Texas to Expand Internet Access and Flood Monitoring With $29M Grant

Jan. 22, 2026 – Texas’s Broadband Development Office awarded $29 million to the Lower Colorado River Authority on Tuesday, in efforts to expand high-speed internet for rural communities and advance flood-monitoring systems in Central Texas.

Established in 1934, the LCRA is a Texan conservation district that produces electric power, manages the lower Colorado River and oversees water supply.

As for broadband access, the LCRA also builds and operates fiber networks that private ISPs connect to in order to serve local homes and businesses. 

With this grant, the LCRA will upgrade tower sites and flood-monitoring connectivity, allowing internet providers to reach residents living in rural areas and extend fiber to underserved communities. This will support Texas’s local economies, education access, emergency services and health care. 

The investment will also expand flood-monitoring infrastructure for the lower Colorado River, a region prone to flash flooding because of shallow soil, steep terrain and high rainfall rates.

“This is exactly what smart infrastructure investment looks like,” said Acting Texas Comptroller Kelly Hancock. “The July 4, 2025, floods were a sobering reminder that real-time data and reliable communications save lives. This project will both strengthen those capabilities and deliver daily broadband access to communities along the Lower Colorado.” 

Broadband expansion was at the forefront of Hancock’s plans. As a former Texas senator, he resigned to lead the comptroller’s office, which oversees the BDO and broadband funding. 

The BDO heads the state’s $3.3 billion allocation from the federal Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program, as well as an additional $500 million from Texas Match Assistance Program state funding. The LCRA investment represents an expansion of Texas’s BEAD plan, which was approved two months ago in November 2025.