At their regular meeting Thursday, the Texas Transportation Commission acted unanimously to approve roughly $250 million in highway project contracts funded by Proposition 12 bond proceeds, which were authorized by the Texas Legislature in 2009. This contract letting is the first for the $2 billion in highway projects approved for Proposition 12 funding late last year.
Included in this month’s contracts is a major corridor mobility project, selected to expand I-35 from a four- to a six-lane highway, valued at approximately $165 million. This contract will widen I-35 from north of Waco to West. Nearly 39 percent of the state’s population lives along the I-35 corridor, and this project brings the Commission closer to fulfilling their promise to “finish” I-35 by expanding it to six lanes between San Antonio and Hillsboro.
Rehabilitation projects account for 12 of the 16 projects, worth over $84 million and improving roadways in 11 Texas counties. Safety projects comprise the remainder and account for over $2 million. Among the safety projects is a project to install a wire cable barrier in the median of I-10 in TxDOT’s San Antonio District.
To select projects, Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) staff utilized a process similar to the collaborative approach used to select American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) projects. TxDOT districts and Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) were asked to develop a list of all needed projects that fit the bond program’s requirements and criteria to evaluate them. In all, Texas MPOs and TxDOT districts identified over 850 potential projects with a construction value exceeding $8.9 billion.
Using the criteria recommended by TxDOT’s partners, the Department divided projects among three areas and used the following criteria to determine which would be recommended for funding:
- Corridors of statewide significance, which were recommended based on traffic density and crash rates;
- Rehabilitation and safety projects, which were recommended based on pavement improvement index and safety improvement index; and
- Mobility projects, which were recommended based on the amount of delay reduced and their correlation to the “Top 100 Most Congested Segments of Roadway.”
More information, including a complete list of projects selected for Proposition 12 funding, or to monitor the progress of these projects on the TxDOT Project Tracker,visit TxDOT’s website: www.txdot.gov.