Texas State Library and Archives Commission digitizes and makes available nearly 80,000 Department of Transportation records – The Gilmer Mirror

Austin, TX – The State Archives, part of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, announced the digitization of 79,608 Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) right-of-way records dating from 1913 to 2017. These records are now available in the Texas Digital Archive, where they can be searched, browsed, viewed and downloaded for free by members of the public.

To better facilitate online access to the comprehensive and ever-growing set of TxDOT right-of-way records, the State Archives has also created a custom search option. On this search page, users can choose from the range of districts, counties and transportation types currently available.

The Rights of Way Division coordinates the acquisition of land to build, expand, or improve highways, provides relocation assistance when needed, and coordinates utility adjustments, as well as the disposal and leasing of surplus real estate owned by TxDOT. TxDOT right-of-way records include transportation, maps, and title deeds. These records are part of an ongoing digitization project by TxDOT with TSLAC’s State and Local Records Management Division and the State Archives that began with the Austin District Records. So far, the project has digitized over 15 terabytes of material consisting of approximately 580,000 files in total (including masters, over 78,000 of which represent unique publicly available recording images).

The Texas Digital Archive now makes more than five million state government records, as well as business, family and organizational records, prints and photographs, artifacts, audio and video freely available in line on www.tsl.texas.gov/texasdigitalarchive, and more are added every day.

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The Texas State Library and Archives Commission provides Texans with access to the information they need to be informed and productive citizens by preserving Texas archives; improve the service capacity of public, university and school libraries; help public bodies keep their records up to date; and meet the reading needs of Texans with disabilities. For more information, visit www.tsl.texas.gov.