Highways to take traffic around the city center and improvements to increase safety around Taylor High School are part of a massive infrastructure plan that will make road construction an everyday part of life for several more years.
“There is about a half a billion dollars worth of transportation infrastructure and planning that is going on right now in southeast Williamson County,” said Bob Daigh, senior director of infrastructure for Williamson County.
Daigh spoke at the Greater Taylor Chamber of Commerce monthly luncheon Monday, July 15. He described a network of freeways that would enable workers traveling from the east, west or north toward Samsung Austin Semiconductor to circumvent driving through Taylor and avoid driving past the high school.
East Wilco Highway is being designed to extend from the northern part of the county all the way to Travis County, with an overpass that flies over US Highway 79 and the train tracks near the Taylor-Hutto city limits.
“That road will eventually tie in to [Interstate 35] just north of Jarrell. I like to think of it as essentially Ronald Reagan Boulevard East, it’s just happening a few years later,” Daigh said.
“(The overpass) will be a safe way to get school buses and emergency vehicles over US 79. You’re not going to have to wait for a train to get an ambulance from one side of Williamson County to the other,” he added.
East Wilco Highway will intersect with Samsung Highway just west of Samsung Austin Semiconductor.
Samsung Highway will eventually stretch east from that intersection and loop up to connect with the future Chandler Road extension at US 79 just past Farm to Market 619.
Chandler Road will close the loop, traveling north and west around Taylor to intersect with East Wilco Highway on its way to Texas 130.
“Long-term we will have a freeway network so that you can not only go north-south but you can go east-west. That connection is already planned and the right of way is about 95% already contained, and that is largely due to Samsung’s cooperation,” Daigh said.
FM 973 is also slated for improvements including adding more through-lanes, dedicated turn lanes into the school and a traffic signal at the school. It will become a freeway from US 290 up to Samsung Highway, and a six-lane arterial roadway from Samsung Highway to US 79.
Daigh said FM 973 will have more lanes specifically for turning in and out of the school as well as lanes to facilitate traffic that is passing by the school. A traffic signal at the school entrance is expected to be installed early next year.
Daigh credited the leadership of Pct. 4 County Commissioner Russ Boles for getting the infrastructure approved by the County Commissioners.
“Everything you see on the (transportation planning) map today did not exist before Commissioner Boles.
He was able to communicate to the rest of the court the importance of these projects to the county,” Daigh said.
The infrastructure director said the new projects are being funded through the 2023 county bond election, when voters passed a proposition for $825 million in road construction.
“If you want new lanes, those are only funded through bond projects. The yearly county budget just funds maintenance. And the yearly county budget doesn’t have enough maintenance money,” Daigh said. “So, if you want added capacity, if you want safety projects, the only way to fund it is with bond programs.”
Boles, who also attended the luncheon, told the audience that the County Commissioners Court doesn’t have any future bond elections scheduled and that the issuance of future bonds depends on the community telling commissioners what they need.
“The Southeast Loop, which we re-titled to East Wilco Highway, that’s the biggest project in the history of the county,” Boles said.
“And the day that we get it opened I’m afraid it’s going to be full. But we only have so much money. So that’s what I need to hear from you about. As a community, let me know what you’re interested in, and let’s have a conversation.”
