April TxDOT Highway Letting Dates

The Texas Department of Transportation has scheduled its next highway letting for April 8 and 9. Sixty-five projects are approved to be let with an estimated total of $292,578,848.

A TxDOT report in January said projects may be added, advanced or delayed as deemed necessary.

LNG Receiving Terminal Expected To Spark Jobs Along Texas Gulf Coast

Gov. Rick Perry recently announced that Vista del Sol LNG Terminal LP, an ExxonMobil Corp. affiliate, will move forward with plans to build a $600 million liquefied natural gas receiving terminal in San Patricio County. The terminal, which is expected to create hundreds of jobs in the region, is the second such facility along the Texas Gulf Coast announced by ExxonMobil in the past several months.

The investment by ExxonMobil "will create jobs, stimulate new economic growth and increase the supply of natural gas that our nation depends upon to heat and cool our homes, generate our electricity and fuel our industrial production," Perry said in his announcement. "Not only will this plant provide dozens of jobs when it becomes operational, it will generate hundreds of construction jobs and many more spinoff jobs for distributors, suppliers and transporters."

The terminal, to be located in San Patricio County about 2 mi. west of Ingleside, will process LNG for distribution throughout Texas and the United States. Construction is expected to take about three years, and the facility should be fully operational by the end of the decade and producing up to 1 billion cu. ft. of LNG per day.

In November, the governor signed an executive order creating the Texas Energy Planning Council. Headed by Victor Carrillo, Railroad Commission chair, the council will advise the governor on a balanced plan to provide the energy needed to fuel Texas' future economic growth.

"Securing LNG terminals and regasification facilities along our Texas coast is a positive move toward creating energy supply diversity that will ultimately help stabilize energy prices and reduce volatility and price spiking," Carrillo said in a statement.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Joins San Antonio River Project

Local and federal governmental partners joined the community recently in marking the construction start on the Eagleland segment of the San Antonio River Improvements Project.

The $8.2 million project is the first along the San Antonio River to connect environmental restoration, flood management and amenities in a single area.

"The Eagleland project is a comprehensive river restoration and flood-management project that will yield numerous benefits to the citizens of our community," Bexar County Judge Nelson W. Wolff said at the groundbreaking. "New technologies that were not available a half century ago now make it possible to balance concerns for the environment and concerns for flood management."

Eagleland is the next segment to be completed on the San Antonio River Improvements Project and the first to include the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as a funding partner. The San Antonio River Authority is serving as the project manager and local sponsor of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

$136 Million Contract for Galveston Bay Bridge Awarded by TxDOT

TxDOT recently awarded Indiana-based Traylor Bros. Inc. a $136 million contract to build two new high-level six-lane bridges on IH45 across Galveston Bay in Galveston.
Work is expected to be complete by late 2007. Traylor Bros. is a national heavy civil and underground contractor providing construction services for bridges, ports, tunnels and locks and dams.

Perry Names Williamson Chair of Texas Transportation Commission

Gov. Rick Perry recently designated Richard F. "Ric" Williamson as chair of the Texas Transportation Commission, which oversees statewide activities of the Texas Department of Transportation.

Williamson was originally appointed to the commission by Perry in March 2001 for a term to expire Feb. 1, 2007.

A member of the Texas Legislature from 1985-98, Williamson served as vice chair of the House Appropriations Committee and a member of the Ways and Means Committee and House Select Committee on Revenue and Public Education Funding.
He is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin.