HB 2959 designates a portion of Farm-to-Market Road 2275 in Gregg County as the Bill Stoudt Parkway. The designated segment runs between the road’s intersection with U.S. Highway 259 and its intersection with Spur 502/Judson Road. The bill provides that this designation is in addition to any other designation that may already apply to the same segment of roadway.

The bill directs the Texas Department of Transportation, subject to existing statutory requirements for memorial highway markers, to design and construct markers identifying the segment as the Bill Stoudt Parkway and to erect markers at each end of the designated segment and at appropriate intermediate locations.

The bill also states the Legislature’s intent that the new statutory section be renumbered if necessary to avoid duplicate section numbers in the Transportation Code.

The originally filed version and the Committee Substitute both designate a portion of Farm-to-Market Road 2275 in Gregg County as the Bill Stoudt Parkway, require the Texas Department of Transportation to design and erect markers for the designation subject to existing statutory marker-funding requirements, and state legislative intent that the new Transportation Code section be renumbered if needed to avoid duplicate section numbers.

The main substantive difference is the roadway segment covered by the designation. The originally filed bill applied to the portion of Farm-to-Market Road 2275 between Airline Road and Spur 502/Judson Road. The Committee Substitute changes the western endpoint to U.S. Highway 259, so the designated segment runs from U.S. Highway 259 to Spur 502/Judson Road. This changes the geographic scope of the memorial designation.

The Committee Substitute also removes language stating that the designation applies “notwithstanding Section 225.001(c).” That deletion matters because the substitute no longer expressly overrides that provision in the highway-designation statute. The marker language remains the same: both versions make TxDOT’s marker duties subject to Section 225.021(c), which governs the conditions for constructing and erecting designation markers.

Finally, the effective-date provision changed. The originally filed bill would take effect immediately if it received the constitutionally required two-thirds vote of each chamber; otherwise, it would take effect September 1, 2025. The Committee Substitute removes the immediate-effect contingency and provides a single effective date of September 1, 2025.