The most recent daily traffic counts for the expressway are 39,700, but that is projected to increase to 55,700 by 2029

About 20 years ago, city leaders asked the state to raise a thoroughfare to help spur development of a master-planned community.

That plan, which hung on the horizon for two decades, is coming into view, with help from an economic stimulus package that funded a $10.44 million intersection at Willow Street and Emmett F. Lowry Expressway.

The state has awarded the contract to Lone Star Road Construction in Houston, and preliminary site work is expected to begin in December, Bill Babbington, an engineer with the Texas Department of Transportation, said.

The state in 1989 received a letter from D.D. Haney Jr., who was mayor, requesting the interchange, Babbington said.

In 1992, the city placed the extension on its comprehensive plan, ultimately seeking to connect Willow Street with 25th Avenue North.

The city’s primary reason for building the road was to improve the movement of people, goods, services and commerce, Don Carroll, the city’s planner, said.

“Growth and access to those properties is what the city wants to see developed for a sustainable master plan of communities,” he said.

Building Willow Street north to 25th Avenue North would be funded by the landowner as development warranted, City Engineer Douglas K. Kneupper, said.

The interchange at the expressway will resemble the shape of a diamond, similar to intersections at FM 517 and FM 518, Babbington said. The expressway would be elevated to allow Willow Street to pass beneath, he said.

Weather permitting, the state contractor is scheduled to complete the intersection in early 2011, Babbington said.

The most recent daily traffic counts for the expressway are 39,700, but that is projected to increase to 55,700 by 2029, Babbington said.

Willow Street’s extension to 25th Avenue North would open a large tract between state highways 3 and 146 for development.

Developer Dick Mallory planned a mixed use master plan for the area, Carroll said