The five-member board that sets Texas highway policy meets Sept. 24 to award state grants for the bridges and underpasses that carry roads over railroad tracks. The agenda does not say how much money is going out or which places get it.
The Legislature created the fund last year and seeded it with $250 million. Cities, counties, school districts and special districts apply and must cover 10 percent of the cost, though the commission can reduce that share for a project in a county the state classifies as economically disadvantaged. In February it awarded $160.4 million to five projects in Webb, Harris, Randall, Potter and Bexar counties. The rest became bait for federal money: in August the Texas Department of Transportation announced more than $755 million from the Federal Railroad Administration for 12 projects, saying it had used $77.6 million of the state fund to help local governments meet the federal match. The department called it the largest federal grant it has ever received.
Commissioner Steven D. Alvis is scheduled to open the meeting with remarks on a groundbreaking held Sept. 1 in Houston for a pedestrian bridge near Milby High School. It is named for Sergio Ivan Rodriguez, a 15-year-old sophomore struck and killed by a train on his way to school in December 2024.
The rest of the agenda is the commission’s usual bulk. It will vote on condemning 86 tracts of private land, among them two on Interstate 35 in Travis County and two on Interstate 45 in Harris County. It will certify which counties qualify for a cut in the local share of project costs; 104 of the state’s 254 counties qualified in the fiscal year that just ended. And it will propose scrapping seven separate rulebooks written one port or county at a time for permits to move oversize and overweight loads, replacing them with a single set of rules for any local government that issues them.
The commission is doing all of this without a permanent chairman. J. Bruce Bugg Jr. died in August 2025, and W. Alvin New has signed every agenda since as acting chairman; the Dispatch found no announcement from Gov. Greg Abbott’s office naming a replacement in the 13 months since, and New’s own term expires in February. The rail minute order will show whether the commission is spending what is left of the $250 million or opening a second round of applications.
Meeting at a glance
- When
- 10 a.m. CT Thursday, September 24, 2026. The notice, TRD 2026005539, was filed September 16 at 3:44 p.m.
- Where
- Ric Williamson Hearing Room, first floor, Dewitt C. Greer Building, 125 E. 11th St., Austin. Open to the public except for the closed session.
- Governing body & chair
- Texas Transportation Commission — five seats the governor fills with Senate consent, for staggered six-year terms. W. Alvin New is acting chairman; the chairmanship has been unfilled since August 2025.
- Format
- Regular monthly meeting, 12 numbered items, one closed session for legal advice, and an open comment period at the end of up to one hour, three minutes a speaker, sign-up required.
- Live video
- Livestreamed, starting 10 minutes early, with English and Spanish captions and live text transcripts. Video is posted within 48 hours; past meetings are archived.
- Full agenda
- Secretary of State Open Meeting Viewer · TxDOT meeting dates and agendas · Livestream
Commissioners
- W. Alvin New — acting chairman; San Angelo; investor, rancher, former mayor.
- Robert C. “Robie” Vaughn — Dallas; owner, Vaughn Capital Partners.
- Alejandro “Alex” G. Meade III — Mission; banker, former Pharr city manager.
- Steven D. Alvis — Houston area; co-founder, NewQuest Properties, retail developer.
- Pat Gordon — El Paso; tax attorney and Texas Tech University System regent.
Roster from TxDOT’s commission page, checked September 17 and cross-checked against the governor’s appointment releases. All five seats are filled. Gordon was appointed February 12, 2026 to the seat left by Chairman Bugg’s death, and his term and New’s both expire February 1, 2027. State law requires one member to live in a county under 150,000 people; TxDOT does not say which member fills that seat. TxDOT’s biography places Alvis in Hockley, while the governor’s 2023 appointment release says Houston. Marc D. Williams is executive director. Meeting contact: General Counsel Division, (512) 463-8630; commission support, (512) 305-9509.