WINKLER COUNTY – A $43.5 million project to add passing lanes and to rehabilitate approximately 12.6 miles of Highway 302 in western Winkler County is scheduled to start the week of March 8. The project stretches from the Loving County line to just west of Highway 115 west of Kermit.

The project also includes overhead lighting at FM 874 and at FM 1232.

The project will be built in three segments of approximately four miles in length for each segment. Traffic will be shifted to the south side of the road while culvert and roadway work is performed on the north side of the road. Once that is complete, traffic will be shifted to the north side of the road while road work is performed on the south side of the road. The process will then be repeated for the remaining sections.

Concrete barriers will be used to provide a safer work zone. A width restriction of 11 feet will be put in place in the work zone. A speed limit of 55 miles per hour will be in place in the work zone. Increased law enforcement is also probable in the work zone.

The project is scheduled to take a little more than two years to be complete. It is scheduled to be complete in summer 2023.

Motorists are reminded that state law requires them to obey warning signs and flaggers in the work zone. Safety is a top priority for TxDOT. We need help from the traveling public to ensure the work zone is kept safe and free of crashes.

Johnson Brothers, a Southland Company, of Roanoke, Texas, won the project with a low bid of a little less than $43.5 million.

This is the fourth of five projects worth approximately $225 million on Highway 302 in the Odessa District. Other projects include:

• An ongoing $54.4 million overpass project to take Highway 302 over Highway 115 and the nearby railroad just west of Kermit in Winkler County. The contractor is Kiewit Infrastructure South of Fort Worth. The project is scheduled to be completed in early 2023.
• An ongoing $63.3 million project to widen and rehabilitate Highway 302 from County Road 313 in Winkler County to near Highway 181 in Ector County. The contractor is FNF Construction of Tempe, Ariz. The project is scheduled to be completed in early 2022.
• The recently completed widening and rehabilitation of approximately 5.6 miles of Highway 302 from Highway 285 to Mentone (near East FM 1933). The project was won with a bid of approximately $12.5 million. The contractor was Jones Brothers Dirt & Paving of Odessa.
• A project that opens bids in March 2022 to widen and rehabilitate about 17 miles of Highway 302 in Loving County from FM 1933 to the Winkler County line. The estimated construction cost is $65 million.