TXDOT Discusses Widening Highway 158
At a public meeting Sept. 18 in the Ruth Cook Auditorium, officials from the Texas Department of Transportation explained their $69 million plan for widening State Highway 158 some 53 miles from the Midland County line to U.S. Highway 87 near Sterling City. The work will upgrade Highway 158 to be part of the Texas Trunk System, a network of 4-lane, divided highways which complements the Interstate Highway system and enhances mobility, according to TXDOT officials. The upgrade is necessary for safety and to allow for future growth, according to TXDOT. [TXDOT first discussed this project locally in December, 1998.]
Highway 158 will be widened to a divided four-lane with a 76-foot median. Work will be done in seven projects consisting of six to ten miles each, starting at Highway 87 and coming west, though the projects may be hop-scotched, rather than done contiguously. Each project will require approximately 18 months to complete, with the first expected to begin in September 2002.
There will be three right-of-way acquisition projects, two in Glasscock County and one in Sterling County. The ROW now is 120 feet wide and an average of another 120 to 130 feet will be taken. Right-of-way maps are still being developed, and will not be available until late 2001 or early 2002. No ROW dollar values are available now. Since the work is on the highway trunk system, there will be no ROW acquisition cost to Glasscock County, according to County Commissioner Michael Hoch.
TXDOT is paying special attention to conflicts with utilities such as electric lines and fiber optic cable. Officials said the cost of utility relocation dictated most of their decisions on whether to go north or south of the existing highway. They will go north in some areas and south in others. They said they have done everything possible to minimize the works’ environmental impact, including trying to avoid commercial installations, prime farmland and water resources. There are approximately 12 miles of gas lines, 21 miles of fiber optic cable, and 21 miles of overhead electrical wires in the anticipated project areas.