TXDOT to Convert PAVED Roads to GRAVEL!!!!!!

[Peyton]

http://www.texastribune.org/2013/07/25/with-funds-lacking-txdot-converts-road-to-gravel/

TxDOT Plans to Convert Some Roads to Gravel
by Aman Batheja July 25, 2013


Citing a funding shortfall and the impact of a historic oil drilling boom, Texas Department of Transportation officials on Thursday announced plans to move forward with converting some roads in West and South Texas to gravel.

Approximately 83 miles of asphalt roads will be torn up and converted to “unpaved” roads, TxDOT Deputy Executive Director John Barton said. The speed limits on those roads will probably be reduced to 30 mph.

“We would do these immediately, and I would suspect we would continue to convert other roadway segments as we continue to move forward,” Barton told the Texas Transportation Commission.

All of the affected roads have been so heavily damaged by truck activity related to oil and natural gas exploration that they have become safety hazards, Barton said. The process of converting the roads to gravel can be done quickly but will probably be delayed a few weeks as TxDOT gets permission from the commissioners to lower the speed limits on all of the impacted segments, Barton said.

The impacted roads are in four South Texas counties — Live Oak, Dimmit, LaSalle and Zavala — and two West Texas counties — Reeves and Culberson. The list of impacted roads includes a three-mile stretch of frontage road for Interstate 37 in Live Oak County. Barton said a plant that processes oil and natural gas has dramatically increased the truck traffic on that road.

“Instead of whipping in at 70 miles per hour, they’ll have to move in there at 30 miles per hour,” Barton said.

TxDOT also announced plans to implement stricter weight limits on 518 miles of road in the parts of the state undergoing a drilling boom. The process, called “load posting,” will restrict most energy sector trucks from those roads, prompting some companies to find alternate routes to drilling sites.

“If they choose to do that, they may increase deterioration on those routes as well and we would have to load-post them too,” Barton said. Companies will be able to pay for permits to get around the weight restrictions in some cases, he said.

In recent years, miles of rural roads in West and South Texas have been destroyed via the weight of thousands of trucks associated with the drilling boom. The damage to roads has contributed to a surge in vehicular accidents in some communities.

The transportation commission took Barton’s announcement as a sobering example of how funding challenges have hobbled the agency’s operations. Commissioner Jeff Moseley described the decision as a “historical moment” for the agency.

Commissioner Fred Underwood wanted to make sure the public understood the reasoning behind the decisions.

“This is a safety issue,” Underwood said. “It’s not ‘our roads are bad and we’re not going to keep them up.’ It’s ‘our roads are bad and we’re trying to protect the driving public.’”

The announcement came as state lawmakers are having trouble finding consensus on a measure that would provide TxDOT with nearly $1 billion more in annual funding. Gov. Rick Perry has threatened to call a third special session if lawmakers can’t find common ground on the issue before the end of the current special session.

TxDOT told lawmakers earlier this year that it needed $4 billion in additional annual funding just to maintain current congestion. On top of that, agency officials requested an additional $1.6 billion to address road damage from energy sector development. During the regular legislative session that ended in May, lawmakers found the agency $200 million a year for its overall roadwork and a one-time $500 million infusion for energy development-related issues.

[Peyton]

Here is a list of roads to be converted in Dimmit county:

FM 1916 From FM 190 to End of Roadway
FM 2688 From US 83 to End of Roadway
FM 1019 From FM 468 to End of Roadway
FM 1558 From FM 1019 to End of Roadway
FM 1867 SH 85 South to End Of Roadway
FM 186 From US 83 to End of Roadway
FM 3252 From FM 186 to End of Roadway



FM 186 was just repaved and widened within the past 18 months and is in excellent shape. Apparently they want to tear up a perfectly good road with no damage and replace it with gravel.

[SmTx]

Government at its best. A big f u to the big players while the tax payers get to drive around on crappy roads.

Lots of chipped windshields to come.

[Etxbuckman]

If they'd ever get I-45 north of Houston finished they could take all their crap and deal with the roads down there. But alas, they'll probably be working on this when my grandkids are dead.

[topduarte]

Its funny how TXDOT states its due to loads but the main factor is three things:

1. Poor and/or lack of maintenance of the roads.
2. Initial design did not take into future oil boom in these areas.
3. Weather in our great state varies and has alot to do to our large state. Weather destroys more roads than heavy loads.

[Peyton]

http://www.texastribune.org/2013/08/05/lawmakers-pass-roads-cash-plan-adjourn-special-ses/

Lawmakers Pass Roads Cash Plan, Adjourn Special Session
by Aman Batheja and Alexa Ura August 5, 2013

The Texas Legislature adjourned its third special session since May on Monday night after passing a measure estimated to increase transportation funding by $1.2 billion annually if Texas voters approve it next year.

"Let's adjourn this mutha,” said state Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, after the Senate had sent House Bill 1 back over to the lower chamber for final passage.

It was the third try by lawmakers since the end of the regular session to pass a measure to boost funding for the cash-strapped Texas Department of Transportation without raising taxes or fees.

Gov. Rick Perry praised both chambers for “increasing funding for transportation without raising taxes, which sends an incredibly strong message that Texas is committed to keeping the wheels of commerce turning, while protecting taxpayers.”

TxDOT Executive Director Phil Wilson said in a statement that the Legislature's "commitment to funding transportation is a significant step in advancing key mobility and maintenance projects into the future."

Both chambers had been debating for months the mechanics of a constitutional amendment that would divert some oil and gas production tax revenue currently earmarked for the Rainy Day Fund to road construction and maintenance.

In the first special session, a version passed the House but not the Senate. In the second special session, the holdup was in the House. As the House convened Monday, predictions were mixed as to whether the 100 votes needed to pass the latest version of the plan were there.

The latest version is estimated to raise $1.2 billion a year for TxDOT, a fraction of the more than $4 billion TxDOT has said it needs in additional annual funding to maintain current congestion levels as the state’s population grows.

The plan now requires the Legislature to vote in 2025 to continue the diversion or it would stop. It also requires TxDOT to find $100 million in “efficiencies” over the 2014-15 biennium and put that money toward paying the agency’s multibillion-dollar debt.

“They're a $20 billion a year agency and a lot of us believe that they can tighten the belt,” said state Rep. Joe Pickett, D-El Paso and the author of HB 1.

A repeated sticking point on the plan has been whether and how to create some sort of minimum balance, or floor, for the Rainy Day Fund’s balance below which tax revenue could not be diverted to transportation. The version passed by both chambers Monday will require a select joint committee of legislators to recommend a minimum balance before each regular legislative session. Then members of both chambers will be given a chance to vote in favor of that minimum balance or a different balance. If a majority of both chambers can’t agree on one by the 45th day of the session, then the committee’s recommendation will be enacted.

That final provision drew the support of several House Republicans who had been wary of the plan beforehand.

“It’s not a perfect bill but at least this gives us a say in what that floor will be,” said state Rep. Matt Krause, R-Fort Worth.

The Comptroller's Office has projected that the Rainy Day Fund will have an $8.5 billion balance after a deposit in November.

"This plan enables us to relieve congestion on Texas roadways while protecting our state's 'AAA' bond rating with a healthy balance in the Rainy Day Fund," said Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst. "To protect our Rainy Day Fund, I am recommending a floor of $6 to $7 billion for the next two years."

The measure approved Monday involved two related pieces of legislation, Senate Joint Resolution 1 and House Bill 1.



The House passed SJR 1 on Monday 106-21, which puts the constitutional amendment on the November 2014 ballot. (Twenty-two representatives were absent.) Lawmakers had opted not to put the measure on this November’s ballot out of concerns that it would hurt efforts to pass a $2 billion water proposition already set for that same ballot. The Senate passed SJR 1 last week.

HB 1, an enabling measure required to pass to allow the voter-approved constitutional amendment to be enacted, was the subject of nearly five hours of debate in the House Monday. Pickett offered three amendments on the measure and said if House members avoided adding others, lawmakers could possibly conclude the special session that evening.

House lawmakers ultimately adopted two amendments. One from state Rep. Joe Deshotel, D-Beaumont, would have given TxDOT the option to award money from the Texas Mobility Fund for port projects. The other, from state Rep. George Lavender, R-Texarkana, would have allocated more than $600 million in unspent funds from this year’s regular session to transportation.

When the House bill reached the Senate Monday evening, the Senate Finance Committee stripped Lavender’s amendment. State Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, was the only vote in opposition, citing concerns that Deshotel’s amendment would mean port projects would draw funding away from roads.

On the Senate floor, the bill passed with a 26-1 vote, with Seliger voting no. Senators tabled an amendment from state Sen. Carlos Uresti, D-San Antonio, that would have discouraged TxDOT from converting roads to gravel. The amendment was in response to the agency’s claim that it would be forced to convert roads to gravel in oil field counties in West and South Texas due to a lack of funds to maintain them. House lawmakers had debated a similar amendment from state Rep. Tracy King, R-Batesville, that did not garner enough support.

Transportation funding is the only issue Perry had included in the third special session’s agenda. Some lawmakers and activists had pushed him to add other issues such as campus carry legislation and tuition revenue bonds for colleges.

[Peyton]

http://www.epbusinessjournal.com/2013/08/uresti-amendment-would-have-set-guidelines-for-gravel-road-conversions/

Uresti amendment would have set guidelines for gravel road conversions
August 6, 2013

AUSTIN — State Sen. Carlos Uresti on Monday filed an amendment to House Bill 1 in the 3rd called session that would have required the Texas Department of Transportation to follow specific guidelines and seek local input before converting paved highways into gravel roads.

Amendment 1 to HB 1 was filed in response to TxDOT’s announced plan to tear up some 83 miles of asphalt roads in West and South Texas and convert them into gravel roads, due to the agency’s funding shortfall and its inability to address the impact of the state’s oil drilling boom on state roads. The plan also calls for reducing the speed limit on the converted roads to 30 mph.

Uresti, whose district includes both the Permian Basin and a large part of the Eagle Ford Shale region, called TxDOT’s proposal “drastic” and said it was being imposed without input from the Legislature or local officials in the affected communities.

“The agency needs to take its foot off the gas, slow down, and think about this approach before going any further,” Uresti said. “In its hasty solution to our state’s pressing transportation needs, particularly in high impact oil and gas producing areas, the agency just might be going down the wrong road.”

Uresti’s amendment would have required TxDOT to develop a set of well-established criteria to be used in assessing any segment of the state highway system for conversion to gravel. If the assessment determines that a roadway is a candidate for conversion, the local community would be given an opportunity to mitigate the situation.



“There could be ways in which communities, industry, and possibly the state could work together to achieve alternatives to gravel conversions,” Uresti said.

For segments in which gravel conversion is a viable solution, the amendment would require TxDOT develop a set of criteria to assess the practicality and timeline for converting a gravel road back to a paved road.

“This amendment will help TxDOT in its planning process and give rural communities some confidence that most gravel road conversion will be only temporary,” Uresti said.

Sen. Uresti represents Senate District 19, which covers more than 35,000 square miles and contains all or part of 17 counties, two international ports of entry, ten state parks, 51 school districts, almost 9,000 miles of highways and county roads, and more than 29,000 producing oil and gas wells. The district is larger than 11 states and 124 Nations, and contains almost 400 miles of the Texas-Mexico border.

[Peyton]

http://youtu.be/jTon9j6ILVk

[Etxbuckman]

You seem to have it out for TxDOT. I like your style

[Peyton]

http://www.epbusinessjournal.com/2013/08/gravel-road-conversions-offer-wakeup-call-on-transportation-needs/

Gravel road conversions offer wakeup call on transportation needs
By: Sen. Carlos Uresti
August 9,2013


The Texas Department of Transportation’s recently announced plan to convert some 83 miles of paved highways in West and South Texas into gravel roads should serve as a wakeup call to every Texan about the state’s unmet infrastructure needs.

Perhaps it was not a coincidence that TxDOT unveiled its plan just as state lawmakers were on the verge of passing legislation to provide the agency with additional funds for new highway construction and maintenance. It took three special sessions to get it done, but the extra money will be on the way if Texas voters approve — and they should.

Unfortunately, the constitutional amendment allowing some $1.2 billion to go to highways instead of the rainy day fund won’t be on the ballot until November of 2014. And even that amount is only about 25 percent of what TxDOT really needs to keep Texas’ transportation infrastructure on pace with the demands of an ever-growing population.

In the meantime, TxDOT needs to rethink its ill-advised solution of tearing up paved roads. In fact, Sen. Glenn Hegar and I have sent a letter to TxDOT Executive Director Phil Wilson expressing our concerns about the agency’s plans. Even if gravel conversion is a proper solution for some paved segments, many questions remain about the safety of such conversions and the shortcomings of TxDOT’s implementation process for the entire project.

We want more information and input from stakeholders before the agency proceeds.

Before embarking on this plan, TxDOT administrators should have engaged legislators and community leaders from the affected areas. By failing to do so, the agency imposed a unilateral solution on these communities with no notice, no opportunity to seek alternative solutions, and no clear understanding of what to expect in the future.



If no alternative strategy emerges and a gravel conversion is deemed appropriate, TxDOT should offer a process and timeline for converting gravel segments back to paved highway. No conversion should ever be considered a permanent solution.



While these requirements were not included in the recently passed transportation funding bill, I am calling on TxDOT to implement them anyway if the conversion process proceeds.



During the regular session, I passed a bill creating a Transportation Infrastructure Fund that will provide $225 million to help maintain county roads that are being battered by heavy truck traffic in oil and gas producing areas of the state.



Some of these county roads, which are unpaved, could connect to the asphalt roads that TxDOT has now slated for conversion to gravel. How ironic it is that just as the Legislature comes to the rescue of county roads, TxDOT is turning its back on some of the paved highways that also lead to the oil patch — the very place that harbors so much of Texas’ future prosperity.

Texas voters would do well to approve the extra road money next year. But it won’t be nearly enough. The 2015 Legislature will have to revisit this issue and find more resources for transportation infrastructure. We can’t keep tearing up our roads for lacking the will to fund them.

[Peyton]

http://www.texasmonthly.com/burka-blog/farewell-83rd-legislature

Farewell to the 83rd Legislature
by PAUL BURKA
TUE AUGUST 6, 2013 11:09 AM




The third and final special session of the 83rd Legislature is over, and the result is an opportunity for voters to approve $1.2 billion in additional funding for roads in November 2014. Taken together, the special sessions established that Rick Perry remains unchallenged as the dominant figure in Texas politics. Forget all that talk about his being a lame duck. He was completely in charge, to the very end, when he declined to add tuition revenue bonds to the call, much to the dismay of the higher education establishment. Nor did he grant Dan Patrick's wish list of conservative issues.

The highlight of the final day of debate in the House was a flare-up on an amendment by Tracy King that would have prohibited TxDOT from going ahead with its plan to convert some existing paved roads to gravel roads. Harvey Hilderbran, Steve Toth, and other members were horrified by the idea, as if it were the end of western civilization as we know it. But in the end, the amendment failed, TxDOT had its way, and the final version of HB 1 passed with 106 votes.

Joe Pickett did a workmanlike job of guiding HB 1 to its passage through the House. Some Democrats, Senfronia Thompson foremost among them, were not thrilled with $1.2 billion of Rainy Day Fund money going to roads. If the fund is going to be tapped, they would prefer that it be tapped for education (perhaps as soon as a school finance lawsuit reaches the courts).

So the work of the 83rd Legislature is done. It was one of the most productive regular sessions in a long time: lawmakers restored deep cuts to education and Medicaid; allocated $2 billion for water projects pending voter approval, reworked the fundamental aspects of public education accountability, and gave a funding boost for highways.

What's next? The focus of Texas politics will soon turn to elections and the upcoming races for statewide offices. The horserace is on.

[Peyton]

You seem to have it out for TxDOT. I like your style

I don't have it out for TxDOT, I just don't understand why or how they could tear up a perfectly good road and convert it to gravel. There is absolutely nothing wrong with FM 186 from US 83 to the end of the roadway. Two years ago I might have felt differently, but they widened and resurfaced 186 within the past 18 months and it is in excellent shape. It is better than it has ever been and is holding up without any signs of damage.

How does it make sense for TXDOT to chew up the pavement and convert it to gravel?

The pavement ends about 7 miles past our gate and turns into gravel. From that point on to the Faith Ranch gate, you can't go over 15mph without damaging your vehicle. The maintenance on the last 10miles of the gravel road is terrible.

If they convert the entire length of our road to gravel, it will be almost impassable. The existing level of maintenance on the last 10 miles of the road should be an example to what the entire length may be like. If the entire road is converted to gravel, it WILL affect access and property values of the landowners on that road.

There will be repercussions for TXDOT if they decide to remove our pavement.

[Peyton]

If you don't have property or an interest in the affected roads it doesn't mean that this issue shouldn't ruffle your feathers. TXDOT is basically saying that these rural roads don't matter. They need billions to build more toll roads and maintain the urban roads in the system. The little guys don't matter to them.

They are forgetting that the billions in tax payments of O/G tax come down the exact roads they are dismissing. If they continue with their plan, they are ignoring where their income is produced. TXDOT would shudder if they analyzed how much tax income is derived from just FM 186 alone.

I have seen the daily traffic increase, but I can't help but notice the additional tax income on our previously quiet road. If billions of tax dollars are generated from the road, where is the proportionate representation of the state's income if they decide to convert it to gravel??????!

[jetlag887]

Sorry to hear this, I read about it in the SA paper. Makes no sense to me to go BACKWARDS with progress!

[gatorgar]

2688 is only a few months old as well. Seems like TxDot is doing everything possible to stop/hinder the OG industry in Dimitt.