Dive Brief:

• The Texas Department of Transportation has devised three highway-widening projects in and around San Antonio, hoping the $800 million effort will ease congestion that the department said wastes 40 million hours of drivers' time while they are stuck in traffic every year.
• The plans are for adding two tolled lanes in each direction on Interstate 10 north of the Loop 1604 ring road around the city, turning U.S. 281 into an expressway with four free lanes and four tolled lanes north of the loop and making Loop 1604 a four-lane expressway in a stretch on the west side of the city.
• Local leaders endorsed the projects, which the department hopes will all be underway by early 2015.

Dive Insight:

Local leaders are worried that growth they see happening will turn into too much of a good thing without more highway space. San Antonio is now the country's seventh-largest city with a population of almost 1.4 million, which is project to grow to 3 million by 2040.