SH 195 to loop around Florence

FLORENCE, WILLIAMSON COUNTY - Construction has begun on a new seven-mile stretch of SH 195 that has a total cost of $59 million, according to John Hurt with the Texas Department of Transportation.

The project, which is slated for completion in January 2014, will bypass Florence, a town that currently sees 11,000 vehicles pass through it per day, according to state statistics.

The project is part of a larger project to widen SH 195 to a divided, four-lane highway from Killeen to I-35, just north of Georgetown.

A 20-mile stretch of Texas 195, from north of Florence to Killeen, was finished in 2006, and the Department of Transportation has plans to begin a phase of widening the highway from Florence to I-35 in November. The entire project is expected to be completed in fall 2015.

Fort Hood officials want the road widened for strategic reasons; a bigger road will make it easier and faster for Army convoys to get to I-35 and, eventually, Corpus Christi for deployment.

The new portion of highway will have an exit that streams onto East Main St., a few hundred yards from downtown. There is already one new business near the future exit — a Dollar General — and there is room for more.