Small Town News

And still we wait

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Hays County residents approved a $207 million road construction bond package years ago, back in 2008, and locally we have seen quite a bit of fixing of roads - new bridges being constructed over IH-35, the beginning of the Dacy Lane reconstruction, and Cement Plant Road and bypass to route trucks out of downtown Buda.

The IH-35 bridge projects are coming in between 30 and 35% UNDER budget.

It just shows that now is a good time to be bidding out construction jobs.

But the one road that affects so very many people in the Buda-Kyle area is FM 1626, which feeds local residents into Southwest Travis County, on to Mopac, and to their jobs.

The problem? The Texas Department of Transportation seems to be lagging in its approval of environmental reviews.

In January of this year, Hays County went so far as to send its engineers and lawyers to help speed up TxDOT's review for widening FM 1626.

Seven months later, North Hays Countians wait.

And wait.

And wait.

Traffic snarls in the morning back up at intersections. Winding, dangerous roads with heavy traffic trying to get to school and work in the mornings is not a good way to start the day - or the school year.

And it is not a good way to save on construction costs, or interest on about $40 million in road construction costs.

Hurry up, TxDOT, and give us the approval that we are all begging for.

We want a safer road.



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© 2010 The Free Press Buda, Texas. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.

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