Project Name: I-35 from Loop 340S to Loop 340N

Project Location: Waco, McLennan County, Texas

Project Type: Environmental Assessment

Owner: TxDOT Waco District

Hicks & Company prepared an Environmental Assessment for the widening of I-35 through Waco in McLennan County. The project proposed to widen the interstate from six lanes to eight lanes and to upgrade the pavement, and other structural portions of the roadway, to conform to current highway design standards. The project involved a Section 4(f) evaluation of the project’s use of a portion of the Brazos River Recreation Area on the bank of the Brazos River. The Federal Highway Administration determined the use to be de minimis. Additional environmental documentation involved community impact analysis; air quality studies, including a quantitative analysis of mobile source air toxics; an assessment of the effects to wildlife habitat and water quality; and an indirect and cumulative impacts analysis, among other requirements. A FONSI was issued in November 2012.