Hudson Oaks receives $10 million in TxDOT funding, council to discuss engineering contract to start project

Crystal Brown

cbrown@weatherforddemocrat.com

Action items on tonight’s Hudson Oaks City Council agenda are brief, but one packs a big punch in the form of nearly $10 million granted to the city from the Texas Department of Transportation.

In May, the city applied for $9.938 million in pass-through funding from TxDOT to expand their Lakeshore Bridge reconstruction project. This includes extending the I-20 south access road between Centerpoint and Lakeshore Drive, relocating the exit ramp to the western boundary of the city limits and reconstruction of the existing access road to TxDOT standards. In September, the Texas Transportation Commission announced Hudson Oaks was one of 10 cities to secure those funds.

The new and expanded access roads will provide three lanes for traffic to better access 375 acres the city hopes will be developed. The project will also decrease public safety response time to the southern parts of the city by approximately four minutes.

“This is public safety driven,” Hudson Oaks Mayor Pat Deen said about the project. “This project shores up an immense opportunity for us from the standpoint of economic development and access for public safety.”

Deen added Weatherford and Parker County will also benefit from this project because 70 percent of the construction is in the county and a portion is also in the Weatherford extraterritorial jurisdiction.

“Weatherford is going to benefit from the area they have in this to build out their infrastructure,” Deen said. “This will literally pave the way for that to happen. It’s moving quickly.”

According to a project schedule time line in the council agenda packet, this project stretches from November 2010 to the fall of 2011.

Funding for this project is similar to the $50-plus million Weatherford received from TxDOT for pass-through funding for the Farm Road 51 and I-20 projects.

“The pass-through tolling program reimburses a city for construction cost at a negotiated rate per vehicle mile,” according to information in the council agenda. “The repayment period under our application for funding is eight to 12 years after completion of the project. Once the project is completed, TxDOT conducts traffic counts to determine the payback amount per year. If traffic counts are high, the payback period is shorter; if the traffic counts are low, the payback period is longer. In no case will the payback period be longer than 12 years.”

More information on the reimbursable costs and local responsibility costs will be presented at tonight’s council meeting. All design and non-construction costs are the responsibility of the local entity.

Action for the council to consider at tonight’s meeting is a minute order authorizing city staff to enter into a contract for engineering service for the I-20 pass-through funding project with Teague, Nall and Perkins. The contract up for consideration widens the scope of a current contract between the city and the company adopted in October 2007.

“The revised contract includes the preliminary and design engineering, right-of-way acquisition services and utility adjustments for the expanded scope of the project, at a cost of $1,244,320,” according to the agenda. “Engineering services is a local responsibility cost and will be allocated from the series 2007 bond funds. The series 2007 bond funds account has a balance of $1,694,007.06.”

In other business the council will consider:

n Moving the November council date and cancelling the December regular council meeting.

n A resolution authorizing staff to pursue all possible funds from the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant.

n Appointing a new member to the Parker County Utility District No 1 Board to fill a vacancy.