CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The new Texas Department of Transportation District Engineer for the Corpus Christi area tells 3NEWS an environmental study currently is being done as part of a plan to widen State Hwy. 361.
Walsh was introduced at Tuesday's regularly-scheduled Corpus Christi City Council meeting as the replacement to retiring TxDOT district engineer Valente Olivarez Jr.
"We are definitely looking at widening it," he said. "So we're undergoing the environmental study right now. There's all kinds of potential environmental out here with wetlands. And so we're trying to figure out what we can fit in, there's also a state park out there."
Construction on turning the part of the busy two-lane highway which runs from Park Road 22 on Padre Island to the ferry landing in Port Aransas into a four-lane road could begin in 2030 at the earliest, said TxDOT Public Information Officer Rickey Dailey in an e-mail Tuesday.
Phases of the plan to widen 361
Dailey issued a news release stating that the agency is currently developing a project which would widen the highway to four lanes from Access Road 1 in Port Aransas to Park Road 22 on Padre Island.
A virtual and in-person meeting is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Sept. 19 at Island in the Son Methodist Church, located at 10650 SH 361, to which the public is invited.
The input collected from that meeting and a second meeting planned for the summer 2025 will be used to create design layouts. Environmental clearance for the expansion is expected in 2026, Dailey states, and after that, necessary property purchases and required utility relocations could take until 2029.
After funding is secured and the project is put out to bid, it could be 2030 before ground is broken on the project.
Getting answers
3NEWS spoke with State Rep. Todd Hunter on Friday about whether widening the highway was an option for SH 361. He said it had been discussed, as well as stepping up law-enforcement patrols in the area.
Later Friday, a fatal three-vehicle accident was reported on the highway which sent 12 people total to the hospital after a man strayed from his lane and into oncoming traffic.
According to Dist. 4 city councilman Dan Suckley, the city had been trying to get an answer about the possibility of widening the highway before Olivarez's retirement.
"I don't remember the timing of it, but, myself and the mayor and Todd Hunter and Valente, who was Mike's predecessor, had a conference call probably two months ago to ask some of those exact questions and so we didn't get clarity on the call," he said.
A dangerous stretch of highway
Corpus Christi City Manager Peter Zanoni emphasized the importance of getting the project done Tuesday.
"So that road that road and the necessity, the need to expand it has been on the drawing board for many, many years," he said.
All of the fatalities on 361 over the last five years have been around the area most people refer to as "Mustang Island" -- the area between Fish Pass and the Port Aransas city limits -- said Texas Department Public Safety Sgt. Harold "Rob" Mallory.
- So far in 2024, there have been 55 crashes with two fatalities;
- In 2023, there were 94 crashes with three fatalities;
- In 2022 there were 88 crashes with three fatalities;
- In 2021 there 109 crashes with no fatalities;
- In 2020 there were 72 crashes and no fatalities.
Most common contributing factors in the fatal crashes were:
- Alcohol
- failing to drive in a single lane
- driving on the wrong side of road, not passing
- changing lanes when unsafe
- failing to yield the right of way when turning left
Another stretch of 361 runs from the Port Aransas ferry landing to Commercial Avenue in Aransas Pass, resumes on the outskirts of Aransas Pass and ends at the outskirts of Gregory.
These statistics are from DPS' Crash Record Information System, or CRIS, and are limited to crashes in Nueces County.