How do you implement a $1.2 billion Transportation Master Plan?
One year at a time.
In the proposed Fiscal Year 2020 budget, the City of Round Rock is investing $69.3 million into our transportation network. As highlighted in our first FY20 budget blog post, the largest part of the $444.7 million budget is for infrastructure.
The Transportation Master Plan lays out the expansions, extensions and new roadways needed over the next 20 years to keep up with our growing population. Granted, $1.2 billion is a big number. But few would argue there’s a bigger problem in Round Rock than traffic.
There’s little the City can do to improve flows on I-35, the busiest and most congested roadway in town. That’s a Texas Department of Transportation responsibility, and the good news is the state agency has and is and will be spending tens of millions of dollars on interstate improvements in Round Rock.
The most important transportation element in the proposed budget is funding for the first year of the planned five-year, $240 million transportation improvement program. The projects targeted in that program include:
- Kenney Fort Boulevard extension from Forest Creek Drive to SH 45
- Gattis School Road widening from A.W. Grimes Boulevard to Double Creek Drive
- Gattis School Road widening from Via Sonoma to Red Bud Lane, including improvements to the intersection at Red Bud Lane
- University Boulevard/Chandler Road improvements from A.W. Grimes Boulevard to SH 130
- Engineering for the extension of Wyoming Springs Drive from Creek Bend Boulevard to FM 3406
The City Council approved in April $30 million in Certificates of Obligation (COs) to pay for the ​initial round of work for the program.
The COs have an impact of 1.5 cents on the proposed property tax rate. Other funding for the program is expected to come from roadway impact fees from developers; state and federal funds such as CAMPO grants, which have already contributed $29 million to the Kenney Fort Boulevard, Gattis School Road and University Boulevard projects; the half-cent, Type B sales tax revenues; and partnerships with private developers.
Other projects slated for funding in the proposed budget include:
- University Boulevard widening to six lanes from I-35 to Sunrise Road
- $4.3 million for street maintenance
- The extension of McNeil Road east to Georgetown Street, an important project for Downtown
- Reconstruction of RM 620 from I-35 to Deepwood Drive (TxDOT is funding the majority of this project)
- Connecting Logan Street to A.W. Grimes Boulevard
- Subdivision sidewalk improvements
- Relocation and consolidation of Transportation Department staff into a new facility on Luther Peterson Drive
- Turn lanes into the Kalahari Resorts property from Kenney Fort Boulevard
Ensuring adequate funding to build out our transportation network is one of the key ways the FY20 budget is focused on our future. We’ve got a ways to go, but we’ve made significant progress in recent years and more improvements — including $69 million worth in FY20 — are on the way.
