Two-minute impact
The $6.9 million project involved expanding the former two-lane roadway into three lanes, which includes a center turn lane and additional right-turn lanes at various locations. The improvements are part of bigger plans to convert this small road into a six-lane thoroughfare.
“It's a regional roadway that eventually will go all the way up to Florence,” Precinct 3 Commissioner Valerie Covey said. “As we have seen the amount of traffic and the amount of homes being built and other things on [Ronald Reagan Boulevard], I knew that folks needed another path.”
The project is a result of 2019 voter-approved bond funding. Covey explained, however, that this project was not initially included in plans for the funding.
“I think we were surprised at the speed of the growth," Covey said. "I think everybody is just amazed at the amount of folks [moving to Williamson County] in a short amount of time, and that's why we're continually looking at our priority projects. This was one of them.”
What else?
Covey added that the county has saved over $92 million since 2011 paying down debt early, underscoring the county’s strong financial management and commitment to fiscal stability.
The debt service tax rates have remained the same for both the 2019 and 2023 bond packages, meaning taxpayers did not see a tax increase from the county due to passage of the recent bonds.
“In fact, we've lowered the tax rate for the bond defeasance, and we have maintained our AAA bond rating for the county, which says a lot about the policies that we have in place,” Covey said. “The voters continue to vote for the bonds because they see the need. And they also see that we're actually doing what we say we're going to do. We're putting lane miles on the ground, we're making it safer.”
Earlier this month, Williamson County announced that it again attained the AAA bond rating from two rating agencies, Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor's Global.
Obtaining a bond rating is the first step in issuing debt. In the November 2023 general election, Williamson County voters approved $825 million for road projects. The Commissioners Court then, in 2024, approved the sale of $160 million in voter-approved road bonds and $167 million in tax anticipation notes allocated for road construction and right-of-way acquisition, according to a news release.
The Fitch rating report noted that the county’s “sustained expansion in the regional economy has driven strong revenue growth in Williamson County over the past decade.”
Kyle Klussmann, a representative from the construction contractor for the project Joe Bland Construction L.P., said the completion of a project like CR 245 is incredibly rewarding. He explained that with all the growth, the projects from the county keep coming.
“[We're] trying to finish these projects in a timely manner for WilCo and the owners, because they're just one after the other. Time, I think, is the main [challenge]," Klussmann said.
