Bob the Builder must have taken up residency in Texarkana. At least it seems that way to longtime observers.

If not Bob, the animated television character little kids love, then some other mythical general contractor must have set up shop here to ramrod all these projects.

These are busy times in the building trade; only infrequently has this city seen so much commercial and public construction in such a limited time frame.

Go back only a few years, certainly no further than the start of the decade. Now go forward four more years. In this roughed-out decade, we are seeing the face of Texarkana change.

Consider how the Interstate 30 corridor looked before the restaurant boom that opened the decade. Consider the retail boom that followed it and is still in progress.

Some of that land along I-30 was farmland. With grazing cows. The beef had to leave for greener pastures before the dominos began to tumble. Think Movies 12, Home Depot, Target, Gander Mountain, and more recently Kohls. Big, big stores.

Then look south. The four-lane bypass was completed. And Interstate 49 almost to the Louisiana border was built and opened. So much dirt work and such a nice price tag: Try about $160 million.

Add to this all the school construction that has been going on. Texas Middle School was built. A new Arkansas High School was completed. Texas High has added a new science building and fieldhouse.

Last year, Texas A&M University-Texarkana collected $75 million from the state and broke ground near Bringle Lake on a new four-year college campus. Ground was broken on A&Ms new engineering school in conjunction with a new Texarkana Independent School District elementary campus with an engineering concentration.

To this, consider that three local school districts will have bond elections for more capital improvements.

Texarkana, Ark., School District is being pressed by the state to improve facilities. The bond issue would be dedicated mostly to a 54,000-square foot addition to the high school. It and a few lesser projects have a price tag of $8.2 million.

TISD is asking for voter approval on a $27 million bond issue. Key projects are a $10-million, 1,000-seat performing arts and media center, a $4-million renovation of facilities at Tiger Stadium and Grim Park; and a $3-million renovation of the cafeteria at Texas High necessitated by enrollment increases.

Pleasant Grove Independent School District will also ask voters to bless a $29.5 million bond issue that would be used to construct a $14-million intermediate school and make improvements at the existing high school, middle school and elementary school.

Because of the way the state is fiddling around with school funding, TISD and PGISD residents can expect a drop in their tax rate regardless of whether the bond issue passes.

But enough about schools. Unless you are blind, or asleep at the wheel, you couldnt possibly miss all the roadwork along the interstate corridor. Texas Department of Transportation has started on a four-year, $153-million upgrade on Interstate 30 in Texarkana. It includes more and wider crossing bridges and one-way access roads, and will feature lots of big road equipment tearing out the old and putting in the new.

You want that in concrete? You got it.

You want wider bridges, more lanes, less congestion and slick flyover interchanges? No problem.

And that is not all, no, that is not all.

Running almost concurrent with this project is a plan that is off the obvious path, yet more than six times more costly. American Electric Power-Southwestern Electric Power Co. has started clearing land for a new coal-fired plant near Fulton, Ark., 25 miles northeast of Texarkana.

If AEP-SWEPCO can secure all the permits, it plans to build a $1 billion, 600-megawatt power plant. It is supposed to create 1,000 construction jobs during the building phase, which will end in 2011.

Can anyone say hard hat, baby?

And none of this factors in the roadwork going on south of here in Louisiana as it tries to link up with Interstate 49 coming south out of Texarkana and complete it down to Shreveport.

Has anything been left out? Most likely.

The only thing that doesnt seem under way is a new mall north of the interstate. But hey, who knows?

If it can be built, Bob will build it, and step up to the microphone to tell you about it.

Bob likes the limelight. He even got a little peeved last month when ABCs ‘Extreme Makeover: Home Edition dropped into little Murfreesboro, Ark., just down the road apiece, and drew attention away from him for a few days. Even though he appreciated it was for a good cause, he had a hard time getting past the job at hand.

And right now, there are a lot of jobs at hand in and around Texarkana.

Bob the Builder has been busy. Bulldozers, cranes, heavy equipment. Lots of dump trucks and hard hats. This is his kind of place. He has embraced it.

Even if someone throws a wrench in some of the works, there are plenty of jobs to keep Bob hopping and happy.

So pull up your lawn chair and your pom-pons. Bob is revving up his power tools and he wants an audience and some encouragement.

Give him a little love and dont be shy. If you dont scream, he wont hear you above the din of the hydraulic lifts, cement trucks and road graders.

Just tell it like it is: You go, guy. You can do it. We can watch.