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Five Points is about 2 miles southeast of Interstate 20. It’s where State Highway 158 meets Farm-to-Market Road 1213, South County Road 1150 and East County Road 120.

The project to improve this intersection isn’t planned to happen until between 2030 and 2035; however, the federal infusion of money could see it start sooner rather than later.

“Midland County is going to get the engineering and design done for that intersection,” said County Judge Terry Johnson, who represents the county on the Permian Basin Metropolitan Planning Organization policy board.

The Permian Basin MPO is a federally mandated agency that plans and coordinates transportation projects in Midland-Odessa. It puts projects on the short-term Transportation Improvement Plan (TIP), the medium-term Unified Transportation Plan (UTP) and the long-term Multimodal Transit Plan (MTP).

The Five Points project is on the UTP but not the TIP. Johnson said he hopes the Permian Basin MPO policy board will move it there now that the funding has been established. “And since the county will be doing the design work, it will be a shovel-ready project for TxDOT.”

Unlike other highway projects, such as the forthcoming overpass at U.S. Highway 385 and South Loop 338 in Ector County, the Five Points intersection will stay flat (or, in transportation parlance, “at grade”).

“The intersection will be straightened up, and U-turn lanes will be installed,” Johnson said. “We’ll have to buy some right-of-way, but ultimately the intersection will be safer and far less confusing.”

It will also be ready for when another major project comes to fruition: the extension of I-27. This interstate currently runs between Amarillo and Lubbock, but plans are in the works for it to extend south to Laredo, going through Midland in the process. Among the planned conversions of existing roadways are SH 158 and US 87.

The $4 million in federal funding for Five Points has an extended benefit. Transportation funding is allotted in categories. Category 2, or metropolitan and urban area corridor projects, is among the most common.

“Category 2 dollars are currently planned as the funding source for this project,” said Cameron Walker, Permian Basin MPO executive director. “This new funding source lets us put that $4 million we had planned for the project into other projects.”

In a statement about successfully appropriating the money, Pfluger said: “Texas priorities deserve their share of federal support, especially when our area provides the critical food security, energy security and national security the rest of the country has come to count on. Midland is the energy capital of our nation, and with that comes high volumes of traffic from the hardworking men and women who power our country. They deserve safe, reliable highways, which is why I fought to secure $4 million in new dollars to improve highway safety and efficiency across the region.”

County Judge Johnson is grateful.

“I just want to say thanks to August Pfluger for continuing to fight for West Texas,” he said.