Sugar Land taxpayers $9 million was recently highlighted as a best-practice among Texas parks and recreation professionals. Sugar Land received a Texas Recreation and Parks Society Award for the development of three recreational lakes at the
Brazos River Park.
Through prudent planning, Sugar Land negotiated solutions that benefited both the Texas Department of Transportation’s (TxDOT) U.S. Highway 59 expansion and the City’s development of parkland along the Brazos River.
The initial park development along the Brazos River included the excavation of several lakes to accommodate leisure activities, such as fishing, canoeing and possibly sailing of small sailboats. At the same time, TxDOT hired Williams Brothers Construction Company to expand U.S.
Highway 59 between State Highway 6 and State Highway 99. Williams Brothers needed up to 1.2 million cubic yards of earth material to construct the massive approaches for the proposed U.S. Highway 59 bridges over the Brazos River.
An agreement between Sugar Land and the contractor resulted in significant savings for both projects.
“Applying common sense approaches and identifying mutually beneficial partnership opportunities demonstrated management and administrative excellence in the cost-effective development of facilities,” said City Manager Allen Bogard. “The end result was quality delivery of services
to our citizens and the many guests from surrounding communities who will benefit from these new recreational amenities.”
