South Padre Island residents say a second causeway could reshape access to the popular beach destination — if it ever gets built

Holly Beach is a remote bayside wildlife oasis across the Laguna Madre from South Padre Island, at least for now. 

On Thursday afternoon, hawks flew overhead, seabirds sat in the water, and an armadillo ran across an unpaved roadway that requires travelers to use four-wheel drive to navigate through nearly 3 miles of deep trenches.

Stephen Murphy, owner of Captain Murphy’s Fishing Charters on South Padre Island, would know – he recently purchased 10 acres of land near Holly Beach to escape the ‘city life’ of the popular South Texas tourism destination. 

“It’s real quiet out there. There’s a lot of animals,” Murphy said. “It is really beautiful over there once you go into the interior. Just driving by on the roads, you don’t see a lot, but if you go into the refuges, it’s really amazing. Stuff people have never seen. There’s bobcats, there’s ocelots, there’s like a lot of big nilgai and deer, even coyotes, javelinas, and there’s tons of birds.” 

Murphy remembers when South Padre Island was mainly open fields and natural dunes with few beach houses on stilts. 

“The causeway that we have is aging; it’s got lots of problems,” he said. “I think it’s only a matter of time before they say they’re no longer going to have cars on it unless they do a lot of work on it. This new causeway is really needed.”

Murphy thinks a second causeway will bring more tourists to the island, which would be a boon to his fishing charter business because visitors won’t worry so much about congestion. But he hopes there is a buffer to protect the Laguna Madre and the wildlife refuge from plastic garbage that falls from vehicles. 

“There’s a lot of littering and they just throw [garbage] in the back of their vehicles and it just blows out and it’s all over the roads,” he said. 

Local support and lingering doubts

If Texas Department of Transportation plans come to fruition, the shores of Holly Beach could have more people fishing, swimming, or kayaking under a new causeway that would connect the mainland of Cameron County with South Padre Island. 

That’s the way some people already use the island’s only bridge – the Queen Isabella Causeway – and a new connector could be even more friendly to bicyclists and pedestrians crossing over. 

“Instead of going through three towns, you can cut your time [to the island] in like a third,” Murphy said. “For people living in the upper Valley, you could go that way and probably knock off 20 miles.” 

The new bridge, designated Stage Highway 104, would connect to the intersection of Farm-to-Market Road 106 and Farm-to-Market Road 510 near Bayview and Holly Beach – two unincorporated communities in Cameron County. 

For years, there have been concerns that the new bridge would hurt businesses in Port Isabel – something South Padre Island Councilman Kerry Schwartz disputes. 

Schwartz says congestion hinders tourism because visitors are frequently concerned about spending their vacation stuck in traffic. 

“It will free them up of that big traffic jam,” Schwartz said. “Once you get in there, you’re not going to go shopping [during peak season], you want to get to the island. We’ve outgrown the bridge that we have now.” 

But overall, Schwartz said that the project is about safety for residents and visitors who might need emergency services or to escape hurricanes, which coincide with the island’s peak travel season. 

Safety was top of mind for resident Theresa Metty, a retired small business owner who lives on South Padre Island. She’s been hearing about the second bridge for decades now, with no construction in sight. 

“I’m not against the LNG plants…But we can’t get out of our own way to create a second way off this island? I think, economically, it would be phenomenal. But to me, that’s not the primary focus,” Metty said about the ongoing liquified natural gas projects. “They had the political will to get the LNG plants done, but they don’t have the political will to create a second access? I think the money is there, there’s no doubt about it. It’s infuriating.” 

Environmental considerations and land use

Hotels on South Padre Island and the existing causeway are visible from Holly Beach. 

Plans would bring travelers from the remote area just north of Laguna Vista to the bayside, where Cameron County Beach Access No. 5 is open to the public. 

The county beach access areas are not within walking distance of condos or beach houses; instead, beachgoers and campers spend their days in the sun or under the stars – often driving their vehicles on the beachfront. 

There’s a members-only windsurfing park on the bayside where TxDOT plans one alternative bridge route. The second option is much farther north, which appears to be beyond the existing central roadway of State Highway 100. 

It’s several miles north of most South Padre Island retailers, restaurants, and gas stations, just before the roadway ends and the dunes continue. 

Much of the land on the island is privately owned, and several landowners had for-sale signs on the north side near the area where TxDOT may build the bridge. 

The Queen Isabella Causeway is a bottleneck fed by traffic from three main roadways on the Texas mainland to South Padre Island and back: Farm-to-Market Road 510, State Highway 100, and State Highway 48. 

Cost, timeline, and federal review

The second bridge is estimated to cost between $800 million and $1 billion, but there is currently no funding for the project, TxDOT officials said.  

Still, a public hearing with a schematic design and environmental plan is expected to be held in late 2026. 

The final environmental decision is expected by 2027, followed by about five years of design and right-of-way work through 2032, with construction continuing through 2038.

TxDOT is currently soliciting public feedback on the project as it prepares an updated environmental impact report. 

A 2012 federal environmental study found that capturing runoff before it enters the bay could reduce pollution, protect seagrass and tidal flats that shelter endangered species, and help preserve the ocelot habitat.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the Environmental Protection Agency under the Trump Administration must sign off on the project. Public comments are open through Nov. 21.