Hays County commissioners unanimously approved a partnership Feb. 12 with TxDOT that will allow the county to pair its own money with federal dollars to fund improvements to nine road projects.

Mike Weaver, owner of Prime Strategies, an Austin transportation consulting firm that developed the project, presented the commissioners with a road construction package that will cost about $123 million. Hays County's share will be about $33 million.

"There has been a huge effort to try to fix the existing congestion problems in Buda and Kyle and to work on getting economic development like FM 110 on the east side [of San Marcos]," Weaver said.

Weaver also mentioned the planned connector from Hwy. 130 to FM 2001 and the effect that Hwy. 290 will have on the county's future as major considerations in the package.

The first project discussed during the presentation was FM 110, which will connect Hwy. 123 and Yarrington Road, creating an eastern loop around San Marcos.

Weaver said because FM 110 could be a catalyst to economic development on San Marcos' east side, the county could pay for the road using a transportation reinvestment zone, or TRZ. The county could use the increased values of property within half a mile on either side of the road to repay TxDOT.

Weaver called the idea a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" to finish a project that has been talked about for almost 40 years.

San Marcos City Council voted Feb. 5 to participate in a study with the county that will determine how much economic development could occur along the FM 110 route, and, therefore, how much tax revenue the city and county could expect to reap. The total cost of the study will be $110,000, and each entity's share will be $55,000.

The presentation also included a truck bypass that would connect FM 1626 with I-35, relieving Buda's downtown of commercial trucks. During public input meetings to develop the city's Comprehensive Master Plan, 93 percent of Buda residents indicated that diverting semitrailer traffic from downtown was either "important" or "very important."

"As time goes on, if we don't do this, the traffic within those residential neighborhoods of Buda, [residents] are just going to be overwhelmed," Precinct 2 Commissioner Mark Jones said.

The other road projects included in the plan are FM 150 in Kyle; FM 2001 and FM 967 in Buda; and Posey Road, RM 12 and the I-35 northbound ramps in San Marcos.