The county paid for the facility's property over a two-year period, using $950,000 in Capital Improvement Projects funding. (Contributed Photo)

The Smith County Road and Bridge Department on Friday held an open house at its new property.

“We wanted to take this opportunity to showcase our facility and let you see the buildings,” Smith County Engineer Frank Davis said to a group of county department heads and community members.

One building houses administrative offices and a mechanic shop, where county vehicles and equipment are maintained and repaired. A second building houses field crew offices, a meeting/training space and a sign shop.

“I want to say thank you to the present and previous Commissioners Court members who made this happen for us,” Davis said.

The Road and Bridge complex had formerly been housed on a property off Claude Street since 1948, and many of the buildings were World War II-surplus buildings from Camp Fannin.

“This is a beautiful facility,” Smith County Judge Neal Franklin said during the open house Friday. “We are so excited about it.”

The new facility is located at 135 SSE Loop 323 in Tyler.

“It’s an exciting day to celebrate the fruition of a lot of work and a lot of sacrifice and service,” U.S. Congressman Nathaniel Moran said.

He said the project started seven years ago, when he was Smith County judge, and it took a lot of work for them to get here.

“It’s about value for the taxpayer and about long-term planning; it’s about efficiency and effectiveness of our Road and Bridge services. And there is none better to lead that than Frank Davis…” Moran said.

He thanked everyone in the room who had made the new facility possible. But one person in the room played a vital role in making the new facility a reality.

Moran said the county would not have been able to acquire the property if not by the generous donation of part of the sale price by its previous owner, Herb Buie and his family.

Buie and Tyler Packing Company, Inc. sold the property in 2020. The county paid for it over a two-year period, using $950,000 in Capital Improvement Projects funding.

Moran said Buie built a legacy with his company on the property, and he is continuing that legacy by making it a reality for the county to be able to acquire it.

The two large metal buildings on the property have been renovated. It has nearly doubled the administrative spaces and provides twice the mechanical shop space. The second building offers a meeting room that can hold all the department’s more than 80 employees. It can also be used as an alternate Emergency Operations Center if needed.

The Road and Bridge Department moved into the renovated buildings in May 2024 and have continued work on the exterior. Much of the sitework, including paving and parking lot work, was done in-house by Road and Bridge crews.

A new fueling facility that will serve all of Smith County’s fleet vehicles, is also onsite and is in the final stages of construction. The new location, just off the east loop in Tyler, offers a more centralized location for all employees who have county-issued vehicles that need fuel or maintenance.