Texas plans to have $100.6 billion available for road projects over the next 10 years.

The Texas Transportation Commission received an update Thursday to the state’s Unified Transportation Program, a plan that results in a list of projects the Texas Department of Transportation plans to develop or begin construction on over the next 10 years. TxDOT said the money would help to improve congestion, maintain roadways and increase safety.

The Unified Transportation Program is updated annually. Last year’s forecast was $85.1 billion. Abbott has teased the increase in recent speeches, including Wednesday in Arlington when he was joined by area officials and business leaders.

Abbott’s office sent a news release Thursday announcing the “record $100 billion plan to strengthen and improve our transportation infrastructure.”

“Under TxDOT’s 2024 Unified Transportation Program, we will dedicate critical funds to bolster our major roadway infrastructure to address the unique needs of Texans in rural, urban, and metropolitan communities,” Abbott said in a statement. “This 10-year plan will further boost our economy and keep Texas the economic juggernaut of the nation. Together, we are working to ensure that Texas remains the premier destination for people and businesses.”

The plan includes “major projects” on Interstates 30, 35, 20, 820 and 635, Abbott said. Projects on the highways in Dallas-Fort Worth, the fastest growing metro in the country, have been funded under the 2023 version of the plan.

“We know your needs, and we will address your needs in this region for transportation infrastructure,” the governor said Wednesday.

In addition to plans for Texas roads, the program identifies public transportation, maritime, aviation and rail investments.

The program is “neither a budget nor a guarantee that projects will or can be built,” TxDOT says on its website. Abbott’s office said projects are picked by TxDOT and local transportation leaders “based on effectiveness in addressing criteria such as safety, pavement condition, capacity, and rural connectivity.”

Next steps include updates on project selection between March and May, a June presentation of the draft 2024 Unified Transportation Program and asking the commission to adopt the plan in August, according to Thursday’s presentation. Members of the public will also have an opportunity to weigh in on the plan.

“We are just at the beginning of the UTP process and our portfolio of projects includes both existing and new projects,” TxDOT said in an emailed statement. “Those will be going through an analysis at a statewide level, and we’ll be able to provide a better list after this initial review. We expect to be able to provide a more reliable list of draft projects in a couple of months.”

Among changes between the proposed 2024 funding and the 2023 funding is an additional $3.1 billion for rural areas and $2.4 billion urban areas. It also includes a more than $2 billion increase for preventive maintenance and rehabilitation.

During the public comment during Wednesday’s commission meeting, Jay Blazek Crossley, executive director of the nonprofit Farm&City, suggested more money be included for safety initiatives. The proposed plan has $3.7 billion for such projects, about $7.5 million more than the 2023 version.

This story was originally published February 23, 2023, 3:47 PM.

FORT WORTH, Texas - Freezing rain has caused dangerous and icy conditions on many roads in North Texas. Here’s an overview of what drivers are dealing with throughout the area.

Temperatures stayed below freezing all day Tuesday with more precipitation throughout the day, meaning anything that fell stuck to the roadways and turned to ice.

MORE: Winter Storm Warning for North Texas extended until Thursday

Follow below for live updates on the Dallas Winter Storm. Mobile users click here.

Tarrant County

Dozens of people in Fort Worth had to be sent to the hospital Monday after freezing rain caused many car crashes.

MedStar officials said within the past 24 hours, its crews have responded to more than 142 crashes including 16 rollovers. Eight people have been treated for hypothermia. Seven of them were taken to area hospitals and five are in serious condition. Nine other people were injured in serious falls after slipping on the ice.

The Texas Department of Transportation has treated many of the major roads in the area with brine, but there are still some dangerous areas such as a strip of Highway 114 near Interstate 35W.

Semi-trucks are stuck on the road near Texas Motor Speedway and there is a major traffic backup behind them.

People traveling through North Texas from out of state were surprised by the weather. The Campbells are making their way to Daytona Beach, Florida.

"We had no idea. When we left Branson, it was sunny and warm. And when we got to Tulsa it turned cold," Richard Campbell said.

Gerardo Gutierrez drives for Uber and Lyft. He shared a bit of advice for those who absolutely must be out on the roadways.

"They want to drive like it’s dry outside and it’s not," he said. "I just take my time. We get there when we get there."

RELATED: Ice on I-20 causes 20-mile traffic backup in Palo Pinto and Parker counties

Denton County

It took FOX 4’s crews nearly two hours just to get from Dallas to Denton because of the ice on the roads. There were a lot of stalled vehicles along with way with tow trucks and wreckers trying to get them out of the roadway.

In Lewisville, an 18-wheeler slid on some ice on southbound Interstate 35 and went over a guardrail.

Half of the rig ended up on one side of the guardrail and the other half was on the other side, next to the support of the overhead sign.

Crews moved the sign to the service road. They still need to check on the structural integrity of the sign.

The service road remains closed at Business 121.

The FOX 4 crew also witnessed several 18-wheelers get stuck on a bridge near the Denton Buc-ee’s. Another semi slid backward and blocked traffic. State troopers had to direct traffic to get around that semi.

RELATED: Icy roads cause several crashes, stalls traffic across North Texas on Monday

Dallas County

The city of Dallas says it has about 42 sanding trucks out treating bridges and major roads, but some people are still going the extra mile to help people who got stuck.

Realtor Patrick Abell from Garland drove around Dallas County in his Jeep on Tuesday with the purpose of giving folks a helpful pull.

Hounan Reyes stopped to help the driver of an 18-wheeler get free from the ice. It worked, but his truck got stuck in the process.

Kevin Deras, the driver of the 18-wheeler, looked to return the favor.

"We're going to have to scrape a little bit of ice from under those tires so he can gain some traction," Deras said.

He dug at the ice, but the street was too slick to get Reyes out.

That's where Abell and his Jeep came in.

"Just out having fun. I've been picking people up taking them to work checking on houses, doing what we do," he said.

Abell and his Jeep were able to get the big truck moving.

Abell said he helped 25 people on the roads.

"I'm a real estate agent, just out playing because I can't show houses," he said.

People getting stuck on the roads was common on Tuesday and Abell was not the only Good Samaritan helping out.

"I go to try to pull into Burger King, and he was kind of like broke down right here," said Greg Foster. "I'm just like I'm going to pull over and try to help this guy."

Foster pulled over to help Andre Owens' Chevy Silverado, which was stuck in the ice.

Driver dies after going 'airborne' off icy Arlington overpass, witnesses say

"I'm just trying to go around this curb right here, and I got stuck," said Owens.

Foster was eventually able to get Owens free.

"Being a Good Samaritan he came and helped me out, so I'm very appreciative of that," Owens said.

Collin County

The pre-treated highways like the Central Expressway and Dallas North Tollway between Dallas and Plano were okay early Tuesday morning. But they are starting to get icy now that it's sleeting again.

FOX 4's Hanna Battah said the tollway is now coated with a layer of ice. The driver in front of her had his hazard lights on and everyone is taking it slow.

On Monday, dozens of drivers were involved in a pileup crash in Plano on the Central Expressway exit ramp to Plano Parkway.

Driver Varshil Parikh said he was traveling about 35 miles per hour when he crashed into a FedEx truck.

"I tried to break, but I couldn’t," he recalled. "So, I just tried slamming the brakes. Stop. Slamming the brakes. Stop."

Plano firefighters said from that point it was one vehicle after another. Thankfully, no one was seriously injured.

Further north near McKinney, traffic conditions are a bit worse. Only one lane of traffic was getting by on Hwy. 75 just south of the Hwy. 121 merge near Anna and Melissa Tuesday morning.

All TEXpress managed lanes in the area remain closed because of the inclement weather.

Live Traffic Conditions

The director of a Texas high school theater program has been sued by a group of students, who accuse the teacher of leading a “sexually abusive environment,” according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit was filed on Friday, Jan. 20, by three former students at James Bowie High School in Austin. The same alumni and six others also initially sued Austin Independent School District in the fall of 2022.

Diane Elizabeth “Betsy” Cornwell, the longtime theater director at the school, was placed on paid administrative leave following the first lawsuit as the district began investigating, the Austin American-Statesman reported in October.

During theater production rehearsals, Cornwell forced the students “to engage in open-mouth kissing, groping and simulated sexual intercourse,” according to the lawsuit. These ”intimacy sessions,’ the former students say, “were nothing more than choreographed sexual assaults.”

Some of the former students said Cornwell was “aroused” during the rehearsals and at one point yelled, “More, more, more!” as scene partners were lying on the floor and kissing, the lawsuit states.

Cornwell told KVUE on Tuesday, Jan. 24, she had not yet been served the lawsuit. The school district declined to comment on the initial lawsuit last fall to KVUE and the American-Statesman.

Cornwell has been the director of the school’s theater program — the Starlight Theatre Company — since 1988. The school’s fine arts center was named after her in August, with the Austin high school saying Cornwell “has given so much to students for so many years.”

While Cornwell has been celebrated by the district, some former students said Cornwell’s actions caused them humiliation, extreme anxiety and anguish. One student, because of her experiences in Cornwell’s rehearsals, was hospitalized with suicidal thoughts, according to the lawsuit.

The alumni detailed the alleged accounts of sexual abuse they experienced while in the theater program.

Two students said they were cast as a Vietnamese sex worker in the school’s productions of “Miss Saigon.” In the role, the students were “forced to give lap dances and imitate sexual acts” on male classmates, the lawsuit states.

Other students were groped, with male students fondling the breasts of their cast partner under the guidance of Cornwell, the alumni allege.

Despite Cornwell’s direction for the students to “have sex” in front of her, they often felt compelled to carry out her orders.

“They knew that if they did not do exactly what she told them to do, Cornwell would retaliate against them in a multitude of ways, including refusing to cast them in roles, blacklisting them from leadership positions and targeting them for increased abuse in front of their peers,” according to the lawsuit.

The alumni are seeking monetary relief of more than $1 million, as well as compensatory damages for past and future physical and mental suffering.

A federal lawsuit against the school district, originally filed in September by five former students, has been amended to include four additional alumni.

The nine students, who attended the high school between 2004 and 2019, allege Cornwell subjected them to “inappropriate touching; inappropriate sexual comments; harmful and abusive language; assault; battery; emotional and psychological abuse and manipulation; allowing sexual assaults to happen under her direction; declining to remove or otherwise discipline perpetrators of same; and her provision of drugs to at least one student.”

Multiple students complained to the district about Cornwell, who they say later targeted and embarrassed them by playing phone messages from parents complaining, according to the federal lawsuit.

The students chose to sue after the district named the theater after her.

“This public praise of Cornwell allowed (the alumni) to revisit their damaging experiences as children at the hands of Cornwell, prompting them to finally recognize as adults the abuse they suffered and (the school district’s) role in recklessly disregarding it,” attorneys said.

The nine alumni are requesting Cornwell’s name be removed from the theater and for the hiring of intimacy coordinators. They also seek monitoring of the theater program and harassment awareness training.

The Panther Island Project is Fort Worth’s largest recipient of federal funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, receiving $403 million after years of delay and political pushback.

Officially known as the Central City Flood Control Project, it’s among several projects in Tarrant County and Fort Worth that received money from the historic $1 trillion bill tackling transportation, climate resiliency and broadband issues.

Here’s how much money Tarrant County and Fort Worth received in 2022 through the infrastructure law:

Serving a population area of over 1 million residents and spanning 410 square miles, Trinity Metro, Tarrant County’s public transportation provider, received $36.4 million.

The agency did not receive any competitive funding for targeted projects.

“We’re always disappointed when we don’t get funds that we apply for. But we also understand that there’s a lot of need out there. And that there’s always another opportunity,” said Chad Edwards, executive vice president of strategy, planning and development at Trinity Metro.

Local officials are hopeful the infrastructure funding will support plans to modernize the agency’s transit system and support projects like the TEXRail expansion to the medical district and even transit options to Panther Island.

Edwards said the agency is not expecting any delays in projects that sought this round of federal funding and is mindful of what type of funding is available for a project before it is pursued.

“We want to be good stewards of public money. It doesn’t do us any good to get people kind of riled up on a particular project when we don’t have the funding for it available or identified,” Edwards said.

Trinity Metro is hopeful that more money will be available starting in 2024, said Eva Williams, grants administrator for Trinity Metro.

“Our numbers will increase even more because they used the 2010 census for this round of funding because the new census data had not been finalized yet,” Williams said. “So our new census data is not reflected in the math that we will receive this year.”

The infrastructure law has benefited Trinity Metro in the past.

In 2021, Trinity Metro received a $6.5 million grant to upgrade its 26-year-old bus yard. Trinity Metro currently has a bus fleet of 143.

Another $12 million of federal money was awarded for the construction of the Trinity Lakes Station, one of Trinity Railway Express’ stops in Fort Worth. Its location is near Trinity Boulevard and Loop 820, in between the Bell and Richland Hills stations.

Tarrant County has already received over $507 million in funding from the infrastructure law to help fund about a dozen road projects over the next 10 years, according to the North Central Texas Council of Governments. However, more opportunities for funding could come up in the future.

Major projects include widening parts of Loop 820, Interstate 20 and U.S. 287 also known as the Southeast Connector. Improvements to Texas 183, 199 and 360 are also on the list.

In an email to the Fort Report, Val Lopez, public information officer for the Texas Department of Transportation, said a lot of the funding was incorporated into the agency’s Unified Transportation Plan — TxDOT’s 10-year plan that guides transportation work statewide — and combined with state funds.

“This is different from the 2009 stimulus bill, which was money above and beyond normal federal formula funds. It is also different from any past earmark funding, where specific projects were frequently selected and called out, so to speak,” Lopez said in an email.

All three of Fort Worth’s airports — Alliance, Meacham and Spinks — received funding from the bill in 2022 and 2023. This money can be invested in runways, taxiways, safety and sustainability as well as terminal, airport-transit connections and roadway projects.

Alliance received $3.2 million, Meacham received $1.6 million, and Spinks received $587,000 so far in Airport Infrastructure Grants.

Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport also received $35 million to build a new zero-carbon central utility plant as part of its attempt to achieve net zero by 2030.

Sandra Sadek is a Report for America corps member, covering growth for the Fort Worth Report. You can contact her at sandra.sadek@fortworthreport.org or follow her on Twitter at @ssadek19.

At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.

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The Original will serve its last meal at its 4713 Camp Bowie Blvd. location on March 31, the restaurant announced in a press release.

FORT WORTH, Texas — One of Fort Worth's oldest restaurants, and a Tex-Mex institution, is moving after losing its lease.

The Original Mexican Eats Cafe plans to consolidate with the The Original del Norte restaurant at the latter's North Main location, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's Bud Kennedy.

The Original will serve its last meal at its 4713 Camp Bowie Blvd. location on March 31, the restaurant announced in a press release.

The Star-Telegram reported that a court decision voided the restaurant's Camp Bowie lease in 2021 and that the restaurant could not reach an agreement with its landlord.

"We cherish the five generations of loyal customers who have supported us through many decades, and we thank them for loving our enchiladas, tacos, tostadas, Margaritas and laid-back ambiance," the restaurant said in a statement. "We also deeply appreciate our wonderful staff for their professionalism and unfailingly friendly service."

pic.twitter.com/oGzAmGYLsE

— Bud Kennedy / #ReadLocal (@EatsBeat) February 20, 2023

Restaurant officials said employees at the Camp Bowie location will be offered jobs at the consolidated location on the North Side.

"We invite our Camp Bowie fans to make the short trip north and keep their Original traditions alive!" the statement said.

While Original customers can still enjoy the restaurant's offerings, the move from Camp Bowie will mark the end of an era: The Original opened in 1926 and became a favorite of a presidential family.

Elliot Roosevelt, the son of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, lived in the Fort Worth area during the 1930s and frequented The Original, bringing his father along on one occasion.

In 1936, The Original added the "Roosevelt Special" to the menu in honor of the president's favorite meal: A cheese enchilada with chili, one beef taco and one bean chalupa.

"We recognize and regret that this is the end of an era for Fort Worth's West Side," the restaurant statement said. "We want to emphasize that we are dedicated to carrying on The Original's fabulous food, fun atmosphere and long-running traditions at our Northside location."

As the Star-Telegram pointed out, The Original's move from Camp Bowie now means Joe T. Garcia's will be the oldest full-service restaurant still in its original Fort Worth location.