Costly Road Project A Model For Even Costlier San Antonio Bond Package

Published April 6, 2016

A 3.4-mile road repaving job that nearly doubled its advertised price tag is the most expensive street improvement project in San Antonio history.

Few residents know about Hausman Road, let alone drive it. But the ballooning cost has put it — and an upcoming municipal bond issue — on the map for city taxpayers.

Tucked into a 2012 bond package, the Hausman project was sold to voters as a $43 million job. The finished product ended up costing $75.1 million, or $22.1 million a mile.

Compounding the tall tab on the short project near I-10 and the city’s outer Loop 1604, officials added utility relocations, a connection to a nearby greenway and an extension of a hike and bike path. Supplemental funding came from Bexar County, the San Antonio Water System and CPS Energy – all public entities.

None of the additional work was priced in the bond that voters approved four years ago.

If taxpayers felt a bait-and-switch at the ballot box in 2012, they can brace for more bloat in 2017 as city leaders ramp up a campaign for their biggest bond issue ever.

“SA2020 brought us together in an unprecedented way to envision our future. Now it’s our responsibility to execute that vision through the SA Tomorrow comprehensive planning process and the largest bond program in our history,” Mayor Ivy Taylor said in her State of the City address last week.

Amid the nation’s most aggressive annexation program, San Antonio planners predict that the Alamo City will be home to 1 million more residents in the next 25 years.

Read more at Watchdog.org

Kenric Ward ([email protected]) writes from San Antonio, Texas. An earlier version of this article appeared at http://watchdog.org/260916/bloated-city-bond/. Used with permission.