Can someone give me an explanation of what is going on with the I35 construction between the river and 18th street? I have been recovering from knee surgery and the WV game was my first time to see the extent of the project.

Expanding to 6/8 lanes from Bellmead to 12th st.

5 year plus project.

Genius: take 5 years to construct a bottleneck at 12th street as lanes again narrow. I realize it is money and contracts, but I do not understand why they don't just expand the whole dadgummed thing thru Waco. Now, they will likely see what a problem they created and decide to start expansion of the rest in another 10 years.

This is one of the final pieces of the overall I-35 expansion plan that's been going on for nearly a decade from Austin to Hillsboro.

As CT said, they are expanding it to 4 main lanes in both directions, adding U-turns, eliminating some old intersections that were traffic problems, etc, etc.

Expected to finish in Spring 2024.

4yrletterbear said:

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Can someone give me an explanation of what is going on with the I35 construction between the river and 18th street? I have been recovering from knee surgery and the WV game was my first time to see the extent of the project.

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Fubar

Alf said:

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4yrletterbear said:

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Can someone give me an explanation of what is going on with the I35 construction between the river and 18th street? I have been recovering from knee surgery and the WV game was my first time to see the extent of the project.

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Fubar

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BaylorGuy314 said:

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This is one of the final pieces of the overall I-35 expansion plan that's been going on for nearly a decade from Austin to Hillsboro.

As CT said, they are expanding it to 4 main lanes in both directions, adding U-turns, eliminating some old intersections that were traffic problems, etc, etc.

Expected to finish in Spring 2024.

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"Finish"

You mean get it halfway done and then wait however many years until they can fund the next half and then be done another 5 years after that.

UBBY said:

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BaylorGuy314 said:

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This is one of the final pieces of the overall I-35 expansion plan that's been going on for nearly a decade from Austin to Hillsboro.

As CT said, they are expanding it to 4 main lanes in both directions, adding U-turns, eliminating some old intersections that were traffic problems, etc, etc.

Expected to finish in Spring 2024.

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"Finish"

You mean get it halfway done and then wait however many years until they can fund the next half and then be done another 5 years after that.

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The whole I-35 expansion is fully funded. It's why it was done in parts.

BaylorGuy314 said:

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UBBY said:

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BaylorGuy314 said:

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This is one of the final pieces of the overall I-35 expansion plan that's been going on for nearly a decade from Austin to Hillsboro.

As CT said, they are expanding it to 4 main lanes in both directions, adding U-turns, eliminating some old intersections that were traffic problems, etc, etc.

Expected to finish in Spring 2024.

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"Finish"

You mean get it halfway done and then wait however many years until they can fund the next half and then be done another 5 years after that.

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The whole I-35 expansion is fully funded. It's why it was done in parts.

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Thats not what I read. I read they will seek funding in 5 years for the second half.

UBBY said:

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BaylorGuy314 said:

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UBBY said:

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BaylorGuy314 said:

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This is one of the final pieces of the overall I-35 expansion plan that's been going on for nearly a decade from Austin to Hillsboro.

As CT said, they are expanding it to 4 main lanes in both directions, adding U-turns, eliminating some old intersections that were traffic problems, etc, etc.

Expected to finish in Spring 2024.

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"Finish"

You mean get it halfway done and then wait however many years until they can fund the next half and then be done another 5 years after that.

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The whole I-35 expansion is fully funded. It's why it was done in parts.

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Thats not what I read. I read they will seek funding in 5 years for the second half.

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Perhaps I was unclear. My apologies. Every part of the expansion that is currently under construction is fully funded. The stretch through Waco is the last stretch in the entire project. The numbers are simply far too big when you are spending $50-60MM/mile to do it all at one time. You have to fund it and construct it in pieces.

The only part that is "unfunded" (although it's technically already earmarked) is the 3 mile (or so) stretch from Valley Mills Dr to the Marketplace. It's the last piece to be done from Austin to Hillsboro. But the funding for that piece should be substantially easier - it's half the price of the section from Valley Mills Dr to Behrens Circle (the current part under construction).

I also remember hearing that the reason why they aren't working on the entire Waco stretch (Bellmead to Hwy 6) in one time is that the city of Waco was going to have to pony up a very substantial amount up front as opposed to how it was explained above (in pieces). Waco said gulp and now it's a 10 year process.

southtexasbear said:

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I also remember hearing that the reason why they aren't working on the entire Waco stretch (Bellmead to Hwy 6) in one time is that the city of Waco was going to have to pony up a very substantial amount up front as opposed to how it was explained above (in pieces). Waco said gulp and now it's a 10 year process.

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The southern portion should take less time to complete.

BaylorGuy314 said:

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UBBY said:

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BaylorGuy314 said:

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UBBY said:

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BaylorGuy314 said:

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This is one of the final pieces of the overall I-35 expansion plan that's been going on for nearly a decade from Austin to Hillsboro.

As CT said, they are expanding it to 4 main lanes in both directions, adding U-turns, eliminating some old intersections that were traffic problems, etc, etc.

Expected to finish in Spring 2024.

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"Finish"

You mean get it halfway done and then wait however many years until they can fund the next half and then be done another 5 years after that.

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The whole I-35 expansion is fully funded. It's why it was done in parts.

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Thats not what I read. I read they will seek funding in 5 years for the second half.

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Perhaps I was unclear. My apologies. Every part of the expansion that is currently under construction is fully funded. The stretch through Waco is the last stretch in the entire project. The numbers are simply far too big when you are spending $50-60MM/mile to do it all at one time. You have to fund it and construct it in pieces.

The only part that is "unfunded" (although it's technically already earmarked) is the 3 mile (or so) stretch from Valley Mills Dr to the Marketplace. It's the last piece to be done from Austin to Hillsboro. But the funding for that piece should be substantially easier - it's half the price of the section from Valley Mills Dr to Behrens Circle (the current part under construction).

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How quickly do you think that will get done? They first have to finalize funding. They stated that they also want to give some time off for some of the businesses to try to recover. How much time off does that mean before they start again? It seems more and more like 2030 is when this will finally get finished if not later.

I see it as a failure (one of many) of our local politicians. Temple managed to get their upgrade funded all in one go, why didn't Waco?

Did they say "hey, do us last" instead of taking the medicine when it was first offered and funds were available, thereby delaying completion by nearly a generation?

There hasn't been a decent Waco politician since David Sibley.

CorsicanaBear said:

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I see it as a failure (one of many) of our local politicians. Temple managed to get their upgrade funded all in one go, why didn't Waco?

Did they say "hey, do us last" instead of taking the medicine when it was first offered and funds were available, thereby delaying completion by nearly a generation?

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I can't answer why Temple was done first. There may have been imminent domain issues or issues with execution or issues with the County and what part they might fund of the project. Of course, it could just have been something to do with overall dollars.

The stretch from Hewitt -> West totals nearly a billion dollars ($9XX million - I can't remember the exact figure).

The stretch from Salado -> Troy (including all of Temple, of course) was half that ($5XX million or so).

Insane numbers. We're in the wrong business

CTbruin said:

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Expanding to 6/8 lanes from Bellmead to 12th st.

5 year plus project.

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CT,

Are you saying it probably won't be completed in our lifetime?

Yep

I would take the opposite approach and stop making interstate highways local thoroughfares. Waco does not need 20 exits. Have one in the north suburbs, one in north Waco, one downtown, one in south Waco, and one in the southern suburbs. Keep the interstates for inter-state, inter-city traffic and let the surface streets handle local traffic.

CorsicanaBear said:

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I see it as a failure (one of many) of our local politicians. Temple managed to get their upgrade funded all in one go, why didn't Waco?

Did they say "hey, do us last" instead of taking the medicine when it was first offered and funds were available, thereby delaying completion by nearly a generation?

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The Temple project was much less expensive than the Waco project.

And, if you see what they did in Temple, that's pretty darned impressive.