VIA Metropolitan Transit this week approved another $5.2 million in spending for its multi-million dollar Green Line.
The VIA board of trustees gave the green light to modify a contract with Parsons Transportation Group for design services during construction on the $480.8 million project.
The Green Line is the north-south transit line of VIA Advanced Rapid Transit project which will create a system of corridors designed to get riders faster to their destination using dedicated bus lanes, prioritized traffic signals and more frequent pickups and dropoffs.
Selected via a request for proposals, the Virginia-based Parsons won a five-year design contract in March 2024 for the Green Line worth over $20.8 million plus a 10% contingency fund.
In 2025, VIA amended the contract to increase the initial contingency amount, adding another $4.2 million and bringing the contract total to just over $27 million.
The latest contract modification to extend design services and increase the contingency brings the contract value to just under $32.3 million.
But the project remains under budget, said a VIA spokesman, with the most recent change already having been included in this year’s budget.
Increasing the contract and scope will allow for Parsons to take on design work originally assigned to third-party utilities, such as Google Fiber, and VIA officials said they were glad to do it.
“It’s worked out tremendously in terms of schedules as well as costs,” said Jason Harmon, vice president of construction at VIA.
“Those funds were originally to go to support that as well as additional subsurface utility investigation,” he said. “So we used those funds to do additional sewer work and this was because we wanted to identify everything that we possibly could underground before we actually started breaking ground.”
The added funds will ensure the design team is still on board through the construction phase and able to respond to issues that arise later, Harmon added.
“It just allows the staff flexibility to be able to make those changes quickly,” so the new transit service can be completed and start as scheduled, he said.
Green Line progress update
The north-south Green Line will span 11.7 miles from the San Antonio airport to Steves Avenue, with service connections at the Stone Oak Park & Ride and the Brooks Transit Center, and 25 new stations at points between.
It will run 17 new articulated vehicles with 10-minute frequency on weekdays, 15 minutes on weekends. The buses will travel via dedicated transit lanes in the center of the existing roadway.
Thirteen new signalized pedestrian crossings are being built to support the Green Line, and 58 intersections will be upgraded with synchronized signals for improved traffic flow.
The project brings 6.7 miles of new and repaired sidewalks and 138 new or replaced stormwater drains and other drainage improvements.
Work on the Green Line got underway in 2022 with a public input process that helped to define parameters of the project, and is today in full construction mode expected to last until early 2028.
Crews are now moving and improving utilities — gas, sewer, electrical — in preparation for the transit lanes and stations.
VIA’s Real Estate team has acquired 144 parcels needed for construction of the Green Line, and is in negotiations with the owners of six properties.
Another six parcels are pending eminent domain hearings. No residents will be displaced for the Green Line, according to VIA.
The service start date is planned for April 22, 2028.
The nearly half-billion-dollar project was boosted in December with $268 million in federal funding toward its construction.
Silver Line progress update
Also in the works is an east-west corridor project, the Silver Line, planned for 7.3 miles along downtown streets stretching from General McMullen Drive and the Frost Bank Center.
The $322.2 million project will include 14 new buses traveling on center transit lanes.
Project planning was launched in 2022 and final design work has begun, said Manjiri Akalkotkar, major capital program officer at VIA. Construction is expected to start by mid-2027 with completion sometime after 2030.
The Silver Line’s estimated final design contract with Parsons is valued at $24.8 million.
Like with the Green Line, VIA recently opened offices to support the general public with questions and issues involving the Silver Line.
The offices are located at 2222 Buena Vista on the West Side and 1305 E. Houston St. in the VelocityTX headquarters on the East Side.
VIA is funding the project through a one-eighth cent sales tax that VIA began receiving at the start of 2026.
