HUTTO, Texas — City engineers and members of the Hutto City Council spent significant time at their Oct. 2 meeting debating how to speed stalled capital projects and discourage repeated construction delays, focusing on the Innovation Boulevard/Limmer Loop signal work and other sidewalk and intersection projects across the city.

Council members said construction delays have left safety concerns and frustrated residents. “We bid it out in March, construction starts in April. If they say, hey, can we wait till June when school gets out? Well, why'd you bid on the project?” Councilmember Porterfield said during a discussion about the Innovation at Limmer contract. “We keep getting punked,” he added, urging stronger contract enforcement.

The immediate issue is the traffic signal and related intersection work at Innovation Boulevard and Limmer Loop, where council said footings and some concrete work are in place but poles and mast arms have not been delivered. Matt Recker, city engineer, said the contractor’s substantial completion date likely was Sept. 30 or Oct. 1 and that staff will verify the contract date, issue a notice of deficiency and begin charging liquidated damages once the contract triggers that enforcement step. “We have to wait for that date to notify them that they are not in compliance,” Recker said.

Why it matters: council members linked the delays to public-safety risk and reputational harm, and argued for new approaches to contracting and project management. Mayor Snyder and others pushed for options that would make contractors feel the consequences of missed deadlines, including more aggressive notice and enforcement and possibly routing projects through the Economic Development Corporation (EDC) where different procurement or incentive structures could apply.

What staff told the council
- City Engineer Matt Recker reviewed the broader CIP status, reporting dozens of projects in design or construction, and said the city is managing many overlapping consultant and contractor invoices and contracts. He told council he had asked staff to verify contract dates and to prepare deficiency notices when contractors pass their substantial completion dates.
- Recker said some projects are delayed by third-party schedules (for example, needed signal hardware lead times) and by coordination with outside agencies such as TxDOT or Union Pacific Railroad.
- City Manager James Erb and Recker said staff are researching whether some projects could be handled through economic development tools to add contractual “teeth,” and they planned to return to council with options.

Council discussion and options
- Several council members urged getting ultimate right-of-way and design decisions now rather than paying to rework streets later. “We need to get the right of way that we need on these areas and get that before they get too far along in their process,” Councilmember Gordon said, referring to a convenience store and other private developments near the Limmer corridor.
- Several members asked staff to run intersection-control evaluations (ICE) or similar studies at major intersections to compare signalized intersections vs. roundabouts as part of the design process. Councilmember Thornton said TxDOT is increasingly favoring roundabouts at certain intersections and suggested the city evaluate modern alternatives rather than defaulting to signals.
- Council discussed a range of remedies for contractors who miss deadlines, including deficiency notices and liquidated damages once substantial completion has passed; a motion to direct staff on next steps was not taken during the meeting but staff agreed to return with memoranda and recommendations.

Background: the Limmer Loop corridor
City engineering consultants told council they had prepared schematic designs for Limmer Loop from Innovation Boulevard to FM 1660 South. Those schematics showed a possible six‑lane ultimate cross section but also an alternative four‑lane section in constrained areas; the council debated whether to acquire full six‑lane right‑of‑way now or narrow certain segments and risk future rework.

What’s next
City staff will: verify contract substantial‑completion dates for stalled projects, issue deficiency notices where legally required, and return to council with recommended procurement or EDC-based options to add enforceable deadlines and remedies. Council requested staff run intersection-control evaluations at key intersections and to propose a right‑of‑way acquisition strategy that balances near‑term cost with long‑term needs.

Speakers quoted in this article include Matt Recker, city engineer, and council members Robert Porterfield and Mayor Sanders Snyder (displayed as Mayor Snyder on the agenda).