The Texas Transportation Commission spent five minutes and fourteen seconds on Thursday authorizing the procurement of the largest single piece of the most contested highway project in the state.
Item 10 asked the commission to let the department issue a request for qualifications — the opening move in a design-build procurement — to design and construct the North Houston Highway Improvement Project segment 3C-2, the reconstruction of the interchange where Interstate 69, Interstate 10 and Interstate 45 converge northeast of downtown Houston. Alternative Delivery Division Director Greg Scnider presented it. Nobody asked him anything.
The number Snider put on the record is the one that has not appeared in the posted agenda or in any of the department’s published pre-procurement documents. “We estimate the total design build cost to be $2.14 billion,” he told the commission.
The case for handing that much work to a single contractor under a single contract rested on the difficulty of the site. Design-build was evaluated using what Snider called the department’s “alternative delivery support tool,” and the recommendation came back strong, he said, “due to many of the project’s characteristics, including the complex nature of the construction, heavy daily traffic volumes, tight right-of-way footprint, multitude of utilities and stake holders involved.” Folding design and construction into one contract, he argued, “allows the team to improve coordination amongst more effectively and incorporate solutions during the design development.”
What the contractor will actually build is more than an interchange. Snider’s scope included construction of new tolled managed lanes and non-tolled managed lanes on I-10; the rerouting of I-45 to flow around the northeast side of downtown; reconstruction of existing Union Pacific Railroad facilities; construction of retention ponds and a pump station; and two new direct connectors to Houston Metro’s reversible HOV and HOT lanes.
He called segment 3C-2 “a critical component of the overall program,” reconstructing “one of [Houston]’s most important freeway interchanges” — the captions garble the city’s name here — and said the I-45 and I-69 portions “currently rank among the most congested roadways in Texas.” The benefits he listed ran past traffic: to “support freight movement, mitigate flooding and increase resiliency, and enhance hurricane evacuation capability.”
Then he laid out how long it takes. The RFQ goes out in August 2026. The commission would take up the request for proposals and the short list in December. Conditional award comes in spring of 2028, contract execution in summer of 2028, and construction is anticipated to be substantially complete in the spring of 2036. Staff recommended approval.
“Commissioners, are [there] any remarks or questions for Director Snider?” the Chair W. Alvin New asked. There were none. He moved straight to the motion. Commissioner Alejandro Meade moved approval, Commissioner Steven Alvis seconded, the chair called for the vote. There was no opposition.
A decade separates that voice vote from the finished road. The department’s own written schedule, revised nine days before the meeting, is slightly gloomier than the one delivered from the podium: the July 21 status summary puts substantial completion in “winter 2035/2036” rather than spring 2036 and pegs the build at seven and a half years — 2,740 calendar days. That document also shows every milestone slipping two to four months against its own February revision: the draft RFP moved from October to December 2026, the final RFP from April to July 2027, proposals from September 2027 to January 2028, contract execution from March to June 2028.
One more gate stands between Thursday’s vote and the RFQ. TxDOT has scheduled a second industry workshop for August 10, 2026 at the Houston District auditorium, 7600 Washington Avenue — explicitly, on the department’s pre-procurement page, before issuing the request for qualifications. It follows a first workshop in July 2025 and two rounds of one-on-one meetings with prospective bidders, in September 2025 and January 2026.
The meeting at a glance
Issue
Agenda item 10, Harris County: authorizing the department to issue a request for qualifications to design and construct the North Houston Highway Improvement Project 3C-2 — the reconstruction of the I-69 / I-10 / I-45 interchange northeast of downtown Houston, including rerouting I-45 around the northeast side of downtown, new tolled and non-tolled managed lanes on I-10, reconstruction of Union Pacific railroad facilities, retention ponds and a pump station, and two direct connectors to Metro’s reversible HOV/HOT lanes.
What happened
Alternative Delivery Division Director Greg Snider presented; the estimated total design-build cost is $2.14 billion.
When
Thursday, July 30, 2026. Called to order 10:00 a.m. CT
Where
Dewitt C. Greer Building, Ric Williamson Hearing Room, 125 E. 11th St., Austin.
Governing body
Texas Transportation Commission — five members appointed by the Governor with Senate confirmation.
Archived video
txdot.new.swagit.com/videos/394890 — Jul 30, 2026 Texas Transportation Commission Meetings