Montgomery County plans to use escrow funds on road projects
Montgomery County is moving closer to using $56 million in escrow funds from the county’s pass-through toll program with the state for road projects.
Commissioners agreed during a meeting Tuesday to compile a list of projects in each precinct to submit to the Texas Department of Transportation.. They will review the list at the Sept. 12 county meeting.
While the project list was unavailable Friday, commissioners said it would include a braided ramp and the widening of FM 2854 from Loop 336 to Texas 105 Montgomery.
The state created the passthrough toll program about 20 years ago to help get road projects completed by encouraging counties to fund state road projects. The state would then reimburse the counties per vehicle or vehicle mile. The reimbursement rate was 7 cents per vehicle mile.
While the state no longer uses the program, the funds have been in an escrow account for several years.
According to information from TxDOT, the funds must be used to make improvements on state roads or on projects that help improve traffic on state roads.
“TxDOT is very ambitious for us to use this money,” Precinct 4 Commissioner Matt Gray said during the court’s Tuesday meeting. “It’s a good move for the court, it’s a good move for the county.”
Precinct 2 Commissioner Charlie Riley said the county should use the funds to get the projects construction ready to submit to the state.
“We need to turn in this list with design, engineering and construction plans of what we want those guys to fund and build,” Riley said.
Since 2016, the commissioners have discussed the use of the funds several times but never created a list of projects.
Under the “pass-through” toll agreement, the county has received state and federal reimbursement of more than $150 million and funded projects on FM 1484, FM 1485, FM 1488, FM 1314 and the direct connector from Texas 242 to Interstate 45.
As part of the program, the county was reimbursed $10.5 million a year for the construction projects with a maximum reimbursement of $17.4 million a year.