Posted on 12/20/2007 2:03:44 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Highways
The Texas Department of Transportation plans to let contracts for $4.1 billion in construction in 2008 are in jeopardy after having to return around $950 million to Washington over the past 18 months. The mood in Austin is uncertain, although voters approved Proposition 12 in November, authorizing the next Texas Legislature in 2009 to issue up to $5 billion in bonds (paid from general revenue) to build highway projects.
A required independent audit of the Texas Department of Transportation during 2007 recommended that the department “should continue to pursue Comprehensive Development Agreements (CDA) and toll pricing at levels that would fund mobility.” TxDOT has released a first phase plan for the Trans-Texas Corridor 35 (TTC-35) to begin with a connection to Interstate 35 south of San Antonio and Loop 9 for the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Institutions
Voters in 57 Independent School Districts throughout Texas passed $6.8 billion in building and renovation bonds this past November 6. The largest of these were in Beaumont, Cypress-Fairbanks (Houston area), Denton, Dickinson (Houston area), Fort Bend (Houston area), Fort Worth, Houston, Irving, Leander (Austin area), Port Arthur, Prosper (Dallas area), Spring Branch (Houston area), and Texas City.
Proposition 4 in last November’s election, also passed, will fund construction for four new prisons – three adult and one youth facility.
Hot Spots
Dallas
Various reports show North Texas retail and industrial construction up dramatically in 2007, with more than 15 million square feet of industrial space currently in design and under construction. Former cotton and milo fields south of Dallas are being leveled for distribution warehousing facilities along Interstate 45 near the Union Pacific (UP) Intermodal facility that was completed in 2005 and along Interstate 35E near what is becoming known as the Southern Gateway.
Downtown Dallas will continue to look like a boom town during 2008 with tower cranes filling the sky along the Woodall Rogers Freeway/Spur 366, Victory and uptown areas. Construction is expected to begin in early 2008 to create a deck park over the depressed mainlanes of Woodall Rogers Freeway. As Woodall Rogers/Spur 366 emerges at its western terminus, its future holds that it will continue westward onto the Margaret Hunt Hill bridge, currently under construction. This, the first of Dallas’ three signature Santiago Calatrava bridges to cross the Trinity River, will tie into Singleton Blvd. in a deteriorated area of West Dallas. The increased traffic in this area is expected to serve as a revitalization catalyst. Construction on the Trinity Parkway reliever route to Stemmons Frwy. could begin in late 2008.
Austin
Cranes also tower over downtown Austin, where currently more than one dozen hotels, condominiums and mixed-use high rises are under construction along Lady Bird Lake. The idea of work downtown/live downtown is another way that Austin is combating traffic congestion on its freeways. On the other hand, Austin’s neighboring counties, Hays and Williamson, are in the top 100 fastest-growing counties in the nation for housing units and retail/light commercial.
Houston
Although new highway projects in the Houston area will remain down, building in the surrounding suburban counties will continue strong in 2008. Fort Bend and Brazoria counties on Houston’s southwest side, with their growing communities of Katy, Sugar Land and Pearland will continue as a hotbed of residential and light commercial construction.
El Paso
The expansion of Fort Bliss and Biggs Army Airfield to accommodate up to 20,000 additional military personnel has thrown the El Paso area into a building frenzy. The dirt is flying and four new BCT (Brigade Combat Team) centers are popping up on military property. New housing developments are under way in Northeast El Paso to accommodate families that will be joining their soldiers. The Ysleta ISD is currently building out a $250-million bond package and plans to propose another bond of the same size within the next year or two.
City leaders have plans for the downtown area of El Paso as well; however projects other than the new U.S. Courthouse are dependent upon private dollars. El Paso’s Victorian and Art Deco downtown high rises sit empty and mothballed, waiting for private dollars to return them to glory.
Trans-Texas Corridor PING!
Texas is about to have a decade and a half of hugh wealth
reason ?..........taxes, space, workers,weather
Reports I’ve seen say auto manufactors and big building manufactoring (washing machines,refrigerators, etc) are
acomin’ big time.........
Also in late 08 the land will be ripe to buy,hold three years and turn......
I’m all in...............I wanna buy land and build my own golf course in N Texas
Damnit, TSR. Quit opening your BFM about Texas. We quit taking reservations.[:)>
Nothing to see here.....move along.
There’s so much gas in the Barnett Shale Field in FtWorth-Dallas area; trying finding someone to sell. LOL
kitty change for what $$$$$ allowances are already in the works........Texas is about to have several small cities / towns become big metropolitans
And this article doesn’t even mention the multi-layered spaghetti bowl being constructed in San Antonio. It gives one pause to think of Mexican truckers flying down those elevated roadways.
The TXDOT plans ensure that wherever you go, you will be subjected to miserable stretches of one-lane traffic. They especially like to do this in major cities during the peak summer driving months.
BTTT
Sweet; but when one pays Dallas-FtWorth airport for drilling/leasing rights in the amount of $200 mill; that is not what I call kitty change and that is not the royalties which are going to be unbelievable.
“There’s so much gas in the Barnett Shale Field in FtWorth-Dallas area; trying finding someone to sell. LOL”
I got some land and mineral rights in SE Arlington you can buy. You’ll have to wait 24 months on the rights, they are leased right now.
Sorry, already own mineral rights in the Barnett Shale Field. LOL
More is always better! That’s OK, I’ll keep mine. I have a piece near Weatherford too, but the seismic test said bad formation, darn it. Chief Oil backed out of drilling that one.
Which roads are involved?
Why can’t all states be like Texas. “Y’all” are actually doing stuff that benefits our country, unlike Murderland.
Oil and Gas os always a crap shoot.
Oh no, not another golf course.................
A lot of construction has been on NW Loop 410 for a few years now, and more recently on 281N.
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