January 27, 2022 – Texas Department of Transportation Special Commission Meeting (2:00 p.m. start time)


>> Good afternoon.
It is 2:302 P and I call to order the meeting of the Texas transportation commission in Austin Texas.
All items on the aglenda was filed with the secretary of state at 4:27 M on January 20, 2222.  At this time I would like to ask that before we begin, today's meeting you place all cell phones and other communication devices in the silent or off mode.
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>> For that comment please fill out a blue card.
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I will turn the meeting over to executive director mark Williams.
>> Mr. Williams.
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>> Mr. chairman with the safety briefing completed.
Brian BART will lead this discussion.
>> Thank Mark.
What we would like to do is walk you through our status of our Texas clear line program and our push to solve congestion across the state.
I would like to go through new demographic data from Dr. Potter.
And he will be at our forum to give detailed discussional demographics.
And then I would like to turn it over to our engineers to talk through their progress and their projects and then we'll hear from have Tim Lomaks.
>> Just a reminder this initiative back in 2015 directed by the governor asking the commission to create an initiative to address the state's choke points.
The chairman challenged us to do that, it's shown here we have responded to that directive with the chairman bug leading the effort with commissioner bond.
And in the next few slides I will provide an -- overview.
And for the five metro districts that correspond to the most congested area of the state.

So the first population slide, this is the census data from 2020, showing the population in the counties across the state.
And you can see darkest blue areas are down in the Houston area and in the Dallas area.
And then the next shade of blue kind of the suburban counties around Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston and San Antonio and Austin.
The darkest blue is 2 million and above and the next shaded blue is 500,000 to 2 million.
And this is the 2020 census data.
The next slide is the absolute or numeric change population from 2010 to 2020. In the counties across the state.
In this slide the dark brown is the highest population change.
And this is the numeric change.
The bigger counties are going to have the highest numeric change.
And you can see how those are focused in these five areas across the state.
You can also see that there pretty good growth down in the valley and out in El Paso and also in the basin.
So this slide we have talked about this type of information before, but this shows how the growth has been attributed to three different types of population growth.
The blue is the births and the number of deaths.
The international migration are folks moving to Texas from international ports, and the domestic my -- migration are folks moving to Texas from elsewhere in the United States.  There is a little bit of difference from the growth of growth 2000 and 2010 and the growth of 2020.
The natural increases or births minus deaths that growth in population is not driving day one.
They are at least 15 or 16 years later when they are driving to get on the road.
The net international migration typically those folks are not bringing vehicles with them and when they get here they are more reliant on mass transit and multimodal type of transportation.
And the domestic migration those folks are bringing their vehicles with them and adding to the traffic day one when they get here.
The big difference I think, to note in the differences in 2020 to 2010 and 2010 to 20220.  The domestic migration is a larger portion of the growth recently than in the past.
Those folks are bringing vehicles with them and add to the traffic and our challenge day one.

So I have a couple of tables with some county growth in the state.
These are the top counties in the state for numeric growth.
All of these counties on this chart are from the five metropolitan districts.
And you can see substantial growth in well all of those areas, but Harris County has huge numeric growth.  That numeric growth impacts us immediately.
On this chart sometimes you will see smaller counties that are growing fast because they are smaller you get a big rate increase.
And again, on this chart every county except for Midland is in metropolitan district.
This is an interesting chart that shows where the domestic migration is coming from.
And I don't think anybody, it's not a surprise to anybody that the biggest contributor to our domestic migration is from California.
I think it's interesting that it's interesting when we are done with Texas we go to Colorado..
The chairman mentioned this this is Dr. Potter's estimation growth.
By 2050 there will be 50 million people in the State of Texas.
Here is a comparison of our counties in 2020 essentially today and what they are going to look like in 2050.  And again a lot more red and pink in the five metropolitan areas compared to 2020.  You can also see some good growth down in the valley and in the El Paso area.
And this, you have seen this chart before, but this is an update to this chart.
With a lot of data about things that impact transportation.
You may notice the annual hours of computer those are 2020 numbers.
You will notice they are much lower than what you saw before.
Because the 2020 numbers were from during the pandemic.
There is less delay when there is less traffic on the road.

We expect those numbers to jump backup fairly quickly based on where the traffic numbers are.
Our transportation numbers have rebounded are already at the levels from before the pandemic and already growing from there.
You can then see in the middle the columns the freight tonnage from 2018 to 2050 and I think the most important thing to look at there is the percent growth of that freight tonnage.
And like in the Dallas-Fort Worth area it more than doubles in that time frame.
By substantial growth in other areas.
And then the employment numbers are pretty drastics also going from 2021 which is the most current data that we had to 2050.
Again if you look at the San Antonio area more than double the employment from today to 2050.
>> A couple of other things to note.
Chairman you mentioned this earlier today, but the 93 percent of Texans still rely on primary vehicles for their transportation.

And then look at some of those freight stats in that last bullet, 3.3 billion tons of great in 2018 worth 3 trillion trucks carried 52 percent of that domestic freight tonnage and 63 percent of it's value.
>> Brian before you go past the population information, could you go back to the slide number. 11 and in fine print, if I'm reading this correctly.  It's kind of hard, that's are embedded from 2022 and you updated these maps, correct?
These heat maps, yes.
>> And what is the latest information from Dr. Potter that were created with the heat maps as of what day?
>> It was the 2020 data.

>> Is that the most recent?
Is no 2021 information yet?
>> We don't know, he may have additional information for the more recent data for the forum presentation.
This is what he had to date which is based on the 2020 census which is a little different than projections.
>> Could you get all of us, maybe send us by e-mail to us so maybe we could print it off?
This is really a good snapshot of information for us to have.  Because it's a little tiny to be able to see it in this, but directly we get it.
So if you could send that to us, that would be good.
>> Yes. 

>> You have a full page?
All right.
>> Is this printed or what is it?
It's a little tiny to understand.
January 12 or 15 of 2000.
>> That is when we pulled the documents.
>> It's January 13, 2022.

(inaudible).
>> Correct the left side of the map.

>> Before we leave the census data and some of you may have seen this before.  One interesting statistic that came out recently from the census looking at population growth from July of 2021 to July of 2020.  The entire population of the United States grew b 319,000 people.
The population in the State of Texas grew by 310,000 people.  So if you compare.
>> The entire United States was 319?
>> Yes, sir.
>> Wow!
That is an amazing statistic.
>> Yes.  
>> Thank you for moving that.
>> Yes, 319 -- yes 310003. 
>> We went on listening tours across the state and we got a lot of input from those metropolitan areas.
We wanted input on how to solve the problem.
>> Brian we haven't aged a bit since we went on those listing tours in 2015.
>> You haven't, I might have what we continue to work on now is working with the APO on prioritizing congestion relief projects in their areas.
Another big thing we work on with them, and has actually helped the chairman by the rules that were passed this morning, about putting our resources together pool funding to build bigger projects.
Leveraged the Texas clear lane funding with our funding categories.
That is in the works.
I will point out the Texas clear lanes.com website.  And all of the projects are listed on that website and the progress that we're making.
All right, let's talk about that progress.
This chart shows the completed projects in green and the projects under construction in burnt orange.
And the projects in development and funded in blue and our future projects in purple or magenta.
So you can see that the 12 projects in the green that are completed, are valued at over $1 billion.
 we continue to complete more as we go through this process and we will continue to schedule ribbon cuttings to celebrate the completion of the projects.
There are 20 projects under construction just shy of 8 billion-dollars.
We do have an initiative to try to get those to under construction through construction and complete and open as quick as we can.
And that is ongoing we have another 15 projects in the UTP that are funded and going through our funnel on project development.
Those are valued at just shy of $15 billion and we have 52 projects that we need to work on to get funded or finally funded to move forward.
A good portion of those or some of those will be moving forward in this UTP cycle to get funded in August when you approve the 2023 UTP.
We showed this slide the last time because we did have some funding gaps in the blue projects.
I showed again this year because we solved all of those problems, all of the blue projects are fully funded.
And we do have some partial funding for some of the purple projects, and those projects will be focusing on this UTP cycle.
Let me pause there and see if there are any questions about that before we turn it over to some of our engineers.
>> Deputy director one thing we have talked about at the committee level if you turn back to slide 14, you can see where we are at in terms of here we're approximately seven years not quite seven years after the initiation of this initiative.
And if you look forward seven years from now, give us an idea based off of this chart where we will be seven years from now?
So you know, one of the frustrating things to me, personally, is it seems like it's been a slow ramp up, but there has been a lot of work.
You wouldn't see all of these projects lined up, I mean it's taken a lot of work to get up and running.
>> Certainly we would like to see more completed projects by this date.
If you fast forward six or seven years how much of that will be in the green.
>> Sure.
>> Approximately.
>> I think the first thing you can notice on this chart is it did take a while to ramp up, these are big projects and take time to develop.
But you can also see that we have a lot in the pipeline.
So seven years from now suspect, expect all 20 of those projects in construction to be complete and so those all will be green.
And I expect a good portion of the blue projects to be green by then.
I hope we have a good, at that time, a good orange bar and a good blue bar with the next round of projects to be complete.
That is my expectation.  We'll have 20 green that are currently orange and a good portion of the blue will be green in seven years.

So I actually think we'll have two big bars on the outside -- yeah.
>> Alvin New: Commission s so let's turn it offer to the districts engineers.
>> Good afternoon chairman and commissioners and Mr. Williams good to be with you this afternoon.

To briefly touch on the Austin district clear lane projects.
You see in is this graph we have four projects we have completed over the last couple of years.
I would consider all of these operational improvements.
The first project was a round about and it was completed in 2018.
And No. two is a traffic management upgrade.
We upgraded our ITS system and changeable message signs.  And the third project is the $42 million.
It improves traffic operations and safety of the interchange south of the river and the fourth one the US 183 project was a lane reassignment, minor widening and auxiliary lane development between metric boulevard and I 35.
>> There was a choke point on the southbound side as you approach I 350 we widened it and restriped and gave them an auxiliary lane.
>> Projects six, seven and eight are under construction.
>> These four projects in seven years these should all be green or well within our construction schedule.
And No. 5 and 6 should be completed later this summer we will have ribbon cuttings on those two projects.
 No. 5 is a direct correct and flyover project we're doing fire US 290.
This is what you toured Mr. Vaughan a few months ago.

The second one No. 6 is a diverging diamond it's another innovative intersection and this is the one we had a ground breaking on shortly after I started.
It was the first event I was able to take part in and you joined us there when we broke ground rve on this DE&I project.
 No. 7 is the lark -- largest we have taken on to date.
Oak hill project.

We're one year into construction on this.
It will go another four or four and a half years.  S this is addressing the major choik points in the Austin district.
Pleased to get this under construction and moving eye -- along.
You have season a lot of activity in the oak hill.
Providing connectors from 290 to 71 sand us 290 west and operational improvements on frontage roads.

So you can travel from one exit to another without merging into traffic.
It's a safety project and operational improvement project that we will see great benefit on before we go into the I 35 corridor projects.
And which lead me we will do a ground breaking on that one in February.
That leads me into our blue projects.
9, 10, and 11 and 12.
9, 10 is our capital express program.  This is the expansion of I 95 in the downtown area.

We will be adding manage lanes.
Manage insulation in each direction on the north project.
One manage lane in each direction between 545 and 290 and two manage lanes in each direction.
And reconstruction of cross streets and so on and so fort to address not only capacity issues but the mobility issues on the front age roads as well.

No. 9 to 12 we will separate them and not put them in the same letting.
They are in the neighborhood of 350 to $400 million each.
No. 11 is the large dog for us.
This is the capital express project.
A 4 billion-dollar project we're finalizing or putting together our final two alternatives to take to the public.
We had a meeting on Tuesday night this week to display the two alternatives we'll be taking to the next step in the environmental process.

One is similar to what we showed at the public meeting last August and what we call modified alternative No. 3 is taking the changes and the feedback and e-mails that we have all received over the last six months or so, and many of those suggestions and recommendations that are partners and stakeholders wanted to see we were able to overlay that and we're calling that alternative.  We have two single point interchanges one at airport and riverside.  We're combining the frontage road and chairman bugg this is what I showed you earlier.
The thought of keeping the footprint narrow and eliminating property and and land acquisition bringing the frontage road together and running it on the left side of the inter state heading north.
And it gives a narrower footprint and will accommodate the caps and the decks plaza disa that we're working on with the city of Austin.
We partner with the city at these deck plaza locations.
We keep the footprint narrow where we have zero land acquisitions in the downtown core between holly street and MLK and Dean Keaton.
And answering the concerns that the community alternatives came to us and and wanted a boulevard section.  I showed those heat maps where the traffic would flood into the neighborhood streets.
We wanted to avoid that.
We created that boulevard section from Chavez up to Dean Keaton where we go back into a frontage road configuration.
>> The source of funding for that 100 percent private.
>> We're working on a funding plan with the city of saw Austin.
>> That that is private funds.
Non-TX dot fund.
S the money that they voted to put on this project two-years ago now was for the project and not for the -- .
>> As that funding for the deck cap progresses I would like you to brief me on that. 
>> Sure will.

>> Please.
>> We're meeting monthly with a group to layout that funding.
>> Through.
>> No. 12 is one we were able to add back into the UTP and we have a series of projects on loop 360 to grade the signalized intersection.
And wool take loop 360 over or under based on the geometry or the terrain.
This was one we were able to recover and get back into the UTP and we're looking at a '26, '27 time frame.
>> Before you change, if I may, are all of these projects fully funded or in different varying stage?
That is one thing I don't see unless I missed it?
>> Everyone of these projects is fully funded.
 
>> Is that the magenta on this page?
>> Just this page.
They align to those colors.Thank you  
>> And the I 35 projects would be the next extension on the north side from our blue project where the blue No. 9 ends on the next page.
This is the expansion on the north site to get us up to Georgetown.
It's still a very congested corridor that we would continue advancing and the UTP's became available we would apply for funds for those.
620, No. 5 and No. 6, the project at No. 6 -- or at No. 5 was defunded from years ago and No. 6 takes it to US 183.
You look at the corridor approach, we're focusing on those and the Austin growth is continuing to move this way.
360 is one that needs to be addressed.

In addition to No. 9, No. 9 is the extension from Oak Hill Parkway end and studying No. 9 it is a a corridor that is developing out and continuing to get congested.
That is a highlight of our corridor initiatives on these.
Before I take additional questions.
Going back to some of the innovative things we're doing operationally on the configuration of our projects with intersection and overpasses and crossing over the frontage roads.
We'll be installing fiber backbone to make our ITS and camera system more reliable.
We do struggle right now with challenges with Vandalism and a very delicate communication system that does have our camera system and DMS system that at times are down.
We want a fiber backed bone that makes it more reliable.
Along with that we're working with CAMPO and a leading effort to use our regional wide ITS plan for emerging technologies and innovation.
And we're developing a smart track where manufacturings can bring new technology in and connect automated vehicles and use it as a testing ground for a time when we can deploy it on the highway systems and putting that into the pavement systems on I 35 and the surrounding areas.
S with that I will pause and see if there are any questions.
>> I say good job, tucker.
>> All of that will be done by to 30.

Good afternoon.
Commissioner Bugg im.
I'm not going to go over every project and I'm going to highlight a few.

Chairman Bugg thank you for being there.  The project No. 2 we're anticipating that come complete and hopefully next year at this time we'll do another ribbon cutting I will go to the fourth project the urban interchange.
That is where the Texas stadium used to be.
And that job is under construction.
We had a schedule actually 40 percent complete with 32 on time gone a way.
But one thing I want to highlight about this job it's 300 million-dollar plus projects that we are expecting in house by our young engineers to give them an opportunity to really instead of going automatically to higher consultant for inspection we thought it would be a great opportunity for our engineers to learn from and get a good experience in all aspects of construction from bridges and retaining walls and it's a good projects for our young engineers.
>> The projects in the blue I can promise you you we are on target and we're grateful for the funding we have gotten to date on some of these projects.

I will go next to the projects?
Purpose.
I won't highlight all of them but some of them.

Every project we see in purple, we sat down with the MPO and discussed and make sure we're on the same page.
They are in the agreement with not just the number of projects but the order of projects.
So you have $9.6 billion worth of projects for future purpose list.
Eight of the top are congested roadways or adjacent to the most populated roadways.

I just noticed we're the first district that has two counties with over a million people.  Denton county is 916 and probably in the next two or three years, we'll have three counties over a million people.
And that kind of shows that the growth of the region and the central business district of Dallas is not the only place for employment.
We're pretty spread out and we're growing aggressively all over the metro plex.
I will start with the first job US 80.
We have this job that is the number you see in Kaufman county.
Had the third highest growth by percentage of domestic migration.
The only way in and out for the business district is U.S. 80 we're developing the entire corridor from our office to the county line it's 714 million-dollar corridor.
More than half of it has been funded and we're grateful for the commission forgiving $103 million for that and worth we're $260 million in the hole and we're working to getting that developed.
The as funding becomes available we'll go ahead for the entire corridor.
>> The second project we know it's 13 in the top 100 we know about the struggles of developing projects in the downtown areas in our major cities.
This projects has had a short from the stakeholders.
It's a job that will transform downtown glass and east Dallas and the fair park area.
And we feel like it has a great opportunity to really change the downtown Dallas perspective for generations to come.
I want to go to the project No. 5.

About a year and a half ago or December of 2020, I came here to Texas clear lanes meeting, a monthly meeting and a simulation of how a small project of 44 million-dollar projects project No. 5 in the purple how much we can get for our dollars.
>> We don't need to tear up everything and start from stretch.
Maybe there are operational improvements we can do that will give us a benefit for pour dollars.
I don't think there is a single project here for $44 million and that is pretty good.
The next one I want to highlight is project No. 7, U.S. 380 in collin county.

From the numbers you have seen collin county is one of the fastest growing counties.
And in the country not just in Texas.
>> The U.S. 380 corridor is the most congested roadway.  It never made it on the list and this last year it jumped to 44.
In one year it went to No. 44 s the top list of congested highways.
That speaks about the volume.
There is a lot of interest in this corridor.

Our MPO dedicated over $44 million for the corridor.

$550 million to be expect.
Thank you forgiving us the money go toward that.
Collin County that is the bond program for a billion dollars for the freeway.
They are committing a large portion of that billion dollars to go to U.S. 380.
This is a good projects.
And now we went go a state where we were just planning for a major corridor to becoming a major need that we need to address right a way.  Last but not least I will address projects No. 8.
Which is north of Lois stemMONS.
It's a $1.4 billion corridor.
We're looking forward to the coordination with the city of Dallas and the county.  We have greet on -- great agreement with the MPO on how to go with the job.
The canyon got funded and that middle link between them would be the lower stemons and we're looking forward to getting that funded and moving forward.
I know I covered a lot in a little time but I will be more than happy to take any questions.
>> Thank you, Moe great report of.
>> On the stuff up near Mckinney is that connecting out with people coming and going or is it concentric to Mckinney and prosper?
>> No.
>> I was trying to understand if it goes to Rockwell or.
>> 380 goes to Greenville and then it hits the county line.
We're looking at the entire corridor from county line to county line.
>> And it's growing in all of that space that is my question.
Absolutely.
The growth is happening.
The west side of the county has experienced a lot of growth already.
>> Yes.
>> The east part of the county has seen that growths, Farmersville and Princeton they are growing fast.
We have an opportunity to lock that right of way and we're doing that with the existing alignment.
>> I was trying to see if it was all right here or the whole thing and you are saying the whole thing.
>> It's the entire corridor.
>> Just a comment you can drive up there most of the day and it's bumper to bumper on 380.
And as an example, 380 in the toll road is where the new PGA headquarters is moving to.
And there is a lot of development going on.
It's a whole new city going in up there.

>> Thank you.
Appreciate it.
>> I will add to that that growth is happening in Denton County to the west also.
>> Next up is Charles Johnson.
>> Thank you, Brian.
Good afternoon.
Chairman and commissioners.  Good to see you and glad to be with you.
>> I would like to go over the Fort Worth projects with you.

State high 121 and project No. 2 was state highway No. 29 and No. about is the connector project we did the video ribbon cutting for that chairman a couple of months ago.

And project No. 4 is I 20 A 121 connection.
That project is two years and that will complete that north section of 820 where it comes into 121 or comes into 183.
The blue projects we have the southeast connector project No. 1.
That is a projects that you approved.
A conditional award a couple of months ago.
We're working with the contractor to get that contract signed.
Next month, February.
So we will be moving forward with that.
Project No. 2 is one that you all funded last year that is I 30 project that we're Lean crest drive that is a project that you road with us that had the bottle neck that went from six lanes to four to six lanes.
That is let in '24 and that is three-year projects.
 in seven years the orange project and two blue projects will be completed in the next seven years.
What I would like to point out to you is the southeast connector project, we only had enough funding to fund the core of that project and it left three deferments.
Turning the page to the purpose projects you will see a 1(a), 1(b) and 1(c).
 these are the three legs we had to cut out of that southeast connect or due to funding gaps.
1 a is the most significant piece of deferment.
That 1 a leaving that gap levels a horrible gap for everything below and above it.
Everything above it has been done or is being done.
This has a railroad component to it that is pretty significant and trying to get the railroad agreement and we need to move forward.
That is our biggest ask is 1(a) deferment.
We're asking for 234 million in this years' UTP update.
In B and C we're asking for 280 million in years' cycle as well.

Project No. 2 is an improvement project.
We're going to add a general purpose lane on 114.
I'm not asking for funding on this cycle I'm going to wait for the next cycle on that and we're procuring a consultant to fin your out the PSE on that projects.

Project No. 3 is U.S. 81 and U.S. 287 combined and they are going north and west off of 35.
This three and four really are projects where we need to add frontage and do improvements.  No frontage roads in that respects and the growth is huge in that area.
We're asking for 75 million for project three and project four we're waiting until next years' cycle to ask for that there.
Project 5 is I 30 inside of the loop and downtown and loop 820 that is where the joint military base is.
It's a 1960s design and hasn't been touched since.
Big clover leafs.
Operational improvements are needed there to reconstruct the freeway we have an ask of 65 million on that project.
Project 6 and 7 are I 35 components within two projects.
Those are reconstruct and add general purpose lanes going out south of town from 820.
So on project No. 6 we have a 37 million-dollar ask for operational improvements there.
Projects No. 8 is U.S. 377 and that is a Grandberry project.
 commissioner new in your meeting I touched on Grandberry growth and congestion there.
This is an ask for $27 million to continue to collect funding to finish out the sixth lane through grand berry.

We have one breakout project on the west side of the lake where state 144 ties into 377 and we're asking for funding for that.

>> Project 9 is our project from state boulevard to 161.  That is reconstruction.  We have some breakout projects on that for operational improvements.
This is a huge ask of 600 million.  We're asking for 75 million on this cycle and we'll be putting together smaller projects to move through that.
Project 10 is state highway 360 I don't have an ask on that one at this time.
That is an additional purpose lane project.
And project 11 is on the freight corridor and downtown to east Cooper street.
That is going to be one of our biggest innovative projects.
The connected trucks, connected freight that is part of that corridor and so we're working with a task force and the MPO that is connected vehicle task force or innovative vehicle task force as we try to develop this project we will throw everything in we can.
There is a project that is not on here.
It's east Lancaster boulevard it parallels 30.
It's the old 80.
It's the old highway.
We're parallelling those two and we're going to do innovative advancements on those two projects.
But I 30 is on our clear lanes list.
That is all for Fort-Worth.
>> I would say to make sure to show a point out on 1(a), about and C to me and I think Carl's team made sure they drove through the lane that had the worst pot Holtz holes.
That will be a design build in a relatively short order.
It's a needed opportunity if we can get to that.
>> Thank you.
>> So, more on that project.
Those three components 1 a, b, and C were funded.
  The other thing I mentioned Carl had to cover up for me when I was there.
To your question on 377, you know the original route of 377 went through the square and so that the route that you drive on now is actually a relief route.
>> I didn't know that.
So Brian did a good job of getting that relief route.
>> Question on No. 11.
Freight order as a connected vehicle corridor.
Is the gap in the funding being requested in this UTP or is it not ready yet.
We're requesting 90 million in this cycle.
>> Does that allow it to move forward.
>> That gives us wiggle room plus a design phase.
We're anticipating environmental clearance in 2026.
>> Thank you.
>> Okay let's move on to Houston.

We have VERUNA stepping in for Liza today.

Thank you, Brian.
Good afternoon.
I'm VERNA Singh and I'm the deputy engineer.

I would like to thank you for this opportunity to provide an update on our clear lanes projects.
I will start with the projects that are in active construction.
The Houston district has five projects that are in construction phase shown in orange.

These projects are at various stages of completion.
Project 3 anticipate completed later this year.

And these five projects have a total construction value of $815 million.
With Texas clear lanes funding comprising 50 percent of the construction value.
I will conclude the section by highlighting project 2.
This will improve congestion.
It's along the Houston up town galleria district.
And next I would like to cover our four blue projects.
Which are fully funded in the 2022 unified transportation program.
These projects are being developed to be ready for construction.
Project 6, 7 and 8 are part of the north Houston highway improvement projects or NNHIP.
Project 9 along state highway 35 will provide congestion relief to the nearby 45 gulf freeway.
And serve the main campus of University of  Houston.
>> Our four blue projects have a total construction value of $3.8 billion and Texas clear lanes funding comprising 50 percent of the total construction value.
Next I would like to discuss a few priority projects that are candidates for future clear lanes funding k.

Consideration.
Purple project one is the main project.

Projects 2, 3, 5 and 6 and 7 are part 69 north Houston highway improvement projects.
I would like to highlight project 4.
It's along interstate 10 between the 610 west loop and the central business district of downtown Houston.
It would extend the congestion relief of the interstate 10 portion west to the 610 loop.

Finally I would like to touch base on project 8.
It would leverage the Texas clear lanes investment at the interchange job I touched on earlier in the construction section.
Our 12th candidate clear lanes project have a total construction value of 9.6 balance and has a 8.3 billion funding gap.

And we would appreciate any consideration for future funding to help close the funding gaps.
Before I wrap up I would like to share an innovative concept we're developing called "the real plan" the standing for the regional express access lanes.
The current and any future clear lanes investments in Houston would be leverage and compliment the real plan the goal is to create a flexible and efficient seamless multimodal transportation network.
The real lanes are simple real estate.
With these lanes serving as an infrastructure.
Depending on the need of the corridor and the type of day.
The real plan is an interconnected system of manage lanes that are accessed through mobile hubs.
I would bring your attention to the map where segment for or project four and project 8 intersecting at the interchange of I 10 and the 610 loop.
 this would be an excellent location for a mobility hub as it would provide a direct connection between the managed lanes on the proposed projects.
As Houston's population and economy continues to grow as Brian touched on earlier, strategic use of space will be critical.
The real plan is still in conceptual phase and will require partnerships with implementation stakeholders in order to evolve our transportation network to safe I will move people and good.
Thank you and I will take any questions you have.
(inaudible).
So the concept of the real plan is connecting the lanes.  Many of the corridors have HOV lanes and to take to it to the next level those lanes as an example would have a direct connection between them and then you insert a mobility hub so you have great going through the hub and transit and personal vehicles and for that efficient use of space between those managed lanes.
That is the concept long term.
Yeah.
>> That is a real important point you are not just building segments of managed lanes we're building a system.
And this is a very good example of TXDOT and it shows good regional planning and cooperation despite what you might hear in the news.
>> It's innovative.
And it's good.
>> And just a comment not really a question.

As you look at the freight that currently goes through in district it does create unique opportunities and challenges in that.
And with the growth, because you have got the ports and you have got everything coming up from the border on top of the massive population.
So managing the infrastructure to address the current freight issues.  But when you look at what is coming in 2050 balancing that is going to be like threading a needle, as decisions are made to make sure it accommodates what is needed by that time.
It does create interesting dynamics in the region.
Especially driving around it.

>> Thank you.
All right let's move to San Antonio.
If you didn't hear enough from Gina this morning we're going to bring her back up to.
>> All right.
I am the last you are all going to have to hear from.
I will try to make this painless and go quickly through it.
So I'm going to start off on the orange projects which are the projects under construction.
And the first one that we have is US 8 -- United States 281 S.
 and that is moving along very well.
The second one we have is 410 to U.S. 90.
That is let in July of 2019 and that is a 77 million-dollar project and we're estimating completion in September of 2022.
Of this year.
The next one we have 410 at I 10 east that is a Williams Brothers project is a 100 million-dollar project and we're estimating completion on that one in December of 2024 and the next one that we have is loop 1604 and it says state highway 16.
State highway 16 up to 610.
That one is broken out into several different pieces.
The first one Bandero Road.
We're expecting it to complete.
In the second part is from IH 10 to U.S. 261.
>> That is a 244 million-dollar project and the last piece of that 1604 let's in March.
And the one that lets in March it's not shown on there that it's going to be further down on the pink where it says loop 1604 but that one is going to let in March 285 million-dollar interchange project.
So that will complete the loop 1604 and then the last one we have in the orange.
The IH 35 central expansion project.
That is the design build project.
The $1.5 billion project and that is with Alamo NEX.
We should be beginning construction in May or June of 2022.
Those are the ones under construction.
The one thing I wanted to note about the ones currently under construction.
For all of our major highways in San Antonio.
IH 10 and 64 and 281 we put a special spec in all of our plans.
And that special specification is smart work zones and intelligent transportation systems.
We put those into the major projects.
And I will give you some examples.
We have four different things one of them is a truck entering the highway warning system and that system operates 24/7 it enables the communication from point to point, really letting everybody know about the oncoming vehicles if they slow down or stop in order to avoid a potential collision and the warnings are displayed through the activation of flashing beacon trailers up stream of where the entry point is.
And we have trans guide that monitors these as well.
So it's not just our trucks entering the highway 1818 and that gets it given points relative to the work zone.
We provide warnings for stopped or slow traffic and you can alert the motorists ahead of time.
And the last one is a temporary travel time system and surveillance systems.
>> And those require trucks volume and data at different points relevant to our work zones.
And it allows monitoringch our work zones through our cameras.
Trans guide can see what is going on.

Those are different once we have into our major highways.
Not all of our highways but the major highways we put those on.  Now I will continue on to what is in our blue.

We have two projects in the blue section which are funded right now.
The first one is IH 35 expansion south.
That is the one we have made the decision to break it up.
It used to be one big design built project and now we're breaking it up into design build portion and we're going to break it up into two or three design bid build projects.
So that one is being divided up into segments.
And I have a meeting tomorrow with our consultant community to go over with them how we're breaking it up and looking for consultants to help with the design and to assist with the construction CEI side on that project.
>> And the next one on our blue is IH 10 at loop.
That is the major interchange.
And that is going to let in March of 2022 the 285 million-dollar projects that we will be letting that will finish the loop 1604 portion.
We'll have state highway I 16 and then this interchange that will let this March and the other piece the Zachary piece up to 281 that is already under construction.
That is loop 161604.
This one we're putting out for procurement.
We're trying to move forward with getting a consultant on board to design that project right now we have 134 million dollar gap on that project.
We're estimating the earliest let day because we're not sure on the funding is September of '25.
The next one is 410 at I 10 east.
That is phase two.
We have 410 and I 10 that is under construction with Williams brothers.
This is phase two to complete that interchange out there.
It's $960 million our environmental is clear and schematic is clear and the right of way is under way in that projects.
The earliest we're thinking fiscal year '26 we're not too sure yet.
 and the next one we have is loop 1604 that one we need approximately 403 gap.  That support our military base.
That is by Randolf Air Force and the earliest we could think that we could let that is physical year 2024.
And the last one is IH 10 State Highway 46 through FM 351.
That is a gap.
Environmental and schematic and right a way is almost done.
One thing I want to note about IH 10 we have completed projects on IH previously.  It was ranked as 74 on Texas most congested roadways in 2020.
Completion of the expansion it dropped to No. 413.
So that was really good.
This part continues on up to Kendall County and we're estimating physical year 2025.
It's the growth heading towards Kendall and continuing I 10 in that direction.
That is it.
>> Thank you Gina you have been doing double duty nice to see you behind the podium again.
>> I know you were involved in the discussion and Gina has come up with a good plan to move forward on that with the hybrid design build, design bid build.

So, next up I don't expect you to read these from the screen but what we have done in the next few slides and I will page through them here.
Those slides are butting all -- putting all of those projects you haired about in the order of the top 100 congested sites.
The last congestion task force chairman you asked for this information and here it is all in one slide show.
From top to bottom on the top 100 list and I think you can see from this list that we're tackling those top 100 locations very Dr. Low MAX is to take us through the projects.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you for the opportunity to chat with you a little bit.
I have an overview slide and methodology slide and dot graphs to tell you what we're finding.
The projects you have are cost effective and they have 19 of them are above 5:1 for giant projects such as this.  
This is an impressive outcomely you spend many dollars your benefit-cost ratio comes down.

We look at this in a congestion and safety and economic effects of the spending and we looked at land development benefits.
On the congestion and safety side I think of this as what the effect of what gets built.  So we look at the change in corridor congestion projects and depending on the type of projects that gets done and the work area.
We look at essentially we're comparing the with and without cases in here.
And we're looking at vehicle operating savings and time and reliability savings and we have another slide on a little more detail on these element.
We're also looking as the safety analysis in terms of what changes in terms of crashes with and without.
And because these projects are shifting volumes averaged we're look -- volumes around we're looking at intersecting roads and parallel roads.
The traffic tends to come out of the neighborhood and local streets and comes to a big road.
Many of these projects when you look at 30 years in the future the volumes are enormous.
It can't be handled on the roads that are there right now.
And so we're sort of a little bit beyond our comfort level, but we have, I think, crafted a relatively good methodology to adapt to that.
The economic output and land development, this is essentially the what gets spent.
You spend more money on a project you get higher business output, higher wage effects and material and services benefits go up.
And bigger environmental benefits from the emissions reduction that come from the delay reduction.
  The land development benefits are really not included in those benefit cost ratios.
But we have taken a look at those and using some projects that have been recently completed we look at what is the change in the land value around the project within five-years after the completion of the projects.
So we used the county growth rate as a total.
If a county is growing rapidly we don't want to throw it into the projects benefits those benefits would have happened anyway.

We look at the differential value of what is happening in the county and the corridor around it.
We have looked at that too.
Just some more detail on the economic benefit components.
We have got sort of five bullets here that outline in a little more detail what we're talking about.
I am not an economist I play one on TV periodically.
We're talking about travel time, more travel time and less travel time creates a benefit for people and vehicle operating savings.
Less stop and go traffic is more reliable.
So you have a better chance of making it to your destination in the time that you thought you had planned around.
Environmental cost savings, really comes out of the travel delay savings.
So better operating project and less stop and go traffic and less on the reduction of emission scale and we have those in several different emissions factors.
The economic benefits come out of a fairly standard input and output economic model.
Proving the transportation network and spending on that gives you more byes -- business output and more value added for both jobs during construction and after washed and in -- afterward and that is associated with tax benefits on all levels.
And the safety benefits are related to the change in not only the number of crashes but also crash severity.
The land development methodology.
One more hit on that.
We're looking at a mile on either side of the roadway.  And we have looked at 20 -- large projects that have been completed in the last decade in urban and suburban.

We look at those 20 projects and we have two different effects.
The effects of the really large projects are larger than the smaller ones so we have grouped them into projects into under and over a half billion dollars.
Under a half billion dollars is small.
Wrap your head around that for a second.  We're talking about different multiplier effects on projects on those smaller projects than the larger ones and again our value is the value five-years after the completion of the project.

There are a couple of projects that are way off scale.
And you can see a fairly big range across that lower end of the construction cost.
That is the differences in projects scaled.
The traffic center management improvements those are higher costs connecting auxillary lanes and things like that.
You get into the bigger projects the benefit cost ratio comes down a little bit.

The next graph is taking those projects and cutting it back.
The high cost benefit ratio are in the corridors.

I have a one more methodology graph.
S why aren't we doing all projects over 8:1 or 6:1 why don't we do those.
Why do we mess with these projects that have 4:1 cost benefit ratio.

It's basically take the benefits and subtract the cost of the project and what is left over.
If you do a project of 12:1 or 50:1 those are small projects opposed to the billions of dollars in the larger projects.
You find these smaller dollar projects are cost effective but it leaves a lot on the table.
So this net present value takes that giant benefit and subtracts fairly large cost and we're left with a large number.
So it answers that why are we only doing projects that are 8:1 or 16:1 because we have larger projects that can capture more of the value that is out there.
Address more of the problem if will.
You can see all of these are you are not only attacking projects that are cost effective you are doing a good job of spending money on projects that are returning.

You can think of it sort of as profit the value the benefit above the cost.

Real quickly the land development methodology is a summary of stuff that I have said before looking at five-years after.
A few projects we found to use in the methodology development we're three years afterward we continue to add to this as we continue to find other projects.
The small disparity, the smaller projects increase property growth and the larger ones were 30% per year.
We felt like separating those two was important or created a better methodology.
You can see here the land development benefit as a percentage of the land value, so, again we're going a mile either side of the project.
The land development benefit is going.
 Y axis.

30 of the 44 projects we left out the relatively small projects.
We analyzed 34 of the projects.

40 of the projects are 50 percent of the construction cost.
The Y axis is land value and if you compare the benefit of the construction cost I would suggest you are getting a fairly large benefit back.
Not in terms of the operation and safety and all of those kind of projects effects, but also what is happening on the land development side, the value that gets created from the projects that you are funding.
We don't get to recoop that in any way, it's not included in the benefit cost ratio but it's a substantial effect of the projects.
We have looked at the with and without case, 30 years of benefits and costs.
We found very cost effective projects.
And very high net present value.
In substantial land development benefits.
Questions or comments.
>> I have one question if I may, in all of the formulas in the access charts you mentioned construction cost s.
>> In the net Brent -- present values those type of dollars are outside of this particular analysis is that correct.
>> They are in the analysis.
I showed you the construction cost just to sort of maintain the same through line in the narrative.
I can get you those.
>> Okay.
So on this scenario that is the common thread.
>> Right.
>> It's apples to apples so to speak with construction cost but in the role analysis that included those factors.
>> Yes.
>> Thank you.
>> Most of the economic benefits in the input and output model come from construction dollars.
>> Any other questions?


(inaudible).
>> It seems to me that it's clear though that you are more or less showing the same dynamic that happens in most cases.
>> If something is small the percentage is going to be much bigger, if something is large the percentage is larger but the real dollars are huge that is really what you are saying, right?
>> I'm a P.hd I have to say it it more complicated.
>> If I can't distill it I can't get it I'm a little slow.
>> Tim we want to thank you for coming and walking us through this.
It really helps validate the economics and the you know all kinds of metrics you laid out.
That analysis.
>> So thank you.
>> You bet.
>> Stay tuned for the forum we're going to talk more about this at the forum.

>> Yes.
>> So, D level or lane level.
>> Both.
I think it's would should mention the benefit cost shows the huge operational in the low cost projects.
>> But the net value those there is huge benefit in the big projects that capture a lot of benefit or profit dollars been fit.
So I think the thing that is the important point that to focus on both of those projects are important to do.
So I think you have seen this slide I believe Jessica had a similar slide this morning.
But this is the process forward as we go through this UTP cycle.
So that the February time frame we're going to distribute to the planning organizations and from there we work through the scoring process for the submitted process and communicate those with us and you throughout that process.
Bring that back to the commission in June to see a draft UTP recommendation.
That public involvement process then starts and then we hope to bring back the final UTP to you in August for what we hope final approval.
And so, me and my colleagues stand ready for any questions you have.
I know it has been a long day but we stand ready  
>> A questions.
>> A quick comment.
>> One of the best ways to help with congestion in metropolitan areas is not to have the cars go there in the first place.
Having them go from Laredo I know it would be good if we moved some people from Beaumont to Dallas instead of Houston through Dallas and some of those things.
>> I will second that.
It's not a state-wide connectivity or congestion or rural improvements or congestion it's an add discussion.
We need to do date-wide connectivity and congestion.
>> Any other comments or questions?
If not I just want to thank you, Brian, for leading this effort today and putting this special commission agenda together.
I want to thank the district engineers that came in from around the state so we could personally see you and hear you as opposed to a Zoom call or monthly task force meetings.
I know a lot of work went into today's special commission meeting and I want to thank you for it.
>> We will not meet in executive session today and all of the items on today's agenda are completed.
Is there anyone signed up for comment?
Being none is there any other business to come before the commission?
>> There being none is a motion to adjourn.
>> Thank you Commissioner Vaughan.
>> Thank you Commissioner New.

All in favor say aye.
>> Aye.
>> Any opposed?

We stand adjourned at 3:35 PM.
(Adjourned, 3:35 PM)