Long road ahead for Hwy. 16 traffic relief route

A traffic congestion relief route for Hwy. 16 will not be an immediate item in the future despite local support pushing the proposed project forward.

Texas Department of Transportation Graham Area Engineer Zach Husen provided an update on the project during the Transportation Improvements Committee meeting held Thursday, Dec. 12. 

“This thing is just a proposed concept at this point. It’s not even made it into that long-term range of a project yet, so it’s still hovering out there on the outskirts,” he said. “The goal would be to find a way to get this project moved up and advanced into what we call our UTP, or our Unified Transportation Program.”

The UTP is updated annually and approved by the Texas Transportation Commission. The program serves as a roadmap to define, prioritize and assign funding to thousands of transportation projects across the state over a 10-year period.

The UTP does not serve as a budget or a guarantee that a project will be built, but authorizes TxDOT and local agencies to prepare projects for construction based on future cash flow.

“They have a big, long list and they prioritize that list. As they get their federal funding, their state funding, whatever it is that comes in, they roll down that list on that priority and then hopefully you move up,” City Manager Eric Garretty said. “...When you get on that construction list, that’s where you’re there and you’re really waiting. You’re just waiting for there to be enough funding to drop down to you. So that’s a 10-15 year timeframe.”

Multiple local comments were submitted in May in favor of the project during the 2025-2028 Rural Transportation Improvement Program meeting for the Wichita Falls District.

“There were 24 total comments in that entire district, that nine-county district, (and) I think 19 of them were about this issue, or about this reroute. ...Of all the 19 comments they were all similar in support of this endeavor,” Husen said.

The department is required to respond to each comment from the public. The official response was a loop or bypass around Graham was being added to the Cross Plains Regional Transportation Council’s list of prioritized projects, and was placed as the top priority project for the council.

“This project was nominated by Young County Judge Win Graham and (appeared) on the list for their October prioritization meeting,” Husen said. “Projects on this list usually receive a higher score if there’s a regional component, or if the project is addressing a safety issue or concern.”

Husen provided a map of a proposed route and two further expansions that could occur at a later time connecting Hwy. 16 and Hwy. 67 and Hwy. 16 and U.S. Hwy. 380.

“Phase one, the initial prioritized part of the project, was intended to be from State Highway 16, south of town, to State Highway 16 north of town, and then the options to later, or in this part of the same project, build out all the way to 380 or over to 67 on the bottom legs,” Husen said.

The third priority for the city of Graham in its strategic plan is to sustain and expand transportation infrastructure. In December 2023, the improvements committee discussed two proposed routes connecting Hwy. 16 and Hwy. 67 as a measure to reduce truck traffic along Hwy. 16.

The city is looking at the alternative route as a way to additionally expand its housing options available with Young County.

“Where Dry Creek kind of runs and peters out with (Hwy.) 380 going that way, on the east side, …that’s a place where you could potentially build out somewhere beyond the industrial park we think,” Garretty said. “...Out of all the four cardinal directions, that might be where it’s most possible, because this will be coming in with the additional transportation infrastructure. We’ve got water we can extend up that way. We’ve got sewer we can extend out that way, because we’re already out to the arena.”