TxDOT History: 2005 to 2001

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

Present to 2006 | 2005 to 2001 | 2000 to 1971 | 1970 to 1951 | 1950 to 1931 | 1930 to 1917

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 2006 | 2005 to 2001 | 2000 to 1971 | 1970 to 1951 | 1950 to 1931 | 1930 to 1917