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The Tyler Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) provided an update at an open house for community members about the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) on Tuesday at the Tyler Development Center.

The TIP is a short-range budgeting document that provides details on how federal transportation funding dollars will be spent on planning, design and construction of highway and transit improvements over the next four fiscal years.

The latest project consists of widening FM 2493 (Old Jacksonville Highway) from four lanes to six lanes from Loop 323 to FM 2813, with flush or raised median. The total construction cost of the project is $189,850,302, which is not changing.

“Originally, it was reported to the MPO as being 100% of the funding coming from the state,” said MPO Director Michael Howell. “And it was just fairly recently that we were told that they actually made an error whenever they were reporting that to us.”

According to Howell, instead of 100 percent of the funding coming from the state, it will be 80 percent federal and 20 percent from the state.

“This is usually the breakdown for most any of the federal funding projects that we see… the 80-20 split,” he said.

Of the total construction cost, $151,880,242 will be federally funded and the state will fund $37,970,060.

Howell said it was originally reported to the MPO that the project is being funded by two different funding sources from the state.

“One of them is called Category 2, which is Urban Transportation Funding (and) is typically where most of the projects in our area are funded,” he said. “But there’s also the amount of funding that is required for a project of this magnitude that the state actually put through Category 12, which is (referred as) Statewide Strategic Priority Funding.”

According to Howell, since an environmental analysis was performed, the plans are solidified and it would take something ‘pretty major’ to warrant any changes.

“Funding is pretty much ready and everything is in shape,” he said. “But if for some reason they were to change their module, they have to go through that environmental process again,” he said. “And usually getting that clearance takes about a year to process. Essentially, we would have to go back and update our plans because even if they had to make any kind of changes, construction in 2026 would have to be pushed out to ‘27 or ‘28.”

MPO will begin the process of accepting bids for construction in the Fiscal Year of 2026.

At the beginning stages of planning, a corridor study on FM 2493 Old Jacksonville Highway was performed to identify transportation measures that will improve public safety and traffic flow, reduce motorist delay, enhance air quality, and improve bicycle and pedestrian access.

The study — done in 2015 — predicted that the Tyler area would see a population boom of approximately 18 percent between the years 2012 and 2035. While this substantial increase provides opportunities for economic growth and diversification of the local economy, this presents many challenges to the natural and built environment.

“Assuming 18% growth over 23 years is actually a conservative estimate,” Howell said. “Historically Tyler has had an annual growth rate close to 1% per year. Estimating 18% growth over 23 years gives an estimated annual growth rate of 0.78% per year.”

Because of such challenges, Tyler Area MPO recognized that developing a viable transportation system not only includes building new roadways and adding transit, but also managing the access and demand for travel on these systems.

For more information about the TIP, please visit MPO’s website: www.tylerareampo.org.