Energy Developments and the Transportation Infrastructure in Texas: Impacts and Strategies (0-6498-1)

In recent years, Texas has experienced a boom in energy-related activities, particularly in wind power generation and extraction of oil and natural gas. While energy developments contribute to enhance the state's ability to produce energy reliably, many short-term and long-term impacts on the state's transportation infrastructure are not properly documented. Examples include the impact of frequent truckloads on state highway infrastructure such as pavement structures and shoulders, as well as impacts on roadside infrastructure such as driveways and drainage facilities. There is also a lack of documentation on the impact on TxDOT's ability to manage the state highway right-of-way effectively, e.g., with respect to driveway access and utility crossings. This report describes the work completed to measure the impact of increased level of energy related activities on the TxDOT right-of-way and infrastructure, as well as develop recommendations to reduce and manage TxDOT's exposure and risk resulting from those activities. The report addresses a number of topics, including the process to develop a geodatabase of energy developments in the state, field visits, pavement impacts, roadside impacts, operational and safety impacts, and economic impacts. The geodatabase includes non-renewable energy datasets, renewable energy datasets, energy use datasets, and geology-related datasets. The recommendations for implementation were grouped into the following categories: early notification and coordination (five recommendations), road maintenance and repair (four recommendations), roadside management (two recommendations), and funding (five recommendations).