County plan for road projects estimated to cost $2.2 billion

You think traffic’s bad now? Imagine a Williamson County 20 years in the future, when the population is expected to almost double to more than 1 million residents.

That’s the scenario county, city and state officials are trying to prepare for with the scheduled passage of the county’s 2035 Long-Range Transportation Plan.

County Judge Dan Gattis said he anticipates the plan to be adopted within the next couple of weeks.

Speaking at the Sept. 15 Commissioners Court meeting, Gattis said the county’s continued growth is almost inevitable and won’t be slowed by not building roads for current and future residents to drive.

“If you build, more people will come,” he said. “If you don’t, more people will come anyway.”

Gattis was alluding to projections from the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, which estimates that by 2035 Williamson County will have a population of a little more than 1 million. CAMPO puts the county’s current population at about 511,000.

Gattis said the county will adopt a new transportation plan “as soon we get all the public comment.”

Two public meetings were held last week at the county courthouse in Georgetown. Additionally, printed copies of the proposed plan are available in the county judge’s office at the courthouse, at each commissioner’s office, and public libraries in Round Rock, Georgetown, Cedar Park, Leander, Liberty Hill, Hutto and Taylor.

Pending official adoption, the plan will serve as a blueprint for future road-building projects and the bond elections that would fund them. Williamson County last updated its transportation plan in 2009.

The updated plan calls for building approximately 100 miles of new roadways, as well as adding additional lanes to about 250 miles of existing roadways during the next 25 years.

“This is a fairly large county and we can’t do everything at one time,” County Engineer Joe England said at the Commissioners Court meeting.

“Generally, the Commissioners Court comes up with the priorities based on the priorities of each of their precincts,” county spokesperson Connie Watson later said.

According to the plan’s executive summary: “The cost of the plan (in today’s dollars) is estimated to be approximately $2.2 billion; this cost would be shared by the county, cities within the county and the Texas Department of Transportation, depending on which jurisdiction a project falls. Developers could also be asked to share in the costs where appropriate.”

For more information on the plan, visit www.wilco.org.