The five commissioners who govern the Texas Department of Transportation will meet Aug. 26 to approve the state’s ten-year road plan, which the department says carries more than $95 billion. Public comment on the draft closed Aug. 3, so the vote is the last step.
The Unified Transportation Program is not a budget, and it does not build anything by itself. It is the ranked list that tells each of the department’s districts how much money it can plan around over the coming decade, and which corridors are far enough along to draw it. A project that makes the list moves into design and right-of-way buying. A project that misses waits a year and takes its chances again against everything filed since. That is why a vote that sits low on the agenda decides more than most items above it.
The department took comment on the draft at a virtual hearing July 29 and in writing from July 3 to Aug. 3. The state notice does not say how many comments came in, whether staff changed the draft in response, or which projects moved. The commission’s backup material is posted to the department’s own document search rather than to the state notice, so the version commissioners will vote on was not attached to the filing this article is drawn from. Commissioners can amend the plan from the dais.
The same meeting adopts the money request the department will carry to the Legislature in 2027, covering the two budget years that begin in September of that year. The rest of the agenda runs to routine work: airport grants in several counties, an internal audit plan, loan applications to the State Infrastructure Bank, a transfer of unused seaport money in Calhoun County to a different highway project, appointments to the aviation, bicycle and pedestrian, and port authority advisory committees, resolutions honoring three departing officials with more than 90 years of service among them, and blanket authorization to file condemnation cases to buy highway right of way. One closed session is noticed for legal advice.
Watch whether any commissioner moves a project up or down before the plan is adopted, and what the appropriations request asks for against what the last Legislature gave.
Meeting at a glance
- When
- 10 a.m. CT Wednesday, August 26, 2026. The notice was filed August 18.
- Where
- Texas Department of Transportation, 125 E. 11th St., Austin.
- Governing body & chair
- Texas Transportation Commission — five members the governor appoints to overlapping six-year terms, subject to Senate confirmation. W. Alvin New is acting chairman. Marc D. Williams has been executive director since June 2021.
- Format
- In person. The agenda says items will not necessarily be taken in order, and that only items marked “minute order” are ones the commission may act on.
- Live video
- The department lists a livestream for this meeting on its commission page; recordings and minutes are posted afterward.
- Full agenda
- Secretary of State Open Meeting Viewer · commission meeting dates and agendas
Commissioners
- W. Alvin New, Christoval — acting chairman; rancher, former San Angelo mayor.
- Steven D. Alvis, Hockley — retail property developer; term to 2029.
- Pat Gordon, El Paso — business and tax lawyer; appointed February 2026.
- Alejandro “Alex” G. Meade III, Mission — bank executive; term to 2031.
- Robert C. Vaughn, Dallas — investment firm owner; term to 2031.
The roster follows the department’s own commission page and the individual member biographies posted there, cross-checked against the governor’s appointment releases; the meeting agenda names the same five. New’s home town differs by source — the department places him in the San Angelo area, the governor’s office in Christoval, about 20 miles south. Chairman J. Bruce Bugg Jr. died in August 2025, and no announcement naming a permanent chairman was found since. Meeting contact: commission chief clerk, (512) 305-9509.