Rio Grande City Begins Alley Paving and Street Improvement Projects

RIO GRANDE CITY, Texas - Rio Grande City officials have begun paving downtown city alleys and planning additional street improvements as part of a broader effort to upgrade local infrastructure.

During a city meeting Feb. 27, Mayor Gilberto Falcon said the city's public works department has already started the process of eventually paving all city alleys, “All of our alleys are going to be paved.” Falcon said during the meeting.

“Infrastructure is one of the most basic requirements of a city and services that need to be provided to our citizens,” Falcon said. “Having caliche roads within the heart of our city is just not acceptable.”

In addition to the alley paving project, city officials approved contracts related to a $750,000 street improvement project funded through a Texas Department of Agriculture grant.

"This would be improving Cyprus Street, Grande Street, Rio Street, Retama Street, Carr Street and Guadalupa Circle," said RGC special projects manager Oneida Garza. "We do have our administration contract with Grant Works which would be a total of $60,000 within the budget of the grant and our engineering contract would be $85,000 for Rio Delta Engineering."

City officials also discussed a major street project planned near 755 Country Estates Drive, which Falcon said will be funded entirely with city resources. “We’re going to be completely paying it with city funds,” Falcon said. “There’s no loan involved. There’s no financial stress to the community.”

Commissioners also added Mockingbird Drive to the list of streets included in the improvement project.

Overall, the city plans to complete improvements on eight major streets along with paving all downtown alleys as part of the broader infrastructure initiative.

“It takes time, but we are finally doing the necessary steps to finish it,” Falcon said. “We know there’s a lot of need on those streets.”

Millan said the improvements will also bring attention to several historic alleyways in the city.

“We have some historic alleys like Wimpy and Happy Alley that deserve some attention,” Millan said.