Texas lawmakers returned to Austin Tuesday for their biennial session. The state legislature is scheduled to meet for 140 days every two years.
Transportation leaders say the state should start planning now to accommodate continued population growth. The U.S. Census says the state's population increased 16% from 25.1 million in 2010 to 29.1 million in 2020, more than any other state.
North Texas is adding about a million people every seven years.
"This is an amazing region, and the people here probably fully understand this," says North Central Texas Council of Governments Transportation Director Michael Morris. "You've got to take pretty bold steps to work on really big projects, whether it be high speed rail, aggressive air quality programs, aggressive safety programs."
Earlier this year, TxDOT and NCTCOG broke ground on a $2 billion reconstruction of the interchange of Interstates 820 and 20 and U.S. Highway 287 in southeastern Tarrant County.
"We don't build projects, we build systems," Morris says. "This actually is part of the statewide transportation system. This helps people from the whole state get to the Entertainment District in Arlington faster, DFW International Airport, all the things that occur in Downtown Fort Worth. It's the next phase of a project that's building a seamless transportation system in the region."
Interstate 20 in southern Tarrant County is ranked the 79th most congested highway in the state by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute. The institute says 37 of the 100 most congested highways are in the Metroplex.
Interstate 610 in West Houston is ranked the state's most congested. In North Texas, four highways rank in the top ten: Woodall Rodgers Freeway is the second most congested highway in the state, 35W from Northeast 28th Street to North Loop 820 is 6th, the elevated highway linking U.S. 75 to Interstate 45 in Dallas ranks 7th, and U.S. 75 from Interstate 635/LBJ Freeway to Woodall Rodgers ranks 9th.
As North Texas' population grows, Morris says the state cannot build enough additional lane miles to support cars alone. He says the state and communities should start planning now for additional options for transportation.
Morris cites Trinity Metro's planned extension of TEXRail to Fort Worth's Near Southside and ultimate goal of extending the line to Southeast Fort Worth.
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"You'll be able to go from the hospital district to DFW Airport, downtown to the Hospital District," he says. "We implement dozens of policies and modes of transportation."
For highways, Morris says he will meet with state lawmakers about a potential pilot project to build some parts of roads with induction loops that could charge electric cars as they drive similar to the way a charging pad can recharge a phone without plugging it in.
"You could go, say, in lane two and for the next 40 miles, you're going to get a boost in electric, so you don't have these fears of range problems," he says, saying induction loops could be designed so they do not draw from the state's grid but rather from an option like solar panels along the road.
Morris says the Texas legislature can start planning now for infrastructure that can benefit the state's economy in the future. He says lawmakers can also start working with manufacturers now to test equipment to recharge cars as they travel.
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