Local stimulus spending expected to start next month
McALLEN -- By May, orange barrels will pop up across Hidalgo County, compliments of the massive federal stimulus bill.
More than 17 miles of highways are expected to be renovated or rebuilt this year at a cost of more than $9 million, according to the Texas Department of Transportation.
That's $532,987 per mile, or about $7.60 for every man, woman and child in Hidalgo County, according to the agency.
The projects mostly focus on highways that ferry commercial freight traffic and others that funnel tourism and trade dollars from the U.S.-Mexico border, said Mario Jorge, a TxDOT engineer who oversees the Rio Grande Valley sector.
"A lot of those roads, they take a much worse beating than some of the other ones," Jorge said.
A busy stretch of South 10th Street from Hidalgo to Expressway 83 in McAllen will be repaved, eliminating the tar strips that now cover the path connecting La Plaza Mall to the international bridge.
Crews will also rebuild part of and repave Highway 107 east of U.S. 281, the main artery from Edinburg to the Delta region.
A small stretch of Farm-to-Market 1015, the road connecting Expressway 83 to the Progreso International Bridge, will also be resurfaced.
And three miles of Expressway 83 in Peñitas and La Joya will be repaved, according to the agency.
Billy Leo, mayor of La Joya, said that at peak times, the stretch of highway through his rural town looks more like a big-city roadway. More than 34,000 cars pass through the intersection of Expressway 83 and Tom Gill Road daily, he said.
"It's really needed ... the traffic is just out of control," he said. "You oughta come here at 5 p.m., on football game days ... it's like bumper to bumper."
Last month, the Texas Transportation Commission approved more than $1 billion in economic stimulus package projects.
Upgrades to U.S. 281 attracted the most attention, with commissioners giving rural Brooks County more than $77.9 million to improve the main highway connecting the Rio Grande Valley to northern Texas.
An analysis of stimulus data by Texas Watchdog, a Web-based news outlet, found that Brooks County is expected to receive more stimulus money from TxDOT per resident than any other county in Texas - about $9,766 per person.
The construction, across the entire TxDOT Pharr District will create an estimated 300 direct jobs or up to 1000 indirect jobs, according to TxDOT. The district includes Zapata, Jim Hogg, Brooks, Kenedy, Starr, Hidalgo, Willacy and Cameron Counties.
Contractors will bid on the projects next week in Austin and construction in Hidalgo County is slated to start sometime in May, Jorge said. He estimated that most of the projects will be completed in September.
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Sean Gaffney covers business, the economy and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4434.
