How it works: How does TxDOT prioritize construction?

Although the Texas Department of Transportation funds construction for highways and other major roads in the state right of way, metropolitan planning organizations prioritize project construction.

Texas has 25 metropolitan planning organizations, or MPOs, that create transportation policy, forecast mobility needs, administer regional planning, and channel state and federal funding for area projects. MPOs include the Houston-Galveston Area Council, the North Central Texas Council of Governments and the Capitol Area Metropolitan Planning Organization.

MPOs score project proposals on safety, mobility, environmental quality, economic development, and asset management and operations.

Then the MPO determines the funding and shovel-readiness of a project. If no funding is available and the project is far from being construction-ready, then it is shelved and could be revisited.

Once a project is approved by the MPO, then projects are added to the Statewide Transportation Improvement Program or TxDOT’s 10-year Unified Transportation Program.