According to EHUACOM, Corpus Christi is a city in the U.S. state of Texas, located in Nueces County. The city has 318,000 inhabitants and an urban area of 423,000 inhabitants (2021).
Introduction
According to mcat-test-centers.com, Corpus Christi is a port and industrial city in South Texas, located 210 kilometers south of San Antonio and 300 kilometers southwest of Houston, on the Gulf of Mexico. The city is located on the Nueces Bay and Corpus Christi Bay, with the center on the latter bay, more than 25 kilometers from the open sea. The name Corpus Christi literally means “body of Christ”. The city is somewhat remote and in an otherwise sparsely populated area. It’s not a major Texas hub, but it’s important to the industry. The Port of Corpus Christi is the fifth largest port in the United States and the furthest inland port on the Gulf of Mexico. It mainly transfers oil and agricultural products. In addition, there is a prominent presence of the military, which is the largest employer in the city. Corpus Christi does not have a large suburban area, unlike in many other large cities, three quarters of the inhabitants live in Corpus Christi itself. Small suburbs include Robstown and Portland. Northeast of Corpus Christi are the three towns of Aransas Pass, Port Aransas and Rockport, which, however, are separate from the urban area.
Corpus Christi is an average growing city by American standards, but not growing as fast as the other major cities in Texas. The population of Corpus Christi grew from 57,000 in 1940 to 232,000 in 1980 and 305,000 in 2010. Corpus Christi is slightly more prosperous than the other cities in South Texas, known as the poorer areas of the United States because of the many illegal immigrants and the remote locations.
Road network
Corpus Christi has a fairly extensive highway network for the size of the city. Two Interstate Highways serve the urban area. Interstate 37 begins in Corpus Christi and runs to San Antonio. Interstate 69 runs past the suburb of Robstown but needs further development as a long-haul link within Texas. Only US 181 serves Corpus Christi as US Highway. The highway network is mainly formed by State Highways. SH 35, together with US 181, forms the northeast approach road and crosses Corpus Christi Bay with two large bridges. The SH 44 forms the second western approach road and is a freeway only a few miles. More important is SH 286, the Crosstown Expressway that serves the southern downtown neighborhoods. SH 358 bypasses the urban area along the west and south sides of Corpus Christi and is also important for commuter traffic to and from downtown. In the south of Corpus Christi, SH 358 has two larger bridges to South Padre Island, an island that separates Corpus Christi Bay from the Gulf of Mexico.
History
The Corpus Christi Harbor Bridge
The construction of freeways was not taken into account in the post-war expansion of Corpus Christi. In the 1950s, no routes had been kept free for new highways, so that large-scale demolition had to be done before the construction of the first highways in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The first highways built were I-37 and SH 35 near downtown Corpus Christi. Most highways were completed through the second half of the 1970s, only SH 358 as a bypass opened to traffic in the latter half of the 1980s, although the section in southern Corpus Christi was completed earlier. In Corpus Christi, a special type of interchange has been built, the Bow Tie, the intersection between SH 286 and SH 358 in the south of the city.
Traffic intensities
Corpus Christi has hardly any congestion. The busiest point is SH 358 south of the interchange with SH 286 south of Corpus Christi with 160,000 vehicles per day. The road sections around the interchange between SH 286 and SH 358 are the busiest in the region, and the only ones with more than 100,000 vehicles per day, the other sections usually have 40,000 to 70,000 vehicles. The busiest point at Downtown Corpus Christi is the starting point of I-37 with 58,000 vehicles. Outside the urban area, traffic volumes are low, with 15,000 vehicles on I-37 toward San Antonio. There is virtually no long-distance traffic through Corpus Christi. There is only some through traffic along US 77 / I-69 through Robstown, from Houston to South Texas.
