By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Reconstruction of Frontera Road is complete, the new thoroughfare ready to serve existing and future businesses along its length.
Val Verde County Commissioners Court members joined the Del Rio Chamber of Commerce staff, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials, Frontera Road property and business owners and leaders of the company that built the roadway in a ribbon-cutting ceremony Oct. 27 to mark the completion of its reconstruction.
“I think 2008 or 2009 is when planning for this reconstruction started. There was a state border infrastructure grant that funded three projects in the area. One of them was Alderete Lane, another was work on the toll plaza and this one,” Val Verde County Judge Lewis G. Owens Jr. told the 830 Times in an interview following the road’s completion.
Owens said the project lies within the boundaries of County Commissioner Gustavo “Gus” Flores’ Precinct 4 and noted, “This project was just handed to him when he took office in 2011.”
Owens said the only real constants on the project have been its engineers, Dannenbaum, and the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), adding it has been overseen by “four different county judges and four different county administrators.”
“In February 2019, we received notice that if we didn’t do something on the project by October of that year, the bottom line was that we would need to pay back the grant money, and I think we’d already paid out something like $700,000 that the state had funded towards the project,” Owens said.
He said Flores asked him to put a team together to complete the project, and Owens said he asked his administrator, Tom Garcia, and County Engineer Carlos Velarde to spearhead the work alongside Flores, himself and the rest of the commissioners court.
“The first bid we put out in 2019 came back at a little over $7 million. There was no way we were going to be able to fund that because all we had from TxDOT was $3.8 million, so we took another look at it and engineered some stuff into it and out of it, trying to get the cost down, and then because it had taken so long, we ended up with issues with the federal government because of where they were going to put the border fence,” Owens said.
Those issues were dealt with, and the county successfully bid the project at the beginning of 2021.
“The bid for the construction came in at little over $4.8 million and was awarded to Hunter Industries,” Owens said.
“Our total cost, the way it looks today, is a little under $5.5 million, and that was what we figured it was going to cost us,” the county judge added.
Construction was completed in mid-October, on time and under budget.
Owens said he is extremely pleased with the results.
“I will tell you that the team that was working on this project on the county side did an incredible job. For one, to come in under budget, and not to have any cost overruns on a $4.8 million project, which was the cost of construction,” Owens said.
He said the successful under-budget completion is even more impressive considering that some problems were encountered during the construction, including an area of surface water that created some issues.
“But they were able to change the design and still come in under the $4.8 million,” he said.
Owens said he believes the newly-reconstructed road will aid in further development of the area around it.
“There’s still a lot of raw land down there on which to build, so just the first impression investors have of an industrial park. Now you’re not having to drive around potholes and lose an axle. It can’t do anything but help, I think,” Owens said.
“And then the commitment that this county made, spending another $1 million, to a $1.5 million, in county funds just to complete this project. I think that says a lot for the county and for the community we live in, that we’re willing to invest back into the community, that we’re invested in trying to get businesses to come in,” the county judge added.
Owens also pointed out the $1.5 million the county borrowed to complete the project was obtained without an increase to county property taxes.
Flores said after the ceremony, “For me this was a very proud moment, a proud moment because it was a long journey. The project had been in existence for years before I started as commissioner. It’s a proud moment because at the end of the day, we have a new road, a beautiful road, built right,” Flores added.
Flores thanked his predecessor, former commissioner Jesus “Cheo” Ortiz, former County Judge Mike Fernandez and former County Administrator Otila Gonzalez for their work initiating the project.
“This was a team effort and a team effort in a good cause, bringing a new road to the community,” he added.
Flores said he believes the road will benefit both the city and the county.
“I think it will probably benefit the city even more than the county because those big trucks coming from Mexico generate millions of dollars for the city of Del Rio every year, and by saying that, we built the road, but we’re all one community, Del Rio and Val Verde County, so for me it was very, very important that we finish the road, and we did,” Flores said.
Flores said he, too, believes the improved road will bring growth to that area.
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