Public officials about to launch large infrastructure projects need to know as much as possible about Regional Infrastructure Accelerators (RIAs). Private sector companies interested in participating in infrastructure projects should also understand this relatively new federal program because there were only two objectives when it was created–to incentivize collaborative initiatives and ensure success for infrastructure projects. 

Federal USDOT officials announced this past week that five new regional accelerators in various parts of the country have now received RIA designation and millions in federal funding. The objective of each of the five RIAs is to provide assistance in the form of funding and expertise as infrastructure projects are launched. 

Funding was recently allocated to the Central Ohio Transit Authority (COTA); the New Mexico Trade RIA in Dona Ana County, New Mexico; the Panhandle Regional Planning Commission (PRPC) in Texas; the Resilient SR 37 Program in California; and the Midway Crossing Project in New York’s Suffolk County. 

The RIAs will make available hundreds of millions of dollars for critical infrastructure projects and help to expedite project delivery. The funding is available through long-term, low-interest federal loans and it is designed to attract private sector investment in public-private partnerships. The following examples of infrastructure projects receiving RIA assistance are representative of what to expect soon throughout the country.

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City officials in Dallas are considering a $1 billion bond package to be placed on the ballot in May 2024. The $1 billion bond will help fund better streets and city infrastructure and set aside $150 million for housing.

Dallas has more than 2,000 miles of missing or broken sidewalks which city officials have estimated will cost $2 billion to repair. The new bond election could help address issues like this throughout Dallas, with funds being distributed over five years. Under the latest bond proposal, the city would allocate:

• $325 million for improvements to streets, bridges, and sidewalks.
• $233.8 million for parks, recreation facilities, and trails.
• $150 million for housing infrastructure.
• $101.9 million for transportation projects, such as upgrading traffic signals.

The bond proposal also includes more allocations for flood protection, renovations, and services. None of these allocations are final, and an assessment of needs around the city still needs to be completed. The council could vote as early as February 2024 on whether to place the bond proposal on the ballot.

The city’s Stormwater Management Department is proposing spending $136 million over five years to mitigate flood risk, ensure system reliability by replacing aging infrastructure and facilities, and produce new flood maps. 

The city’s drainage system includes over 900 miles of underground pipe, approximately 230 miles of the engineered drainage channel, over 35,000 drainage inlets, and numerous other drainage facilities such as detention basins, bridge culverts, and bar ditches. 

Plans for capital improvement on flooding issues include construction and management of new storm drain systems and to relocate the existing storm drain systems to accommodate construction of the Corps of Engineer’s bypass channel. The project locations and funding for 2023 include: 

• 5th Street Greenleaf Sump, $2.3 million. 
• Bazaar Outfall, $1.8 million.  
• University, $1.4 million. 
• Viola, $1.8 million. 
• Cemetery Outfall and Houston, $949,929. 

Over the course of five years, the departments of Transportation and Public Works also will spend $2.4 million on prioritization and development of capital projects and emergency engineering; $42.2 million on projects to mitigate hazardous road overtopping of roadway crossings; $43 million on system wide rehabilitation of drainage pipes due to poor condition; and $10.5 million on prioritization, design, and rehabilitation of channel locations that have severely deteriorated due to erosion. 

The city also is producing more detailed flood maps and has released initial maps that indicate areas where flash flooding is the worst. Those include the Cultural District, Meadowbrook in east Fort Worth, and the intersection of Cleburne Road, and West Berry Street. 

Andrew Freeman

Assistant City Manager

City of Amarillo 

Public career and education highlights: I’ve been involved in local government since 2008 serving in Plainview, TX as Assistant City Manager, Tulia, TX as City Manager/EDC Director, and with San Marcos, TX serving in various roles. I joined Amarillo in April 2017 to launch their internal economic development program and recently promoted to Assistant City Manager in August 2021. I graduated from Texas State University with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in public administration. I hold the Economic Development Finance Professional certification through the National Development Council and graduated from Oklahoma University’s Economic Development Institute.

What I like best about my public service is: In the field of local government, we are able to serve our friends and neighbors by solving issues and proactively working to make our community the best place to live and work.

The best advice I’ve received is: Listen more than you talk.

My favorite way to de-stress is: Walking our new golden retriever puppy named Gus. 

People might be surprised to know that I: Play in a weekly bowling league. I recently teamed up with a few co-workers to join a league on Wednesday nights.

One thing I wished more people knew about the City of Amarillo is:

That we are not just a pass-through city on your road trip, we are a destination with many different tourist attractions, entertainment, and events that you can enjoy if you spend a couple of days.

The city of Leander is ready to upgrade to a modern City Hall facility to replace its current City Hall, first constructed in 1985, and the Pat Bryson Municipal Hall, constructed in 2002. The city completed a Comprehensive Facilities Study in November 2021 to project future staffing levels and necessary layouts based on cities similar in size to Leander and up to 250,000 residents. 

City officials are requesting qualifications for pre-design services for a new City Hall. The respondent should provide visuals and cost of four options for floorplans and conceptual designs. One scenario would be a multistory facility appropriate for a mixed-use development environment. The estimated acreage for a mixed-use site is 3.25 acres in size. The second scenario would be a single- or two-story facility appropriate for a less-dense greenfield site. The estimated available acreage for a greenfield site would be between 4-7 acres. 

Respondents shall provide a proposed site plan with surface parking for a greenfield option and a structured parking facility for the mixed-use option. 

Responses to the request for qualifications are due by September 28, 2022, at 2 p.m. CDT.

Stinson Municipal Airport, the second longest continuously operating airport in the United States, is being considered for future development by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) and the city’s aviation department.  

In 2022, the aviation department, which oversees all operations at both the San Antonio airport and Stinson, embarked on an airport layout planning process for the smaller airfield. It also circulated a survey for public input about what people would like to see at the airport. A full report incorporating the Stinson public survey results, airport inventory, and improvement recommendations is due in the first quarter of 2023. 

Input on one possible change would be a U.S. Customs and Border Protection office at the airport, which would make it a more convenient destination for clients who are flying to San Antonio from outside the country.  

Airport officials also are considering building more hangars and a project to control stormwater in the north part of the airport where there’s space for expansion. There also is a desire to change Stinson’s approaches to the runways from visual to precision for pilots. This would require using instrumentation data.  

The majority of funding for Stinson improvements comes from TxDOT and the airport’s capital improvement budget. 

Texas State University is seeking the services of a firm with significant higher education campus master planning experience to prepare a Campus Master Plan to capture a 10-year vision for the Lamar University campus that aligns with the university’s strategic plan.  

The master plan will be presented to the Texas State University System Board of Regents no later than the November 2024 regular meeting. In addition to the 10-year plan, the awarded firm may be asked to prepare an update to the approved document at any time during the 10-year time frame. The final delivery of the document is expected to entail some of the following: 

• Technologies infrastructure. 
• Demographic analysis.  
• Enrollment projections.  
• Programming and space projections.  
• Facility use and condition assessment.  
• Building and land use plan - near term and long-range.  
• Demolition or deferred maintenance.  
• Transportation and parking. 
• Utilities infrastructure. 
• Safety and security plan.  
• Economic impact analysis. 

Submissions to the request for qualifications are due by September 12, 2022, at 2 p.m. CDT. 

Registered voters in College Station will decide on a $90 million bond package with five separate propositions in November. The bond focuses on public safety, transportation, sports and tourism, park improvements, and the Mabel Clare Thomas Parks Pool.

Proposition A focuses on public safety by providing $18 million to build a new fire station. Proposition B focuses on transportation, asking voters to approve $16 million in funding to widen Rock Prairie Road. Sports and Tourism is covered in Proposition C, providing $30.4 million in funding. This will finance phase two of Texas Independence Ball Park and improvements to Veterans Park.

Many parks improvement and redevelopment projects will be funded under Proposition D receiving $22 million. Funding from this proposition will finance new restrooms, storage facilities, tennis and pickleball courts, lighting, and more at various sites around the city. The final proposition, Proposition E, will provide almost $4 million to build a new swimming pool.

The University of Texas Health Science Center (UTHealth) plans to launch a new school of Behavioral Health Sciences but is still trying to determine its location on the campus. The health system is seeking $10.5 million per year from the Texas Legislature to fund the school’s establishment, including curriculum development, accreditation, faculty and staff hiring, and facilities, among other things. 

The school plans to enroll 80 students in its first year. The new program will offer degree and certificate programs for psychiatry technicians, community health workers, and licensed chemical dependency counselors. 

COVID-19 healthcare worker burnout, coupled with an almost 50 percent increase in demand for mental health services since 2017, has led to significant shortages of mental healthcare workers across the country, and Texas is no exception. Hospitals and clinics throughout the state are unable to utilize the full capacity of their facilities due to a lack of qualified professionals. UTHealth Houston’s new psychiatric hospital – the John S. Dunn Behavioral Sciences Center – is acutely aware of these issues. Since opening their doors, the Dunn Center has only been able to staff approximately one third of the center’s 264 bed capacity but has set a goal to have all beds open by 2023.

What is digital transformation and how do we achieve it without disrupting our business? Join VMware thought leaders Joel Neeb and Herb Thompson on September 14, 2022, for a discussion on how to enable a digital solution to deliver any app, on any cloud, to any device.

This in-person event is from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Texas Live! in Arlington. Lunch will be provided. Find more information and register here.

The North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA) is interested in accessing the technologies, hardware, software, and materials necessary to evaluate the use of radio frequency identification (RFID) for IT asset tracking.  

The authority is seeking information on a web-based inventory management software application. The software application should include some of the following mandatory specifications: 

• Allow for data to be transferred and stored in a private cloud storage environment. 
• Track cumulative history of all transactional activities related to an asset like transaction type, adjustments made, and movement history. 
• Have the ability to search the downloaded data by various parameters like tag number, serial number, location, manufacturer, model, department, support group, and state. 
• Have administrator privileges to customize fields and maintain the user base. 
• Track user activities. 
• Include the data collection and management required to read, verify, update, and transfer data between an ultra-high frequency RFID reader and its corresponding Windows workstation. 
• Ability to visualize asset photos on the screen. 

The end goal is to develop the capability to tag all List 2 assets with a RFID tag, then be able to read those tags with a proximity reader, providing the real-time validation of those assets. 

Reponses to the request for information are due by September 29, 2022, at 10 a.m. CDT.  

The city of Longview is working on an updated version of its 2015 Parks Master Plan. The newer version will assist the Parks and Recreation Department to be eligible for certain grants for new projects and goals. 

The Parks Master Plan is typically updated every five to six years. However, according to officials, more time was allowed between updates because the last plan was efficient. The 2015 plan has accomplished all the top ten priorities, including increasing trails, completing the Lear Park Master Plan, completing the Spring Hill Park Master Plan, acquiring new parkland, providing new facilities at existing parks, increasing park funding, and exploring new indoor recreation.

With all these items completed, officials say it is necessary to reevaluate the city’s needs. The Parks and Recreation Department is now in the process of negotiating a consultant contact to update their parks plan.

Three university systems are expressing interest in Stephen F. Austin State University (SFA), an unaffiliated school, which has considered joining a larger university system. Those systems are Texas A&M University System, The University of Texas System, the Texas Tech University System, and the Texas State University System. SFA Board of Trustees plan to further discuss their options and decide before the beginning of the legislative session in January.  

SFA is one of two universities in the state that are not part of a university system. The only other independent university in Texas is Texas Southern University. 

Questions will be submitted to the four interested systems in September and they will have until October 6 to respond. 

Faculty groups and university leaders will then review the responses and prepare a report that evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of each system. This will be shared with SFA’s Board of Regents. 

Steve Westbrook is currently the interim president at SFA. He was appointed to this position in April after former President Scott Gordon resigned. The SFA board wants to determine if it is beneficial for SFA to join a system before it searches for a new president. 

CPS Energy’s Board of Trustees voted to suspend its search for a new president and CEO in anticipation of naming Rudy Garza its next permanent leader. 

Garza took on the role of interim president and CEO in November 2021 after the exit of Paula Gold-Williams. 

The utility is currently under a 30-day negotiation period with Garza.  

Garza joined CPS Energy’s staff in 2012 and has held a variety of leadership roles since. He has served as the utility’s vice president of external relations, interim chief customer engagement officer, and chief customer and stakeholder engagement officer.  

A Corpus Christi native, Garza served briefly as an assistant city manager of Corpus Christi. He also spent 13 years at an energy company. 

Doug McDonald has been hired as the director of economic development for the city of Plano. 

McDonald had previously worked with the city from 2013-2018 as its comprehensive planning manager and senior planner before leaving to work in the city of Richardson. 

During his time in Richardson, McDonald was the interim executive director for the Richardson Economic Development Partnership as well as the managing director for the city’s Office of Innovation. He helped create The Richardson Innovation Quarter and worked on the transit-oriented development and redevelopment efforts along the Dallas Area Rapid Transit red line. 

He most recently worked with The University of Texas at Dallas and other entities on new programs to support Richardson’s startups and small businesses. 

McDonald will be replacing Sally Bane, who retired July 7 after 25 years of service with the city of Plano.  

McDonald will begin his new position on September 26.

Huston-Tillotson (HT) University has named Melva K. Williams, Ph.D. as the seventh president and chief executive officer of the historical institution.  

Williams has several years of experience in higher education. She’s served as chief of staff, vice chancellor, and associate dean. She has managed multiple aspects of student affairs and enrollment management, ranging from athletics to recruitment.  

Prior to coming to HT University, Williams held numerous positions within the Southern University (SU) System including, executive associate to the chancellor, assistant vice chancellor, vice chancellor for student affairs and enrollment management at SU-Shreveport, vice chancellor at SU-New Orleans, and system chief of staff. 

The city of University Park’s Comprehensive Master Plan was updated and adopted by Council in 2022. That plan recommends that the Parks and Recreation Department develop its own Master Plan, to be updated every five to 10 years. 

The city desires to contract with a firm located within the Dallas-Ft. Worth Metroplex to prepare a comprehensive Parks, Recreation, Trails, and Open Space Master Plan. The process will include the creation of a comprehensive inventory of all city parks, trails, open space, and recreational facilities, an analysis of current and forecasted community recreation needs, a prioritization of needed renovation and improvements, as well as implementation strategies. The Parks and Recreation Department is currently seeking National Accreditation through the Commission for Accreditation of Park and Recreation Agencies. 

The city is located five miles north of downtown Dallas. It is 3.7 square miles in size and has approximately 24,000 residents. 

The plan is to have this project completed within 12-18 months after the initial kickoff meeting. The request for proposals is due by September 23, 2022, at 10 a.m. CDT.

The New Braunfels Independent School District has a construction budget of $95.8 million for a new high school and the proposed project is planned to be located on an existing campus. This campus currently operates as the New Braunfels High School, located at 2551 TX Loop 337 North.  

The school district is currently in a state of growth and the age of the existing campus has led to plans to replace, in phases, and build a new high school on the same campus. There exists a conceptual design for the campus and that design is currently in schematic design phase with an architectural firm. 

The district is seeking requests for qualifications (RFQ) in anticipation of future requests for proposals for a construction manager at risk (CMAR). The awarded CMAR would engage with school officials and the awarded architectural firm, providing pre-construction services and cost estimates.  

Submissions of the RFQ are due by September 13, 2022, at 1 p.m. CDT. 

The Marshall City Council has been presented with the city's newly proposed 10-year capital improvement plan (CIP). The 10-year CIP is a road map of various public works and municipal projects the city desires to complete, including budgets. 

The presented plan outlines the first two years of the new CIP, from 2023 to 2024. The city would need $15 million to fund the planned projects if approved. An additional $46 million would be required to complete the rest of the projects from 2025 to 2032. 

The plan focuses on many areas of need within the city. Several parks and recreation projects are planned to begin in 2023-2024, costing around $5.7 million. Numerous utility projects are scheduled for 2023-2024 and will be funded through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. More than $3 million will be allocated for municipal improvements to the city through 2024 with a focus on updates and repairs to city facilities and a technology refresh. The city's ongoing street improvement plan also will receive funding under the new plan. 

This CIP is a living document, meaning city officials can review it annually and make adjustments to fit the community's needs. 

Gov. Greg Abbott announced these appointments and reappointments from August 19-25:

Jefferson and Orange County Board of Pilot Commissioners

Charles R. "Charlie" Holder - Vidor (reappointed)

William G. "Will" Jenkins, III - Beaumont (reappointed)

Seventh Court of Appeals

Alex Yarbrough - Amarillo

Continuing Advisory Committee for Special Education

Claudia Cavazos - Pearland