FM 1977 San Antonio
Pilot projects
San Antonio - FM 1977 scope
The pilot project is located on FM 1977 in Staples, Texas at the border of the San Antonio and Austin districts, within Guadalupe County. The approximately 0.30 mile stretch of road runs from FM 621 to the Guadalupe and Caldwell County line, which coincides with the San Marcos River. The roadway will undergo a full-depth reconstruction (for rehabilitation purposes) with widened shoulders and improved roadside safety. The project began design in the Spring 2023 and letting is anticipated for Winter 2025.
Project location (map)
Please see the Pilot Project Map for the most up to date project information and linework.

PM/District insights
What has gone well so far during the project? Engineering decisions and the core design process were able to be conducted in a traditional manner without any impact from piloting of new Digital Delivery processes.
Have there been any challenges? Implementing the new Digital Delivery features/requirements of Item Types and curated 3D model breaklines introduced a learning curve that added some additional level of effort to the PS&E phase. We hope to recoup time costs incurred from the additional level of effort by leveraging gained skills and experiences to improve efficiency on future digital delivery projects, as well as possibly reduced time costs during the bidding and construction phases.
Is there any technology you’ve found useful and are looking forward to using again? Item Types should improve efficiency and accuracy on future projects, once we get past the learning curve.
Goals and objectives piloted
Design: This pilot includes roadway, drainage and utilities modeling for the ultimate and phased condition, which will be used to evaluate design parameters, visual clash detection and constructability. This pilot will also test Digital Design Review requirements and functionality during QC and district milestone reviews.
Additional pilot elements for design include:
- Digital Delivery QC checklists
- Level of Development for model elements
- Standardized file naming convention
- Enhancements to the ORD and PW workspace environments
- Digital signing and sealing
Deliverables: This pilot is testing the delivery of models as legal documents, 3D model breaklines for Automated Machine Guidance, reduced plan sheets, and final design rollplots.
Construction: This pilot will evaluate construction software that will assist during inspection for pilot elements such as: the replacement of plan sheets, model visualization, digital construction management, digital as-built processes, and measurement and payment of work.
Asset Management: The pilot team is utilizing item type attribution to provide pay item information within model elements so that the models can be used by various asset owners for maintenance and planning.