HUTTO — Officials broke ground Thursday on Segment Two of the East Wilco Highway from CR 137 to CR 404, part of a multimilliondollar initiative to facilitate transportation to a growing high-tech hub.
The project will eventually connect Texas 130 just north of the Travis County line to CR 101, creating a southern loop around Hutto’s city limits and adding a western access point to the Samsung Highway.
“This is a $64.4 million project. It is expected to be the largest project in the history of WilCo,” said Williamson County Precinct 4 Commissioner Russ Boles. “This is Section Two of the East WilCo Highway, and it’s only second to Section Three of the East WilCo Highway, that we’re work- our partners at (the Texas Department of Transportation), and that’s a huge $80 million. That is a phenomenal investment by the state and the county into east Williamson County.”
This segment of the highway will connect CR 137 south of Hutto to CR 404 near Samsung Austin Semiconductor and is expected to be complete in 2027. The new roadway will feature one lane in each direction and a center turn lane, as well as sidewalks.
The project is funded through the 2023 voterapproved Williamson County Road Bond. It will be constructed by Capital Excavation.
“I cannot go through the city of Taylor without being stopped and someone asking me when we are going to get this done. We all know there’s a difficult situation on U.S. 79 through Hutto, and they’re saying life is going to be better when we get this done,” Boles said.
The commissioner said the project is a joint effort involving many agencies. The voters who approved the bond, local city and county leaders, Hutto Economic Development Corp., contractors, state agencies and U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Waco, helped make the project a reality, he added.
“There’s a whole system of roads we’re putting together right as we speak, and we’re kind of at the epicenter of what’s going to be the economic and cultural center of east Williamson County, and we have a congressman who has been extremely supportive, Congressman Pete Sessions,” Boles said. “On this segment right now, he has put $5 million in federal funds toward it. On the extension of the Samsung Highway, he has put $10 million of funds toward that.”
Next week, Boles plans to meet with Sessions about adding another $10 million for the road projects.
City Council member Amberley Kolar said the groundbreaking represented a bright future for Hutto, adding the thoroughfare will solve a critical traffic issue for motorists.
“This is the major thoroughfare that is going to take people off our local roads. It will give us some relief,” Kolar said. “That’s one of the main issues residents of Hutto have is just the congestion, sitting in traffic. It makes it hard to get out. So this road is going to take traffic off of our local roads so that people heading to the toll road or out to Taylor won’t have to go through the middle of Hutto.”
For video from the groundbreaking, visit facebook.com/ GoTaylorTx/.
