As most of you know, Interstate Highway 35 widening has been on hold because of various financial and political reasons for years. The Texas Department of Transportation is still in the process of expanding and reconstructing IH 35 through Temple Texas as part of a federal project. The first federally required meeting was July 26, 2000, the second meeting was August 30, 2001, a third meeting on June 13, 2002. Then not much of anything has happened since 2002 until a required public meeting on November 12, 2009 was held, with the newest changes finally being made available to the public, of the original proposed schematic for Temple. This is part of 17 projects covering 3 counties for a total length of over 90 miles between the Bell/Williamson county line and the East/West split in Hillsboro. As part of the 17 projects, IH 35 is proposed to be widened through the City of Temple from approximately South Loop 363 to North Loop 363. The proposed project will consist of a six-lane controlled access facility with one-way continuous frontage roads. The latest total estimated cost of construction for this project is approximately $260 million. Additional right of way would be required for the project as well. No funds are currently available to complete this project.
The project sequence is to include a public hearing in mid 2010, with the beginning of right-of-way acquisition in 2011. However, TxDOT still does not currently have any acquisition or construction funds available for this project.
Historically the planning maps have not been readily available via the internet, or they were outdated, requiring driving to Waco, Texas to talk one on one with a TxDOT employees to view the maps, for each different project, or try to get them to help with description over the phone. Although the cities are aware of TxDOT plans, they were not sharing the data with the public as it was not theirs to make available to the public. Fortunately, TxDOT now has this area broken into four pdf files availabe for public view and download. These may take a few minutes to download. Links as of November 14, 2009 are:
ftp://ftp.dot.state.tx.us/pub/txdot-info/wac/i35_363_west.pdf
ftp://ftp.dot.state.tx.us/pub/txdot-info/wac/i35_west_nugent.pdf
ftp://ftp.dot.state.tx.us/pub/txdot-info/wac/i35_nugent_290.pdf
ftp://ftp.dot.state.tx.us/pub/txdot-info/wac/i35_290_363.pdf
Feel free to call or email me with your valuation, relocation or condemnation questions!
