Houston’s largest-ever freeway project is one step closer to starting construction, with crews poised to begin digging in the dirt along Interstate 69 by fall.
After years of planning and sometimes fiery debate, the Texas Department of Transportation last week opened bids on the first of what is likely to be more than two dozen projects expected as part of the $11 billion-plus rebuild of Interstate 45 and the downtown freeway system.
Harper Brothers Construction, based in Houston, was the apparent low bidder for the job, based on a review of TxDOT’s online bid system. The company’s $121 million bid was nearly $20 million more than the state predicted the work would cost,
“Costs for this segment have increased due to inflation, but still within budget,” TxDOT spokesman Danny Perez said in a statement. “We always take inflation into account on engineering estimates, and the lowest bid fell within an acceptable range.”
The cost hike is reflective of other recent bids where construction costs have risen and consumed more of the record-setting funds that TxDOT set aside for highway building.
I’m just gonna leave this here:
I remember when I was fact checking my book way back in (checks notes) 2023, and the estimated price tag for this project was $9 billion
— Megan Kimble (@megankimble) 6:12 PM – 11 June 2024
And I remember how the cost of the Katy Freeway widening project of the early aughts kept increasing as well. Plus ca change, and all that. Place your bets now on what the final cost of this sucker’s gonna be.
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