Dealing With Brisk Growth, Round Rock Allots $70M For Road Work

ROUND ROCK, TX — In dealing with brisk city growth, Round Rock officials are investing nearly $70 million in improving the transportation network, city leaders outlined in a recent blog post.

All told, $69.3 million has been earmarked in the current city budget to enhance infrastructure, officials said in referencing the first Transportation Master Plan detailing the plans. Expansions, extensions and new roadways are needed over the next 20 years to keep up with the city's growing population, officials wrote.

"Granted, $1.2 billion is a big number," of the overall planned budget. "But few would argue there’s a bigger problem in Round Rock than traffic."

While there's little the city can do to improve traffic flows along Interstate 35 — the busiest and most congested roadway in town under the stewardship of the Texas Department of Transportation — city officials report a bit of good news in that the state agency "...has and is and will be spending tens of millions of dollars on interstate improvements in Round Rock."

The central element in the proposed budget is funding for the first year of the planned five-year, $240 million transportation improvement program" city officials noted. 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, officials noted.

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," officials wrote. "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."