Texas Approves $100 Billion Road Building Plan

The Texas Department of Transportation approved a historic $142 billion in roadway spending over the next decade, doubling down on its plans to expand freeways in some of the state’s biggest cities. “The record spending is driven largely by increased funding from both the state – via money approved by voters in 2014 and 2015 – and additional money from the federal infrastructure bill passed in 2021,” explains Dug Begley in the Houston Chronicle.

Begley describes the agency’s ‘unified transportation plan,’ writing, “For the Houston area, the plan keeps many projects on pace, including the first $4.38 billion worth of work to rebuild the downtown Houston freeway system as part of the planned Interstate 45 rebuild within Loop 610.” The plan also includes widening and adding managed lanes to segments of Interstate 10 and supporting the expansion of the Grand Parkway’s southern segments.

Begley notes that, although local officials and advocates have long opposed TxDOT’s road-building ambitions, “Approval of the 2024 UTP was calm compared to the prior two versions, when opponents to various freeway projects – notably the I-45 widening and plans to widen Interstate 35 in Austin – organized against the freeway-centric plan. Wednesday, less than a dozen speakers, mostly positive, spoke before the commission.”