State funds to clear U.S. 281 bottleneck
The state will spend $9.2 million to clear another obstacle along U.S. 281 and continue upgrades to the route to make it Interstate-quality.
The Hidalgo County Regional Mobility Authority received $9.2 million in state funding to construct an overpass in Brooks County on U.S. 281 at Farm-to-Market Road 755, which stretches from Encino to Rio Grande City. Other than a relief route around Premont and a connection to Interstate 37 from George West, the intersection at FM 755 is one of the last major impediments before U.S. 281 is at expressway standards, a key step toward getting the Interstate 69 designation that economic development officials say is critical to attracting companies to the county.
“If we’re ever going to be able to make 281 part of I-69, we’ve got to start paying attention to those improvements along 281,” said mobility authority chairman Dennis Burleson. “This is one more obstacle off of 281 to make it look more like an Interstate.”
Under the funding agreement with the Texas Department of Transportation’s pass-through program, the mobility authority will pay for the $10.8 million overpass and then be reimbursed over time by the state. The overpass will be the first construction project for the mobility authority — a locally funded governmental agency created in 2005 to build needed transportation projects — outside of its work on the tollway connecting the county’s international bridges to Expressway 83.
The mobility authority also applied for $58.3 million in state funding to construct the La Joya bypass, a relief route that allows drivers to bypass a string of stoplights in the city by traveling about a mile-and-a-half north of the city.
The Texas Transportation Commission included the La Joya bypass in a second round of funding available if any of the $173.4 million in funded projects come in under cost or can’t be completed. Last year, the mobility authority was awarded $8.5 million in a similar fashion as part of a $78.5 million state injection into its tollway project as part of the pass-through program.
TxDOT district engineer Mario Jorge said the state prioritized funding the FM 755 overpass because of safety concerns. Drivers turning onto U.S. 281 regularly misjudge the distance and speed of oncoming traffic to make it one of the deadliest stretches of the highway. But Jorge said the overpass will also continue work to upgrade U.S. 281 that began in 2009 when the state used $114 million in federal economic stimulus funds to remove bottlenecks in Falfurrias, George West and Ben Bolt by adding overpasses and bypasses.
State Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, D-McAllen, a member of the transportation and homeland security committee, said the work along U.S. 281 will make transportation from the Valley faster for commerce and hurricane evacuations.
“This will take care of Encino so we’ll have 281 pretty much nonstop between the Valley and San Antonio,” Hinojosa said. “It will make it much easier to transport merchandise from the Valley, which will end up helping us in our continued growth.”
The transportation commission also funded a $25 million direct connector from U.S. 77 to the State Highway 550 tollway that skirts the edges of Brownsville en route to the Port of Brownsville.
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Jared Janes covers Hidalgo County government, Edinburg and legislative issues for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4424.
