TRG | The Bottom Line – 11/22

With a size 96 boot, a 33-foot belt, and a 95-gallon hat, it’s pretty obvious why Big Tex became the symbol for “everything is bigger in Texas.” The big fella has been welcoming folks to the Texas State Fair since 1952. Not to be outdone, the state has an equally big list of transportation projects it is working hard to complete. In TRG’s latest Fireside Chat, we welcomed the Director of Project Development for the Texas DOT to learn more about a record backlog of projects. Currently, the DOT has 9,000 active projects valued at $40 billion and another 8,000 projects valued at $75 billion expected to start within the next 4 years. The DOT’s Unified Transportation Plan, a construction-only expenditure estimate, is currently at a record $104 billion. Less than 10-years ago before passage of Prop 1 and 7, the 10-year estimate was less than $35 billion. How big are the projects you ask? The I-45 expansion in Houston that just kicked-off at the end of October is a $13 billion project with construction expected to last over the next 18-years. Now that’s more work than you can shake a stick at.