WICHITA COUNTY (KFDX/KJTL) — You’ve probably noticed road work around Wichita County over the summer months and now county officials are hoping these repairs are just the beginning.
“It might look the same on top but there’s some real value underneath that road that will bring benefits for the future,” Wichita County Precinct Three Commissioner Barry Mahler said.
That’s thanks to about a $1 million Texas Department of Transportation grant from the County Transportation Infrastructure Fund Grant Program.
“And that’s work that we didn’t really have in the budget before, but this has allowed us to do it,” Mahler said.
This opens up funding for repairs on roads all over the county that need it most.
“We jumped on this quickly and we really improved our techniques for doing the roads and producing a better road, we have a lot of roads still to work but they are getting a significant number of roads done,” Wichita County Judge Woody Gossom said.
But they hope these TxDOT road grants become the norm and look to continue these projects.
“We have to budget for money, have to spend it to get it back but in this process, we’re going to build up some money to continue the program on in the between years hopefully,” Gossom said.
Improving the local lateral roads that connect our interstate system and bringing more money into the county.
“You got to remember that traffic is increasing on our rural road we’re building more houses, we’re transporting the oil products, agriculture products, and a lot of the manufactured products in Wichita County go down these roads do it’s imperative that we get them a better shape with a better base to haul heavy loads and last a lot longer,” Mahler said.
And not just in the short term, Commissioner Mahler added they’re not just patching these roads, they’re completely re-doing the base during these projects.
“It makes you feel good knowing you’re doing something that’s going to last more than just two or three years and you stretch it out to 10, 20, 30 years down the way,” Mahler said.
In the video above, you can see some of the work being done on Rifle Range Road from almost two months ago, and the finished road video is the very same road stretch of Rifle Range Rd!