TxDOT Completes Three Projects in August

TYLER — The Texas Department of Transportation announced that it completed three projects in August and planned to break ground on another four in September. This brings the total number of projects under construction to 29 across the eight-county Tyler District.

“Without a doubt, the biggest project of the three we finished is the State Highway 198 bridge at Caney Creek,” said TxDOT spokesman Larry Krantz. “And right as we’re wrapping that one up, we’re getting another one started at Twin Creek Lake near Gun Barrel City.”

The $21 million Twin Creek project, which is being built by the same contractor, Concho Construction Company, Inc., of Garland, will be nearly identical to the Caney Creek project. The Caney Creek project, which was the first of the three State Highway 198 bridges on Cedar Creek Reservoir to be rebuilt, called for building a new, two-lane bridge next to the old, existing bridge, then shifting traffic to the new bridge while the original bridge was replaced. The end result is four lanes of traffic on SH 198, with the northbound and southbound traffic running on separate bridges.

“We’ve been very fortunate with our funding when it comes to bridges,” Krantz said. “We’ve had these SH 198 bridge projects ready to go as soon as funding was available, and now we’re working on the second of the three bridges.” No funding has been identified for the third bridge, which is between Twin Creek and Caney Creek.

Also in August, TxDOT completed night-work resurfacing projects on U.S. Highway 80 (Marshall Avenue) in Longview, and on U.S. Highway 69 (South Broadway Avenue) in Tyler. Krantz said both projects went smoothly and were completed on time.

In addition to the SH 198 bridge work beginning in September, construction crews are scheduled to begin work on a combined project to widen and resurface Farm Road 59 and Farm Road 753 in Henderson County. Farm-to-Market 59 will be widened three feet on each side and resurfaced between South Loop 7 in Athens and Farm Road 753, and FM 753 will be similarly widened and resurfaced between FM 59 and State Highway 31. The $5.2 million project is scheduled to begin in mid-to-late September and take approximately one year to complete.

In Anderson County, an $800,000 resurfacing project on U.S. Highway 287 in and around Elkhart is scheduled to kick off this week, between Farm Road 1817 and State Highway 294. The project, awarded to Madden Contracting Company, Inc., of Minden, Louisiana, is scheduled to take approximately two months to complete.

Finally, in Tyler, a $1.5 million Green Ribbon landscaping project to add decorative traffic islands and shrubbery to various intersections along Spur 147 (Gentry Parkway) between West Loop 323 and Farm Road 14 is scheduled to begin by mid-September. The project, awarded to Tyler-based Reynolds & Kay, Ltd. is part of the state’s Green Ribbon Landscape Improvement Program, which allows the state to address new landscape development and establishment projects within districts that have non-attainment or near non-attainment counties. Green Ribbon projects call for planting trees and shrubs, which help clean the air and otherwise mitigate the effects of air pollution.

The Tyler District also awarded contracts for four construction projects in August, including a $75,000 Green Ribbon Project to Encino Landscape, Inc., of Cleveland, Texas, for the Henderson Star area.

The other projects include a $165,000 project to improve camp sites at Tyler State Park, a $2.3 million project to widen and resurface Farm Road 344 in Smith County between Teaselville and Bullard, and a $1.3 million project to repair and resurface a short segment of Interstate Highway 20 between State Highway 110 and the Smith-Van Zandt county line. Projects awarded in August should begin sometime this fall.