"That borrowing authority, granted on a unanimous vote of the five-member commission in a specially called meeting this morning, will allow TxDOT to issue more than $4 billion in contracts this year. At least $1.1 billion of that would be for maintenance projects. But the remainder, almost $3 billion, would allow much greater spending to expand the state road system than in the fiscal year now ending, a year when TxDOT had to shelve many road projects."