“We're trying to be sure that our children and our grandchildren have a transportation network that will allow them to move so you can get across the region easily,” said Robert Daigh, Williamson County senior director of infrastructure, during a Jan. 15 Hutto Chamber of Commerce luncheon presentation.
The gist
Williamson County officials are planning a number of major road projects in the coming years. While the East Wilco Highway will take years before it reaches completion, it will allow businesses to develop in the southeast quadrant of Hutto, Daigh said.
“[For] big businesses, it takes time to grow the seeds,” Daigh said. “Everything that’s in this quadrant is just getting ready to blossom.”
Diving in deeper
While highways can have traffic stops or signals on the road, freeways allow high-speed traffic to travel without interruptions by utilizing on-ramps.
The Texas Department of Transportation is currently working with Travis County, Williamson County and nearby cities to expand FM 973, Daigh said. Eventually, it will become a freeway from Hwy. 290 in Mayor to the Samsung Highway in Taylor and be widened into a six-lane arterial from the Samsung Highway to Hwy. 79 in Taylor.
Daigh also expects SH 95 to one day become a freeway, he said.
County officials are discussing the possibility of TxDOT taking over the first three segments of the East Wilco Highway—from SH 130 to Hwy. 79—and turning it into a TxDOT freeway, Daigh said. While that is the current vision for the highway, an official deal has not been reached, he said.
With so many north to south freeway possibilities, a future east to west connection between Hutto and Taylor will one day be needed, Daigh said.
“Samsung Highway is going to be that east-west freeway,” Daigh said.
Put in perspective
As a long-term goal, the county is planning for a large roadway loop around Taylor, Daigh said. The last county bond allowed construction funding for two thirds of Corridor A2, which will connect the Samsung Highway to Corridor A3, according to Daigh’s presentation.
An important piece of the east to west freeway is improving and expanding Chandler Road, as a future extension to the road will connect it to Corridor A3. Both roads are in a planning phase, according to the presentation.
Together, the road projects will make a loop around the outskirts of Taylor, allowing for traffic to bypass congested city roads.
As Chandler Road and FM 1660 has seen several “horrific” accidents, Precinct 4 Commissioner Russ Boles championed funding an overpass for the intersection, which is currently under design, Daigh said.
Remember this?
The East Wilco Highway has eight total segments and will start in south Hutto near SH 130 and reconnect to I-35 in Bell County, Daigh said. While segments 1 and 4 of the East Wilco Highway have finished construction, segments 2 and 3 are ongoing, according to previous Community Impact reporting.
The county’s last bond package will allow officials to extend the East Wilco Highway up to Hwy. 29, which crosses the San Gabriel River, Daigh said. The East Wilco Highway’s total projected cost is $347.26 million, according to previous Community Impact reporting.
Looking ahead
Other Hutto-specific road projects in the future include constructing a Hutto Arterial road from FM 1660 to CR 132, along with realigning CR 132, according to the presentation.
Funding to construct the Hutto Arterial has yet to be identified, according to the county’s website.
How we got here
Daigh estimates the county has spent close to half a billion dollars in Hutto and Taylor over the last few years, in part due to the election of Boles in 2018.
“He's only one vote, but he's worked really hard to bring dollars to the east side and the half-billion dollars that's been put on the ground today,” Daigh said.
