Phil Wilson, executive director of the Texas Department of Transportation, said the agency has made major progress in addressing congestion on the state's most traveled corridors: Hwy. 290, Hwy. 249 and Hwy. 288 in Houston, and I-35 and SH 183 in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Wilson provided the keynote introduction Feb. 18 on the first day of the eighth annual Texas Transportation Forum in downtown Austin where about 1,400 attendees from throughout the state discussed transportation issues.
He said safety is the department's No. 1 priority and that the agency got approval for more than 660 projects through the Safety Bond Program a few years ago to make roads safe with wider overpasses, new left-turn lanes and median barriers. Wilson said the Texas A&M Transportation Institute reported that the improvements have saved about 183 lives and prevented 661 injuries per year.
"There's a subconscious level of detail, execution and focus to be safe each and every day," he said. "I truly believe when you focus on safety, you get better production, you get better results from people at the end of the day. Safety drives a lot of what we do."
The agency's No. 2 focus is improving congestion on the state's busiest roadways. Wilson said that in the last legislative session, state legislators authorized additional comprehensive development agreements, or CDAs, for work along Hwy. 290, I-35 and SH 183 in Dallas and Hwy. 249 and Hwy. 288 in Houston. The CDAs also include expanding the work on the Grand Parkway toll road connecting I-10 to Hwy. 290 in Houston.
"The exciting news is that since the Legislature approved that authority, construction is already under way or will be under way on four of those projects this year," Wilson said.
He said CDAs allow the agency to leverage limited state dollars quickly, save money and stretch the dollars TxDOT already has. TxDOT employees have already identified $270 million of savings, such as refinancing $810 million in debt on the Central Texas Turnpike System, a move that will save $200 million during the life of the bonds.
"We're not done yet," Wilson said.
Travis County Commissioner Gerald Daugherty, who provided the welcome address for the opening forum session, said he supports TxDOT's commitment to improving the state's roadways because he feels that Austin focuses too much on alternative modes of transportation instead of on roads.
"I think you need to have elected officials who are willing to stand up and say we [need to] have meetings about transportation as it relates to traffic," he said. "We need to give a lot more attention to road construction, and that is not only total added capacity, but intersection improvements, upgrades of existing roads that we have. We just don't have much opportunity to do that here."
