A years-long, $27.8M highway road-widening project deemed finished

NEW BOSTON, Texas-What started out as a $27.8-million highway road widening project more than seven years ago officially finished Monday.
John B. Goodwin, senior project manager for the Lochner Engineering firm of Tyler, Texas, told Bowie County commissioners that the Texas Department of Transportation has accepted the U.S. Highway 82 widening project as complete-a project which widened nearly 10 miles of roadway between the highway's intersection with Interstate 30 and the DeKalb, Texas, city limits.
"TxDOT is now moving forward with assuming responsibility for maintaining this stretch of U.S. 82," Goodwin said. "We now have boxes full of archives on the project to keep in store here."
TxDOT will now start the process of repaying the county the $27.8 million.
Commissioners also approved the county's 2016 tax roll, which shows the county will be receiving a projected $18.2 million of property tax income for this fiscal year. The income will be used for both routine county operations and maintenance as well as for debt retirement.
In other business, commissioners agreed to review a proposal by the Tatum Excavating Company of Texarkana, Texas, to conduct repairs on Bowie County Road 1208 in the county's Precinct 4 Road Department. Precinct 4 Commissioner Mike Carter said he would like to review the proposal and reconsider taking action on it at the next Commissioners Court meeting.
Commissioners also approved a list of designated surplus vehicles ready to be sold by the county's Precinct 3 Road Department. The vehicles include two 1997 dump trailers, a Ford Tractor and a John Deer Excavator.