Taylor County Expo Center expands parking lot repaving project

ABILENE, Texas (KTAB/KRBC) – The Taylor County Expo Center is adding to its large-scale paving project to prolong the life of the new parking lots.

More work and improvements are underway at the Taylor County Expo Center. Right now, the parking lots are seeing some much-needed attention with a massive repaving project, but officials from the expo center have noticed a few other areas of improvement they would like to add to the project.

The funding for this project comes from a government relief program designed to help cities with economic stimulation since the COVID-19 pandemic. The expo center’s funding showed some excess financing, known as contingency funding, and the expo center’s General Manager, Rochelle Johnson, explains the concept for its use.

“Any time you do a construction project, there’s always a contingency that set aside because you never know, especially with an existing facility, you never know what you’re going to run into,” Rochelle Johnson said.

These funds are usually used when a mistake is made on a construction site or when additional infrastructure relevant to the original project needs to be added. In this case, the expo center is concentrating on improvements to help prolong the lifespan of the new pavement in the parking lots.

These changes include updated drainage, allowing safer and more comfortable conditions for anyone visiting the expo center. As Johnson explains, this has been an issue in past events.

“When it rains, I’ve got people stepping out of their RV in two or three inches of water. And so that’s going to help both the spectators as well as the exhibitors,” Johnson said.

A proposal for the added improvements for the project went before the Taylor County Commissioners at the most recent Commissioners meeting, and Precinct 2 Commissioner Kyle Kendrick proposed outside bidding for one of the projects that would see a reinforced concrete slab for large dumpsters that are in heavy use for the Expo Center.

Kendrick outlined how this portion of the new projects would be the most costly and was keen on trying to reduce that cost.

“I’d like to save money everywhere we can because we know that we’re going to run into more issues along the way. So, I mean, just like the other day, we had the little incident where we had to raise those electrical boxes up, and that was about a $1,900 bill right there. So, I mean, every dollar that we can save is that much better,” said Kendrick

As the additional improvements would be free of cost to the overall project, the Taylor County Commissioners Court ultimately voted to proceed with the additions to the expo center.