TxDOT History

The Texas Legislature established the Texas Highway Department in 1917. This timeline lists major milestones and events during our history.

Present to 2001 | 2000 to 1971 | 1970 to 1951
1950 to 1931 | Through 1930

2006

• December 13 – The northernmost 14 miles of the SH 130 toll road opened. The segment, which stretches from north of Georgetown to US 290 on Austin’s east side, allows drivers to travel from Georgetown to Austin without using I-35.
• November 1 – The department opened approximately 27 miles of toll roads in North Austin and eastern Williamson County a year ahead of schedule and under budget. The first sections of the 66-mile, $3 billion toll project will be toll-free until January, with a 14-mile segment of the project coming online in December followed by another 29 miles in 2007.
• October 18 – Texas became the first state to receive tax-exempt federal private activity bonds (PABs) since the bonds became eligible to fund highway projects. The bonds, totaling $1.8 billion, were made available through approval of the Texas Transportation Commission. The bonds will accelerate development of SH 121 in the Dallas area. Legislation stipulates private companies become the ultimate borrowers of the funds and arrange to repay the debt through toll revenue rather than state funds.
• September 29 – The celebration of the 20th anniversary of “Don’t Mess with Texas,” the TxDOT anti-littering slogan, continued as Advertising Week named the famous catchphrase the top ad slogan of 2006. The famous slogan became a sensation when first uttered by singer Stevie Ray Vaughn in an advertising campaign launched during the January 1986 Cotton Bowl. The slogan, which has been commemorated on T-shirts and bumper stickers and popularized by politicians and athletes, defeated more than 20 other slogans to achieve a spot in the Madison Avenue Advertising Walk of Fame.
• September 28 – The master development plan for the first phase of the Trans-Texas Corridor 35 segment (TTC-35) was released. Designed by Cintra-Zachry, the plan envisions a parallel alternative toll road to I-35, funded by the private sector. The project will include multiple separate lanes for tractor trailers, passenger vehicles, commuter and freight rail as well as a utilities passageway.
• September 1 – TxDOT awarded a record $5.3 billion in mobility-improving construction projects in the 2006 fiscal year. The total surpassed the $4.5 billion obligated the previous fiscal year and almost doubled statewide spending four years ago.
• August 1 – The department finished equipping all state rest areas with free Wi-Fi for wireless personal computer operations. An estimated 50 million people use the 100 rest stops every year – 100 people per minute.
• June 29 – The Texas Transportation Commission approved the first comprehensive development agreement, estimated at $1.3 billion, with the Cintra-Zachry consortium to finance and build the 40 remaining miles of State Highway 130 from Austin to Seguin. The public-private partnership will finance costs of the project in return for the right to collect tolls on the roadway over the next 50 years. Tolls will be collected via use of an electronic device called a TxTag, which debits user accounts for the amount of the required fee. The turnpike is expected to open by 2012.
• June 14 – Proposals for development of TTC-69, a segment of the Trans-Texas Corridor, were received from two competing private-sector groups, marking the beginning of development of the 600-mile, multi-billion dollar project, which will extend from Northeast Texas to Mexico.
• May 25 – Texas became the first state in the nation to set an 80 mph daytime speed limit on 521 of its more than 79,000 miles of highway. The higher speed is posted only in low-population areas in the western portion of the state and amounts to less than one percent of the state roadway system. The limit was approved by a unanimous vote of the Transportation Commission based upon legislation enacted during the last regular session of the 79th Legislature. Passenger vehicles and light trucks are the only means of transportation affected by the change.
• April 11 – The department issues a request for qualifications as the first step in a competitive selection process to develop a public-private partnership for developing the I-69/Trans-Texas Corridor from Northeast Texas to Mexico.
• April 4 – The Federal Highway Administration approves a 4,000-page draft environmental impact statement for the Trans-Texas Corridor 35. The report narrows the corridor study area to roughly 10 miles wide from Gainesville to Laredo.
• March 29 – A private-sector proposal submitted to the department by Cintra-Zachary declares that the consortium believes a new 600-mile freight-rail line from Dallas-Fort Worth to Mexico is timely and ready for development. As envisioned, the rail project could pull one million trucks a year off of I-35.

2005

• December – After four years of construction, the $261 million Dallas High Five Project – a five-level interchange at Interstate 635 (LBJ Freeway) and U.S. 75 as tall as a 12-story building – opens more than a year ahead of schedule. A half-million motorists a day use the new facility.
• September 22-23 – For the first time in Texas history, with the approach of Hurricane Rita, TxDOT reverses the flow of traffic lanes on portions of I-10 and I-45 to facilitate the evacuation of 2.8 million Southeast Texas residents – the largest evacuation in world history. Rita hit the Beaumont area on September 24, causing billions of dollars in damage. The Category 3 storm claimed 141 lives.
• August 27-28 – As Hurricane Katrina approached Louisiana, hundreds of thousands of people evacuated New Orleans along with other threatened areas and came to Texas. After setting up emergency assistance operations at the Travel Information Centers at Orange and Waskom, TxDOT issued water, snacks and other emergency supplies to more than 100,000 of those evacuees. More than 300 TxDOT employees took part in these and other assistance efforts, ranging from placing message boards to transporting cots for emergency shelters.
• August 1 – The department’s Legislative Affairs Office reorganizes as the Government and Business Enterprises Division.
• June 30 – Commissioner Robert Nichols, appointed by Gov. George W. Bush in 1997, resigns from the Transportation Commission.
• March 19 – A similar agreement is signed in Fort Worth with officials of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad company.
• March 18 – Commissioner Robert Nichols and Richard Davidson, Union Pacific’s chief executive officer, sign an agreement between TxDOT and the railroad to work together to move freight-rail lines out of densely populated urban areas.
• March 11 – Executive Director Mike Behrens, Cintra Executive Chairman Rafael del Pino and Zachry Construction Corp. President David Zachry sign a 103-page comprehensive development agreement to begin the early planning for TTC-35, including its funding mechanisms.
• February 24 – Transportation Commission votes to execute the state’s first pass-through toll agreement – expediting transportation improvements in Montgomery County.

• During the year, the department lets a record $4.1 billion in highway construction contracts and approves $9 billion in funds over the next four years to preserve the state’s existing transportation system.
• December 16 – In the largest single roadway-safety program the department has ever undertaken, the Transportation Commission approves the allocation of $600 million for 644 safety projects across the state. To be funded through bond sales, the program will pay for widening narrow, two-land roads, installing median barriers on divided highways, adding needed left-turn lanes, and building new overpasses.
• December 16 – Transportation Commission selects Cintra-Zachry, a Spanish-Texas consortium, to develop the Trans-Texas Corridor-35, stretching from Oklahoma to Mexico. The private-sector proposal includes investing $6 billion in a multi-lane toll road from Dallas-Fort Worth to San Antonio by 2010 and giving Texas $1.2 billion for additional transportation improvements between Oklahoma and Mexico.
• May 27 – Transportation Commission approves the $20 million purchase of the department’s first toll road, the privately built Camino Columbia in Webb County. Opened in October 2000, the 22-mile, four-lane toll way extends from I-35 (Mile Marker 25) to FM 1472 (Mines Road).
• May – TxDOT seeks proposals from private vendors interested in providing free wireless Internet access at the state’s 84 safety rest areas and 12 Travel Information Centers. Texas will be the first state in the nation to offer this service to the traveling public.
• January 30 – First public hearing seeking citizen input on the Trans-Texas Corridor is held at Farwell in Palmer County.
• February 26 – Trans-Texas Corridor public hearings completed in all 254 Texas counties.
• January 30 – First public hearing seeking citizen input on the Trans-Texas Corridor is held at Farwell in Palmer County.

• October 3 – Ground is broken for State Highway 130, a 49-mile toll way that will extend from Interstate 35 near Georgetown to U.S. 183 near Mustang Ridge in southeast Travis County. At $1.5 billion, this is the largest single highway construction project in Texas history and the largest active highway contract in the nation. The largest element of the planned Central Texas Turnpike Project, SH 130 is the result of the state’s first use of a comprehensive development agreement.
• September 23 – Deadline for submission of proposals for high-priority segments of the Trans-Texas Corridor. In addition to the earlier proposal from Fluor Enterprises, Inc., TxDOT receives a proposal from Dallas-based Trans Texas Express, LLC and Cintra, Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte, S.A. of Madrid, Spain.
• September 13 – Voters overwhelmingly approve Proposition 14, a constitutional amendment making possible the bonding authority contained in HB 3588. For the first time in its history, TxDOT has the authority to enter the bond market to finance projects.
• June 29 – TxDOT issues a notice requesting competing proposals to develop the Interstate 35 High Priority corridor from the Red River to the Rio Grande. The notice asks interested parties to submit plans to acquire, develop, design, construct, finance, maintain and operate a combination of road, rail and utility facilities along the corridor.
• June 19 – Governor Perry signs HB 3588 into law at the Texas Transportation Institute’s Gibb Gilchrist Building on the Texas A&M University campus. “This mobility package,” the governor says, “gives the Texas Department of Transportation new oversight authority, new planning and development tools, and innovative financing options to build the Trans-Texas Corridor more efficiently and at a lower cost.”

• November 13 – Fluor Enterprises, Inc. of Sugarland, Texas, submits an unsolicited proposal to build an element of the Trans-Texas Corridor from Denison to the Rio Grande Valley, paralleling segments of Interstate 35, Interstate 37 and proposed Interstate 69.
• October 3 – TxDOT launches the hardest-hitting anti-DWI campaign in its history, a public service marketing campaign featuring 23-year-old Jacqueline Saburido, a woman who suffered disfiguring burns as a passenger in a drunk-driving crash three years before. The television spots and billboards feature before and after images of the young college student focusing worldwide attention on the danger of driving while intoxicated.
• June 27 – TxDOT presents a 95-page report on the Trans-Texas Corridor to the Transportation Commission. The commission unanimously approves the action plan, which sets forth a basic design for a 4,000-mile multi-use transportation system.
• January 30 – In a three-page letter to Transportation Commissioner John W. Johnson, Texas Gov. Rick Perry lays out broad concept of a 21st century transportation network for Texas, the Trans-Texas Corridor. The governor asks TxDOT to “assemble the department’s top talent” to develop an implementation plan within 90 days.
• January 2 – Construction begins on the $231 million High Five project, a five-level interchange at Interstate 635 and U.S. 75 in Dallas. This is the largest construction contract TxDOT has ever let. When completed, portions of the structure will be 120 feet above U.S. 75, roughly the equivalent of a 12-story building.

• November 21 – The Queen Isabella Causeway, the state’s longest bridge, re-opens to traffic 30 days ahead of schedule.
• November 6 – Texas voters approve Proposition 15, a constitutional amendment giving the state authority to finance and build transportation infrastructure in innovative ways. The amendment allows TxDOT to enter into exclusive development agreements with public and private entities for the construction of large-scale transportation projects. The amendment also provides for the creation of a Texas Mobility Fund, the use of toll equity for roadway construction, and authorizes the Transportation Commission to create regional mobility authorities.
• October 7 – Reconstruction of the causeway begins. TxDOT-operated ferries provide service until the 240-foot gap in the bridge is rebuilt.
• September 15 – Four barges laden with rolled steel hit the 2.5-mile-long Queen Isabella Causeway connecting Port Isabel and South Padre Island. The collision causes two 80-foot segments to collapse. Eight people drown when their vehicles plunge off the gap in the bridge into the Laguna Madre.
• June – The extension of Interstate 69 into Texas takes a major step forward with the signing of a $49 million contract to begin the environment study on the project. Built in the 1960s and 1970s, I-69 connects Port Huron, Michigan with Indianapolis. In 1991, Congress designated national high priority corridors, including Corridors 18 and 20. These would extend from Indianapolis to Laredo and the Lower Rio Grande Valley. Congress applied the I-69 designation to the entire route in 1998.

Present to 2001 | 2000 to 1971 | 1970 to 1951 | 1950 to 1931 | Through 1930