Risinger shares relief route info

WOODVILLE – Woodville City Administrator Mandy Risinger spoke at the noon meeting of the Rotary Club of Woodville last Wednesday.

Risinger brought a program on the proposed highway relief route slated for Tyler County, and she had some new information to share.

Risinger explained, “I have sat in on a few meetings and I do have some information to share. This relief route has been discussed for most of my life. Up until October 2023, the conversation centered around using the railroad right of way that was acquired when the railroad was abandoned as the route. Since that time, we had a public meeting and they (TxDOT) released primarily two routes with additional legs. So, we are looking at four routes that were presented. Basically, TxDOT hires consultants who throw out some options, have public hearings, use the public hearings as an opportunity for the public to identify obstacles. They want to know environmental concerns, they want to know historical concerns, they want to know if this goes through their house or business, if it’s flooded for the past 50 years, if there is a cemetery or church there. TxDOT goes back and inputs that data and basically picks the route with the least obstacles”.

Risinger added,” after the last public hearing in October, there were so many comments by different groups, TxDOT felt like they needed to schedule another public meeting. After the public meeting, it will go to a public hearing that is statewide and then all of the things will start to happen as far as surveying, right-of-way acquisition, engineering the project, to actually letting the project; all this will fall in subsequent years. After the public meetings, there will be a comment period for at least two weeks to a month.

Risinger further stated that, “the district engineer indicated that he took those four paths, or routes, and identified two. One is to follow the railroad route, and the issue with that is the railbed is 100 foot wide, and the right-of-way need to be 400 foot wide. The other route is between Heritage Village and the airport”. Risinger stressed that “our comments can make a difference. I don’t know how much sway it will have with TxDOT without political pressure from our elected officials. The engineer has indicated that he has made his final choice, and the further we get away from Woodville, the more it is going to impact us economically. It is a big deal where that path (route) goes”.

The next public hearings will be June 4 at the Kirby Gymnasium in Woodville, and June 6 at Warren ISD in Warren. Both are scheduled from 5-7 p.m. TxDOT has loaded new maps on their website for the two proposed new routes as of May 20. You can go to: engagetxdot.mysocialpinpoint.com to see the updated maps/routes.