about 44%, increasing from 4,683 to 6,743 vehicles. That’s an increase of roughly 2,060 vehicles per day on that single roadway.

Overall, traffic on Boca Chica Boulevard in 2024 was more than 10 times higher than in 2019, and TxDOT expects the trend to continue.

By 2050, about 19,700 vehicles per day are projected to use the road — nearly three times today’s traffic.

Despite the growth, TxDOT data shows there’s been one fatal crash and three serious crashes between 2019 and 2023. 

Conservation challenges and proposed solutions

In late November, TxDOT submitted an environmental impact assessment to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. 

The highway is surrounded by the Lower Rio Grande Valley Wildlife Refuge, and the roadway often floods, has little shoulder space, and has many potholes. 

The plan to expand the highway would remove 24 acres of emergent wetlands and 6.4 acres of tidal flats, both of which are comprised mostly of mud and sand.

TxDOT expects to offset environmental impacts by drawing from the proposed Rockhands Mitigation Bank, which is land set aside to make up for wetlands or habitats that are damaged by construction projects.

When a project — like a road expansion — destroys wetlands, federal rules require the loss to be offset. Instead of restoring wetlands on the construction site itself, agencies can pay into a mitigation bank. That money is used to protect or restore wetlands somewhere else.

Rockhands Mitigation Bank, which would be located north of the city of Starbase, intends to do that. 

Its creation was under review this fall, when the city of Starbase sought to annex an additional 1,200 acres to the city limits. That annexation was tabled for further review, but the plan is to draw from that same bank when SpaceX expands its launchpad on the dunes of Boca Chica beach. 

A growing community

The larger roadway would accommodate the city of Starbase, which has approved several commercial projects along Boca Chica Boulevard — such as Rio West, a mixed-use development with housing, retail, and restaurants along the Rio Grande river. 

Some Cameron County leaders are asking TxDOT to extend the renovations even farther west and add a turning lane to reduce traffic from commuters in Brownsville and from SpaceX employees. 

“The four lanes proposed for State Highway 4 should be continued to Farm to Market 511, as this is a natural transition location and that’s where SpaceX employees travel, and others come from,” said Pete Sepulveda Jr., Cameron County administrator and leader of the Cameron County Regional Mobility Authority.

Farm-to-Market Road 511 connects Boca Chica Boulevard to the Port of Brownsville. 

 “The AM peak hour at this location includes heavy southbound left turns on FM511 to heavy eastbound through movement on Boca Chica Boulevard,” Sepulveda said. “The afternoon is a reverse pattern.” 

In response, TxDOT described that it’s separately considering retrofitting Boca Chica Boulevard between Farm-to-Market 511 and Farm-to-Market 1419 — otherwise known as North Oklahoma Avenue and North Indiana Avenue.