Texas Considers Outsourcing Highway Maintenance Again

The Texas DOT is claiming outsourcing some routine highway maintenance could save up to $120 million over five years, but an earlier attempt at outsourcing returned disappointing results

Texas's DOT is considering outsourcing routine maintenance on long stretches of the state's interstate highways. Based on a pilot project that began this summer, the DOT is saying it could potentially save up to $120 million over five years.

However, the DOT experiemented with outsourcing maintenance to private companies back in 1999, and the state was disappointed in the results.

Texas DOT spokeswoman Kelli Reyna said using private workers to do all the work on some roads would, in turn, free up DOT workers to perform upkeep on other highways.

(More on TxDOT's maintenance pilot program...)

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