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Highway 36 projects could begin in 2010
Published November 1, 2009
ANGLETON — Brazoria County and state officials have reached agreement on how to share the cost of three projects along Highway 36 that will see the county pay the $47 million bill up front, officials said.
The state eventually will pay for 75 percent of the cost of improving stretches of the highway in West Columbia and Brazoria and 51 percent of the cost to raise the intersection where Highway 36 and FM 1495 meet at Port Freeport.
When the county is fully reimbursed under a pass-though toll agreement with the Texas Department of Transportation and a financing agreement with Port Freeport, Brazoria County’s share will be only about $6 million, said County Engineer Gerald Roberts.
“We’re going to have to issue bonds and we will be reimbursed by TxDOT,” Pct. 1 County Commissioner Donald “Dude” Payne said. “We’re getting a project done that’s not going to cost very much.”
Under the agreement with the highway department, the state will reimburse the county between $1.5 million and $3 million per year until its $29.4 million share of the work has been paid, Texas Department of Public Transportation spokesman Mark Cross said. How much it pays each year will depend on how much traffic uses the highway.
County and port officials still are working out a reimbursement schedule for the port’s $12.3 million share of the intersection’s cost, but no work will be done on that part of the project until an agreement is reached, Roberts said.
“We need to finalize an interlocal cooperation agreement to spell out exactly what everybody’s responsibilities are,” Port Director A.J. “Pete” Reixach said. “We’re moving forward and would like to see this happen.”
The county likely will secure certificates of obligation — which are bonds that don’t require voter approval — to finance most of the Highway 36 construction, Payne said. The county already planned to spend $1 million on environmental and engineering work toward the project, and $5 million from a 2004 voter-approved mobility bond was earmarked for Highway 36.
Roberts said the county might consider two $20 million certificate of obligation packages as early as this month. That money could be borrowed for 20 years, but commissioners have not yet made that determination.
The reimbursement package is part of the state’s pass-through funding program in which projects are funded by a local entity with the state repaying a negotiated percentage of the cost based on how much traffic uses the road. There is no toll and travel on the roads will be free, Roberts said.
The projects include widening Highway 36 to four lanes from the West Columbia city limits north to near CR 467. That portion of the project also calls for a Highway 36 overpass at the new Highway 35. In Brazoria, 5.2 miles of Highway 36 would be widened to four lanes from the city limits to West Brazos Junior High School.
At Port Freeport, parts of FM 1495 and Highway 36 would be elevated to create a raised highway intersection to keep port traffic at the ground level and regular traffic on the new level.
Port commissioners must finalize a contract with the county but already have issued a memorandum of understanding stating cooperation on the project, Reixach said.
There are still “a lot of details to be worked out yet,” but the county wants to be ready to go by the time it signs a contract with the state, Roberts said. That includes agreements with the port.
“Once we get the contract with TxDOT, we’ll be off and running,” Roberts said. “We think TxDOT will move pretty fast.”
Construction could begin in October 2010, with work in Brazoria completed by August 2011 and in West Columbia by June 2012. The port project could be completed by March 2013.
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