2008 Construction Outlook for Texas

Liz Moucka -- Associated Construction Publications, 12/20/2007

Highways

The Texas Department of Transportation  plans to let contracts for $4.1 billion in construction in 2008 are in jeopardy after having to return around $950 million to Washington over the past 18 months. The mood in Austin is uncertain, although voters approved Proposition 12 in November, authorizing the next Texas Legislature in 2009 to issue up to $5 billion in bonds (paid from general revenue) to build highway projects.
 
A required independent audit of the Texas Department of Transportation during 2007 recommended that the department “should continue to pursue Comprehensive Development Agreements (CDA) and toll pricing at levels that would fund mobility.” TxDOT has released a first phase plan for the Trans-Texas Corridor 35 (TTC-35) to begin with a connection to Interstate 35 south of San Antonio and Loop 9 for the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Institutions

Voters in 57 Independent School Districts throughout Texas passed $6.8 billion in building and renovation bonds this past November 6. The largest of these were in Beaumont, Cypress-Fairbanks (Houston area), Denton, Dickinson (Houston area), Fort Bend (Houston area), Fort Worth, Houston, Irving, Leander (Austin area), Port Arthur, Prosper (Dallas area), Spring Branch (Houston area), and Texas City.

Proposition 4 in last November’s election, also passed, will fund construction for four new prisons – three adult and one youth facility.

Hot Spots

Dallas

Various reports show North Texas retail and industrial construction up dramatically in 2007, with more than 15 million square feet of industrial space currently in design and under construction. Former cotton and milo fields south of Dallas are being leveled for distribution warehousing facilities along Interstate 45 near the Union Pacific (UP) Intermodal facility that was completed in 2005 and along Interstate 35E near what is becoming known as the Southern Gateway.

Downtown Dallas will continue to look like a boom town during 2008 with tower cranes filling the sky along the Woodall Rogers Freeway/Spur 366, Victory and uptown areas. Construction is expected to begin in early 2008 to create a deck park over the depressed mainlanes of Woodall Rogers Freeway. As Woodall Rogers/Spur 366 emerges at its western terminus, its future holds that it will continue westward onto the Margaret Hunt Hill bridge, currently under construction. This, the first of Dallas’ three signature Santiago Calatrava bridges to cross the Trinity River, will tie into Singleton Blvd. in a deteriorated area of West Dallas. The increased traffic in this area is expected to serve as a revitalization catalyst. Construction on the Trinity Parkway reliever route to Stemmons Frwy. could begin in late 2008.

Austin

Cranes also tower over downtown Austin, where currently more than one dozen hotels, condominiums and mixed-use high rises are under construction along Lady Bird Lake. The idea of work downtown/live downtown is another way that Austin is combating traffic congestion on its freeways. On the other hand, Austin’s neighboring counties, Hays and Williamson, are in the top 100 fastest-growing counties in the nation for housing units and retail/light commercial.

Houston

Although new highway projects in the Houston area will remain down, building in the surrounding suburban counties will continue strong in 2008. Fort Bend and Brazoria counties on Houston’s southwest side, with their growing communities of Katy, Sugar Land and Pearland will continue as a hotbed of residential and light commercial construction.

El Paso

The expansion of Fort Bliss and Biggs Army Airfield to accommodate up to 20,000 additional military personnel has thrown the El Paso area into a building frenzy. The dirt is flying and four new BCT (Brigade Combat Team) centers are popping up on military property. New housing developments are under way in Northeast El Paso to accommodate families that will be joining their soldiers. The Ysleta ISD is currently building out a $250-million bond package and plans to propose another bond of the same size within the next year or two.

City leaders have plans for the downtown area of El Paso as well; however projects other than the new U.S. Courthouse are dependent upon private dollars. El Paso’s Victorian and Art Deco downtown high rises sit empty and mothballed, waiting for private dollars to return them to glory.