The Texas Transportation Commission on Thursday distributed more than $1 billion for several San Antonio-area highway projects, including four different highways recommended by the Alamo Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (AAMPO) – which represents Bexar, Comal, Guadalupe and a portion of Kendall County.
Loop 1604 and Interstate 10 interchange, the north Interstate 35 interchange, Interstate 10 East, and U.S. 90 West, were among the highways recommended as part of more than $9 billion in funding for mobility and connectivity projects, according to Bexar County Commissioner Kevin Wolff. The funding supports the 2020 Unified Transportation Plan, a 10-year proposal that guides transportation development in Texas.
“I’m very happy the commission listened to us here locally when we gave them our priorities, and they did, to the best of their ability, fulfill a number of those priorities,” said Wolff, who proclaimed it a “good day.”
But he also noted, “that doesn’t mean we got them all filled.”
Wolff, who serves as AAMPO chair, credited the AAMPO’s application structure as the reason for San Antonio’s ability to capture so much of the Transportation Commission’s funding.
The planning organization included a total of about $4 billion worth of projects in its funding application but put projects it considered highest priority at the top, Wolff said. The Transportation Commission considered more than 500 funding requests this year.
“We took our priority list and prioritized our priorities, and then sent that to the Transportation Commission,” he said.
“It was a good thing that our MPO did that exercise because I can tell you no other MPO did that, to the point that the Transportation Commission actually used us as an example and went out to other MPOs and said, ‘Hey, you have to do what San Antonio did.”
Each of the approved projects will help add capacity and connectivity to Bexar County, Wolff said. The Unified Transportation Plan can be viewed here.
