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Construction to widen F.M. 60 from a two-lane highway into four lanes in Burleson County is expected to begin Tuesday, nearly three years after it was intended to start.
Burleson County Judge Mike Sutherland said the project has been delayed because of a lack of state funding but finally will start after $7.5 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was approved. He said the surrounding land was purchased more than three years ago, but the city needed more money to actually build the road.
Construction will take place on F.M. 60 between F.M. 50 and Old River.
"We are very excited to get this back on track," he said. "If it weren't for the American Recovery Act, it would still be an unfunded project."
Sutherland said the county planned to widen the highway because it was a particularly dangerous stretch of road where a high number of accidents have occurred over the years, some deadly.
Bob Colwell, public information officer with the Texas Department of Transportation office in Bryan, said the construction should not pose much of an inconvenience to drivers initially, but it might cause road closures in the future. He said he couldn't yet specify a date for road closures.
The 2.5-mile stretch of construction set to begin at the end of the month is the first phase of the planned 13-mile project stretching from F.M. 50 to Texas 36 in Caldwell.
The first phase is expected to be completed in about two years. The remainder of the construction has not been given a completion date, he said, because it hasn't been funded.
Groundbreaking for the construction will be at 10 a.m. Tuesday, about .4 miles west of the intersection of F.M. 60 and F.M. 50.
The project is the first ARRA-funded construction in Texas and will create an estimated 24 jobs, Colwell said. The act, also known as the economic stimulus bill, was signed into law Feb. 17 in an attempt to jump-start the economy by providing jobs while also improving infrastructure in the United States, according to the act's Web site.
"President Obama's stimulus was designed to put boots on the ground and that is what this will do," Colwell said.
