HARLINGEN — Highway engineers are ready to light it up.
TxDOT has begun a new illumination rehabilitation project to add LED lighting at various locations on interstates in the Lower Rio Grande Valley.
“The project has already begun,” said TxDOT spokesman Octavio Saenz. “It is an 18-month project in which we will be installing LED lights, and will begin almost simultaneously in both Edinburg and Brownsville.”
In Edinburg, the first section is between the intersection of I-69C and Montechristo Heights Road to I-69C and FM 495, Saenz said.
“In Brownsville the limit of the first section is between the intersection of I-69E and SH 100 to I-69E and University Boulevard,” he added.
Cost of the new and brighter LED lighting is $3.1 million and will take about a year to complete as workers start at both ends of the project and work inward.
Other locations which are scheduled to receive the LED lights are along I-2 and I-69E, and I-2/U.S. Expressway 83 from Mile 3 East to FM 800 (Bass Boulevard).
Also on the board are new lights along I-69E/U.S. 77-Expressway 83 from Whalen Road to Sherer Road in San Benito.
Work on the project by contractor Traf-Tex Inc. began in January.
PROJECTS
U.S. 281 Rehabilitation and Widening
Location: From .05 miles west of FM 1479 to 0.24 miles east of FM 506
Cost: $7.7 million
Project Length: 3.86 miles
Contractor: ASAGO LLC
Work started: June 2015
Completion date: February 2017
Work finished: 86 percent complete
The project on the highway along the Rio Grande consists of rehabbing the roadway and widening the existing road.
FM 106 roadway reconstruction
Location: From FM 1847 to FM 510
Cost: $15.6 million
Project Length: 11.4 miles
Contractor: Texas SAI Inc.
Work started: November 2015
Completion date: December 2017
Work finished: 47 percent complete
The project consists of a major overhaul of the roadway and includes several wildlife underpasses and adjacent fencing.
BSIF at Los Indios
Location: Los Indios Free Trade International Bridge
Cost: $6.9 million
Project Length: .001 miles
Contractor: Foremost Paving Inc.
Work started: February 2015
Completion date: June 2016
Work finished: 78 percent
The new border safety inspection facility will inspect trucks from Mexico entering the United States. Work on the facility has been suspended since September while TxDOT awaits a land donation from Cameron County.
U.S. 281 roadway rehabilitation and widening
Location: From .09 miles east of Hidalgo/Cameron county line to 0.24 miles east of FM 506
Cost: $5.2 million
Project Length: 2.789 miles
Contractor: Foremost Paving Inc.
Work started: February 2015
Completion date: February 2017
Work finished: 99 percent
This is the western end of the rehab and widening of border highway U.S. 281.
1 and 2 county road off-system bridge replacements
Location: Kornegay Road just south of FM 1561 and Mile Line 20 Road 0.5 miles east of Nelson Road
Cost: $1.4 million
Project length: Varies
Contractor: Valley Infrastructure
Work started: February 2016
Completion date: December 2016
Work finished: 90 percent
The two projects will replace aging bridges and their approaches.
Bridge rehabilitation Rio Hondo lift bridge
Location: Rio Hondo
Cost: $12.4 million
Project length: 0.117 miles
Contractor: PCL Civil Contractors Inc.
Work started: Summer 2016
Completion date: December 2017
Work finished: 42 percent
The project consists of a complete overhaul of the mechanical lift bridge over the Arroyo Colorado.
I-69E and I-2 interchange landscape improvements
Location: I-69E and I-2
Cost: $293,349
Project length: 0.1 miles
Contractor: Southern Landscapes
Work started: N/A
Completion date: N/A
Work finished: 0 percent
