According to a Wall Street Journal report, lawmakers have been working to hammer out a $500 billion stimulus package, and cities across the United States are lining up for a piece of that pie so they can do the work.
Among those is Killeen, which has a wish list totaling more than $234 million in infrastructure needs.
Many of those projects involve road improvements, such as the widening of U.S. Highway 190 from four to six lanes between Copperas Cove and Harker Heights, and upgrades to Rosewood Drive and U.S. 190 to Stagecoach Road.
The city is planning to extend Rosewood Drive north to FM 2410. To allow this, Rosewood will need to cross over or under U.S. 190.
“The Texas Department of Transportation wants to raise U.S. 190 to pass over Rosewood Drive,” said Killeen City Councilman Larry Cole. “As part of the overpass briefing, we were told that the second phase of the U.S. 190 widening project should begin next year. This widening will be from the Fort Hood Main Gate to W.S. Young.”
The overpass will be constructed west of Roy Reynolds Drive, and could possibly serve as an extension with Stonetree Drive, Cole added.
Having the overpass will ease a lot of traffic issues, such as providing a four-lane thoroughfare on the city’s east side.
However, all of that hinges on the current economic situation.
“We are acting on faith that funds will become available and, if federal funds are approved for local infrastructure construction, we will get our share,” Cole said.
It may also depend on the number of jobs that could be created through these improvements.
In Killeen, that would be more than 1,800 jobs.
“Jobs, jobs, jobs is the name of the game,” said U.S. Rep. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.
But all of that depends on the mood of Congress, which is faced with dealing with a crumbling infrastructure in the midst of the worst economic recession in more than two decades, and finding the right solution to deal with both issues simultaneously.
“There are few people who remember the Great Depression,” U.S. Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich., said following a meeting with top Democrats. “But it’s clear this is the worst crisis since then, by a lot. This is really, really a major challenge.”
Other needs on the city’s wish list include improvements to the runway at the Killeen-Fort Hood Regional Airport and Robert Gray Army Airfield.
In June 2007, a task force committee was established to explore design probabilities to construct a second runway.
In April, the Killeen Economic Development Corp. voted to provide a $1.5 million grant to pay for the planning phase of the proposed project.
In the interim, the city is still working to find necessary funding to complete the project.
The city also wants to complete the One-Stop Center for Human and Social Services, which once was home to the First Baptist Church.
The city purchased the 80,000-square-foot facility two years ago hoping to have a central location for residents who use many of the human services agencies.
However, just to bring the building up to code it would cost $1.5 million. Although no one has called the facility functionally obsolete, the city is asking the federal government for $8 million for the project, which is nearly enough to build a new structure.
Officials with the city of Killeen were not available to comment.
The Wall Street Journal contributed to this report.
