In 1996, a broker promised to develop 60 acres if Mesquite built an exit ramp from the state highway to the parcel.

He wouldn't take no for an answer. Mesquite's Economic Development Manager Tom Palmer found out the state's plan to add capacity on 37 miles of highway — the Lyndon B. Johnson Freeway — that loops around Dallas-Fort Worth included just such a ramp. He wanted Texas DOT (TxDOT) to make a two-mile stretch that included the ramp first rather than third phase of reconstruction.

To sweeten the proposal, he offered to partially fund the $50 million project and manage the design. This may be the first time a local government offered to help fund a state project, and it's a tactic other city and county infrastructure managers are mimicking. He credits TxDOT Project Manager Matt McGregor for coming up with another trendsetting suggestion, this one designed to eliminate delays once construction began: include finalized franchise utility relocation designs in bid documents.

The strategies worked.

Reprinted with permission from the City of Mesquite, Texas

The Mesquite Quality of Life Corp., which is funded by a half-cent sales tax, met the city's $9 million financial commitment; and was reimbursed with monies from a tax increment financing zone created for the area to be developed.

Public works then directed the Plano office of design-engineering firm HNTB to make good on the second endeavor, which in turn subcontracted Cobb, Fendley & Associates Inc. in Dallas as utility liaison. Over the next year the firm hammered out the details, including a promise to require the general contractor (ultimately McCarthy Building Companies Inc.) to subcontract relocations to a company approved by each utility. This assured gas, electric, and communications managers their assets would be handled by contractors with which they had a working relationship.

Though the tactic added about a year to the design phase, Tumulty estimates it cut 12 to 24 months from the overall project schedule.

The ramp that prompted all these machinations opened in 2006, providing 1 million square feet of retail and restaurant establishments. But the job wasn't finished yet. Tumulty and his team continued coordinating local improvements with the state's plan to add two freeway lanes.

To accommodate the increase from eight to 10 lanes, two bridges were widened and given U-turn lanes to improve clearances. An access ramp was built and two ramps rebuilt. A section of frontage road expands access to the retail and restaurant centers. A boulevard was widened to improve capacity and alignment.

Like Tripp Road and bridge, the number of vehicles — 170,000 — passing through the area hasn't changed. But traffic's circulating much more efficiently. In total, the project involved:

Public works also got a traffic control center of its own and intelligent elements, such as CCTV and associated camera assembly, that it shares with the state DOT's regional office in Mesquite.

Palmer expects Mesquite's investment to pay off within 10 years through taxes on new property and higher values of existing properties. But his analysis doesn't include sales taxes, so the city could break even sooner.