Published: March 06, 2009 08:35 pm      

TxDOT to spend $10 million in county

By Janet Jacobs

Daily Sun



Navarro County will receive $10.2 million in road projects, part of the federal stimulus plan to put money into local efforts and generate jobs.

The money was reapproved by the Texas Department of Transportation Commission Thursday in Austin, said Chris Lippincott, spokesman for TxDOT.

Two roads, FM 639 and FM 1126, will be resurfaced, Lippincott said.

Navarro’s projects will also begin quickly, since the county is in the first batch of county’s receiving money, Lippincott said.

“The contracts are scheduled to let in April, so you could see orange barrels in May,” he said. “That’s the goal of the stimulus money, to put shovels in the ground and money in people’s pockets quickly.”

Farm to Market 639 will be resurfaced from FM 744 to Texas Highway 22, and will cost $4.3 million, said Darwin Myers, district engineer for TxDOT. The second project, resurfacing FM 1126 from Highway 22 to FM 3383, will cost $5.9 million.

Resurfacing the road to Emhouse, which is FM 1126, has been an on-going project with the TxDOT office for the last two years.

“We’ve rebuilt both ends, but now we have approval to build the middle,” Myers said.

In all, TxDOT will get $1.7 billion to spend on new construction and maintenance. The Navarro County projects are classified as maintenance.

Although Navarro is within the North Central Texas Council of Governments, it won’t get any of the $143 million given to the COG for road work, since the county is considered outside the planning area.

“We’re only allowed to spend money within our federally designated planning area,” said Lara Kohl, spokesperson for the NCTCOG transportation office. “(Navarro) is within the COG boundary, but not our transportation planning area. That’s just the nine-county urban area around D-FW.”

The COG intends to spend the $143 million on two highway interchanges on Southwest Parkway in Tarrant and Johnson Counties, Kohl said.

“That may seem like a lot of money to you and me, but in transportation dollars, it’s not much,” she said.

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Janet Jacobs may be reached via e-mail at jacobs@corsicanadailysun.com