TRANSPORTATION
This is the second in a twopart series on the annual Transportation Summit held on Feb. 20.
Road closures and traffic are officially the norm for this area, as anyone whose wheels have touched Interstate 35 know. The massive population boom means that roads are under constant construction with the hopes of keeping up with the growing number of drivers. Texas Department of Transportation Director Marc Williams said that will not be changing anytime soon as there are $100 billion in transportation construction projects planned across the state over the next ten years. And for those that are interested in what is in the works for our transportation infrastructure, the San Marcos Area Chamber of Commerce and the Greater San Marcos Partnership hosted the annual Transportation Summit, which occurred on Feb. 20.
Williams said the entire state population is growing rapidly, but Hays County and Comal County make up one of the fastest growing regions.
“Texas is growing as this region is growing,” Williams said. “Texas recently surpassed 30 million residents, and we add 1,300 new residents every day in Texas. It’s an extraordinary rate of growth. … In 2021 and 2022, many of you all may know, Comal and Hays County ranked number 5th and 7th nationally in terms of the rate of population growth. … The demand on us is really to keep pace.”
Williams said projects that will help reduce congestion on I-35 will be smaller, local thoroughfares.
“Projects like the FM 110 project are so vitally important to helping sustain not only just the accessibility but also … to help reduce congestion,” Williams said. “If you can avoid introducing local traffic and give people alternatives to I-35, that’s very critical. They don’t have to be big alternatives like SH 130 or [US Hwy] 281. We’re addressing those, but they can also be local alternatives like FM 110.”
Williams said the Tx-DOT Chairman demands that those at TxDOT “execute, execute, execute,” and he feels they are fulfilling that charge.
“That often comes with disruption. No one likes to deal with construction in a work zone, and we appreciate that. We do our best to manage those effectively and efficiently,” Williams said. “In terms of recent records that we’ve established, we have a record number of contracts, record number of contract awards [and] record number of payments going out to the contractors. And I point that out to point out that that work is being done. It’s not just projects that are being announced. It’s projects that we’re breaking ground on, and the work is proceeding at a record pace.”
Williams said much of the funding has come from propositions one and seven that were ballot measures passed around 2017.
“We have a record $39 billion worth of construction underway, and I think we’ll soon surpass $40 billion,” Williams said. “To put that into perspective, I recently learned that the state of California has about $13 to 14 billion in highway construction that’s comparable going on right now.”
Williams said the Tx-DOT Unified Transportation Program, or ten-year plan, is estimating that there will be $100 billion worth of construction projects funded over the next ten years, which represents around 9,000 upcoming projects. He said with the additional effort that goes into design, utility relocations [and] right-of-way acquisition, that increases that number by approximately $14 billion.
Williams said that Tx-DOT is focusing on the quality of the transportation system as well.
“We have almost double the amount of bridges and bridge class structures as the next state, yet we ranked number one or two on the list of top quality bridges as rated by the Federal Highway Administration,” Williams said. “Not only is it an investment in quantity, but it’s an investment in quality. And that’s something that we are working very hard to continue to maintain.”
Williams said that safety has been a challenge.
“We lose about 12 individuals a day tragically on our highways,” Williams said. “We had about 3,600 … fatalities on our road back in 2019. Of course during the pandemic that number jumped substantially [by] over 20%. In 2021, 4,456 [fatalities]. Now we’ve begun to see that come down a little bit. We’re hopeful when the 2023 numbers are done we’ll be a little below 4,300. That’s certainly not something to celebrate at all. That’s still nearly 12 individuals every day that are not going home to their friends and families, and it’s something that we have to continue to work to address and to improve. So that remains our number one focus when it comes to how we maintain and manage our transportation system statewide, and I hope that you all will help me to continue to emphasize the importance of something as simple as wearing a seatbelt. If everybody wore a seatbelt, we would reduce those numbers by about 40%.”
The summit can be viewed at this link youtube. com/watch?v=1wZRXcNRh74.
