The $29 million budget includes the remaining balance from the voter-approved $275 million road bond from 2013, which included 60 projects the county promised to complete. With those projects and others completed or in the works, $23 million remains to be allotted to other projects.
The additional $6 million in funding for the road projects comes from the Long Range Transportation Plan funding in the approved Williamson County budget, according to county spokesperson Connie Odom.
Commissioners decided on the following funding for the transportation projects:
- $1 million to study express lanes on the Ronald Reagan Boulevard corridor south of RM 1431;
- $1 million to design two additional lanes for the Ronald Reagan corridor from SH 29 to FM 3405;
- $10 million for right of way acquisition for Phase 1 of the Corridor C or SH 29 Bypass project from SH 29 to the eastern end of Sam Houston Parkway;
- $6 million for right of way along the Hutto Relief Route;
- $2 million for right of way along Corridor H, or Sam Bass Road;
- $6 million for right of way along the RM 2243 corridor;
- $1.5 million for a project to straighten out a part of CR 258; and
- $1.5 million for other right of way for future projects.
Precinct 3 Commissioner Valerie Covey said the right of way needed for the CR 258 project was offered to Williamson County free of charge.
“We always want to take advantage of the fact when someone generously donates right of way so we can be able to knock that one out,” Precinct 2 Commissioner Cynthia Long said. “It will be a real plus in the savings on right of way in the future."
Commissioners will vote on assigning numbers to these projects at their March 19 meeting, according to Odom.
