Gillespie County Commissioners approved the top three mobility and connectivity priorities for the county at their May 12 meeting.
Commissioners said Gillespie County’s number one priority is to build a relief route to help alleviate the commercial traffic that comes through the county.
The route has been spoken about since the late 1960s, but recent growth in the county has pushed the topic to the top of the county’s list.
Darcie Schipull, strategic initiative liaison for the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), said that funding for the relief route’s right-of-way will have to be paid for by Gillespie County.
“TxDOT will not be providing funding for the right-of-way in the relief route project,” Schipull said. “The county will have to budget that money and look at any long-term goals, financially, for that project. It’s a big hurdle for a lot of areas, not just Gillespie County; there are a bunch of other counties that are looking at a relief route.”
County Commissioner Pct. 4 Donnie Schuch said it will be up to Gillespie County, as well as the City of Fredericksburg, to provide funding.
“It’s a combination of the city and the county,” Schuch said. “We’re going to have to work together to get a relief route chosen. We will have to have real estate people come in and determine the value of the proposed property and do a bond election for the citizens to see if they want to purchase property. It’s a matter of local funding.”
TxDOT will do much of the project, Schuch said, but it’s up to local entities to come up with a route and to purchase the right-of-way.
“For citizens, it’s easiest to choose a route that already has a right-of-way, such as Friendship Lane and Tivydale Road, because that will help lessen the burden of costs,” Schuch added.
Other goals for county
The transportation goals were a result of Gillespie County’s planning with the Alamo Regional Rural Planning Organization (ARRPO) and meetings and surveys conducted by TxDOT.
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