House candidate says he can get Texas 360 done as freeway

A candidate running for the state House is promising to get the much-delayed Texas 360 extension project completed as a freeway if elected, contradicting local officials who say such a feat is highly unlikely.

Real estate investor Bill Burch is running against former Arlington City Councilwoman Barbara Nash in the Republican primary for House District 93. The winner will try to unseat state Rep. Paula Pierson, D-Arlington, in November.

Burch has told voters in recent weeks that he can secure millions in state transportation money to build highway lanes in the southern corridor of Texas 360 in southeast Arlington, where there are currently only frontage roads.

“No. 1 priority is completion of 360 as a freeway rather than a toll road,” Burch said at a Mansfield candidate forum put on by the Southeast Republican Club this month. “I’ve got it set up. I know who to go to and how to get it done.”

Asked later to elaborate, Burch said he would divert money intended for another part of the state.

“I know how to do it,” Burch said. “I’d go after money in a highway district that doesn’t have enough friends to counter.”

Plans have been in the works for several years to extend Texas 360 as a toll road. The North Texas Tollway Authority is studying whether to extend 360 but hasn’t yet agreed to build a toll road, spokeswoman Sherita Coffelt said.

Burch said he began working on funding for the project in 2008, the first time he unsuccessfully ran against Pierson. He spoke with Gov. Rick Perry about the issue when the governor visited Mansfield that year to headline a fundraiser for Burch, he said.

“Rick Perry knew I had it pretty well set up to get it done, but I wasn’t elected so it wasn’t done,” Burch said.

Pierson said city leaders agreed well before she took office in 2007 that building a toll road made the most sense. The alternative is waiting 15 years or longer for the project to be funded by the state, she said.

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