Published: November 25, 2007 12:05 am      

Work continues on 380 expansion

GREENVILLE — Earth has been moving on the expansion of U.S. Highway 380 through Hunt County.

R. K. Hall Construction of Paris is prepping the areas around the intersection of Farm-To-Market Road 903 for the initial stages of the expansion, according to Craig Miser, area engineer with the TxDOT Paris District office in Greenville.

“We’ve met with the contractor and they are moving through the right-of-way and utilities right now,” Miser said. “They are working with Caddo Basin water and Cap Rock Electric to do the utility work.”

Earth movers were seen parked along the highway last week, after excavating dirt at the site.

From the existing two-lane highway, TxDOT intends to create a four-lane divided highway through Hunt County, with the first leg covering from the Collin County Line east to just past FM 903, including bridges, structures, grading, lime treated subgrade, cement treated new base, and hot mix overlay.

Business Highway 380, where it passes through Floyd, has been abandoned in favor of a new path for the highway around the city. The project will likely then proceed east to FM 903, than finish up with the stretch west of Floyd to the county line.

“That is where we tie into the original alignment of the highway,” Miser said. “They’ve prepped all the right-of-way in that area. Hopefully, by the middle of January we can pursue westward.”

The job is expected to take 614 working days, with an expected completion in January 2010.

A bid for the second phase of the project, running between FM 903 and U.S. Highway 69 in Greenville, was let in September, with work beginning in 2008.

“There’s just final paperwork that needs to be done,” Miser said of the bid, which also includes an automatic six-month delay to allow for the same sort of right-of-way purchasing and utility relocations.

The second leg of the project also calls for a relocation of Highway 380, between the street GEUS intends to build for the new FSTI plant and County Road 1086, just west of the current city limits. The approximately three-fourths of a mile segment of the highway which would be bypassed would be renamed as Loop 138.