‘Modernization’ is the key theme at North Texas infrastructure summit

Stakeholders discussed changes to water, broadband and the grid now that federal infrastructure funding is available.

“By God, we’re Texas.”

Rep. Jared Patterson, legislator and director of energy services at Rapid Power Management, closed a panel discussion at Thursday’s North Texas Commission Infrastructure Summit on electric reliability with those words.

Patterson spent most of his designated time on the panel with Texas Instrument’s Shawn McGlothlin and CoServ’s Donnie Clary discussing the grid’s failure following winter storm Uri in 2021.

“My biggest fear, as someone in the industry and an elected official and a smaller government guy, was that we would overreact as a legislature and maybe change some things out of fear or the lobby’s recommendations,” he said.

While Patterson echoed the historical position of Texas — known for being pro-oil, pro-gas, pro-small government and letting the market “do its thing” — industry stakeholders were looking to future innovation and opportunity, recognizing that existing systems have fallen short in the past.

The message of the day was modernization, and summit speakers and panelists shared technology, legislation and ideas that would push North Texas toward a future that prioritizes equitable and sustainable development.

The second iteration of the summit brought North Texas stakeholders together in Hurst to discuss the problems and potential solutions for infrastructure in the region, from water to EV charging to the grid.

Here were the key takeaways.

Infrastructure upgrades should be made equitably

Helen You, from the State Demographer’s Office, outlined key demographic and population trends for North Texas to kick off the summit, providing context of where, and for whom, infrastructure modernization is needed.

Texas is ranked among the highest in U.S. population growth at 1.06% in 2021, and a quarter of that growth has occurred in North Texas. Post-COVID-19, people are moving away from high density areas to new construction and developments, particularly Collin and Denton counties.

But not all growth and development are equal.

“Despite all the things we hear about diversity, where people live still differs a lot,” You said.

The northern suburbs of Dallas are dominated by non-Hispanic white and Asian populations, while the south side of the city is predominantly Black and Hispanic. You said this is important to note when looking at new housing development, most of which is occurring in the northern suburbs, in non-Hispanic White and Asian communities.

“Who is growing more in our area and in Texas?” You asked. “It’s the Hispanic and minority population. So the houses are not necessarily built in the areas where you see the population that is growing.”

That message was echoed by Mike Grace, chief economic development officer for the city of Ferris.

Grace said Ferris is seeing the strongest growth in its history. Nevertheless, there isn’t a high percentage of homeownership, and the city is still struggling with water and sewer infrastructure.

Ferris has difficulty “just planning for that and finding opportunities to, in some cases, partner with developers to facilitate the construction of those assets,” Grace said.

Grace said there is a disconnect between where the jobs are and where the workforce lives. Construction workers, currently in high demand, are living on the south side of Dallas where housing is more affordable, creating a large geographical distance between the jobs and the workers.

Steve Knobbe, North Texas office leader for infrastructure design firm HNTB, said staffing is the biggest barrier in infrastructure development.

EVs are here to stay — just ask the market

Nearly 50,000 electric vehicles operate on Dallas-Fort Worth roads. Nearly 5% of all vehicles being sold in the U.S. are electric, and demand is only going up. Manufacturers have seen the demand, coupled with increasing charging infrastructure, and are playing catch up.

Tesla opened a new giga factory in Austin in April, and Chevrolet, Ford, Volkswagen and Toyota are all jumping into an electric vehicle “space race.”

The Texas Department of Transportation will publish its plan for charging infrastructure on Aug. 1, part of the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program from the federal government.

Executive director of the Texas Electric Transportation Resources Alliance Tom Smith said there are 17 electric vehicle or vehicle part manufacturers in Texas, and they employ more people than convenience stores in the state today.

Aside from the lower cost to own and operate, Smith said “electric vehicles are tremendous tools to reduce urban air pollution.”

Smith said Dallas spends $2.1 billion on health care costs from pollution-related illness every year. He says air pollution accounts for 250 deaths and nearly 4,000 asthma attacks annually, particularly among children who are geographically close to transportation corridors and manufacturing plants.

Electric vehicles would help bring those numbers down.

Smith admitted that one of the biggest worries surrounding electric vehicle adoption is the impact they will have on an already stressed electric grid, but there are ways to mitigate that through charging optimization.

This would be essential for the charging of electric vehicle fleets, which Smith said is the No. 1 target. Delivery vehicles can spend up to 65% of their time idling, wasting gas and money. With major delivery companies like Amazon already adopting electric fleets in D-FW, others will follow.

Public-private partnerships push infrastructure forward

Texas has a wide scope of government and business partnerships, which will be essential when distributing federal infrastructure funds.

A public-private partnership, or P3, is when a private sector firm (or non-profit) partners with a public entity to provide funding and expertise and bring about a new public asset.

Mary Scott Nabers from Strategic Partnerships said private industry provides the design, building, funding, operation and maintenance for the greater public good. Funding is abundant for P3s, and the interest in partnering with public entities is high in private equity.

“We just got a huge amount of money, trillions available to do something we’ve not been able to do in the last 30 years and that’s to fix our infrastructure,” she said. “I don’t think we can do it without public-private partnerships.”

In a conference handout, the North Texas Commission outlined its priorities for the 88th legislature in 2023, including support for “the use of public-private partnerships to meet increased needs while stimulating the economy and creating jobs through the planning, design and construction of a multimodal transportation system of choice and other infrastructure projects.”

Nabers said that public-private partnerships could be so much more than just roads if expanded into other aspects of infrastructure.

“Everybody thinks of a P3 being a toll road,” Nabers said, “[But] it’s water, it’s construction, it’s network technology, it’s our power grid. All of that is our infrastructure.”

Irene Wright, Staff Reporter. Irene Wright covers health, environment, and business for Dallas Morning News. She is a second year master's student in health and medical journalism at the University of Georgia. Irene received a B.A in Ecology from the University of Georgia in May 2021.