Who approves a ranch road culvert in Texas, the county or TxDOT?
It turns on the road you touch, not the land you own. A driveway onto a county-maintained road is the county's call. Travis County permits it through Travis County TNR and sends you to TxDOT for a state road. Burnet County splits it the same way in different words: the precinct commissioner signs the county road access permit, and TxDOT approves a driveway onto a Farm to Market road, a Ranch Road or a State Highway. Bastrop County routes a county-road driveway to its Development Services engineering inspector and a state highway driveway to TxDOT.
One case needs a direct call. Travis County issues no permit for a driveway onto a road it does not maintain or has not accepted, yet the same county defines development to include driveways and work in the county right of way and requires a permit for any development. Ask Travis County TNR how those two fit together on your road before a machine shows up.
Source: Travis County Transportation and Natural Resources, Development Services, read 2026-09-13.
Source: Burnet County On-Site Sewage Facilities and Development Services, read 2026-09-13.
Source: Bastrop County Development Services, read 2026-09-13.
Which office signs the driveway permit in your county?
One office per county, and they are not interchangeable. In Burnet and Llano the signature belongs to the commissioner for your precinct, so find out which precinct your gate sits in before you call. County detail starts on the Burnet County page.
Travis County: Travis County TNR for a county-maintained road, TxDOT for a state road. The approach is specified: concrete, meeting the road at about 90 degrees.
Williamson County: the Road and Bridge Division, on a county driveway permit for a new or modified driveway onto a county-maintained road.
Burnet County: the commissioner for your precinct, on a county road access permit.
Llano County: the commissioner for your precinct, in writing, plus a county road cut permit. Nothing may be installed on a county right of way, driveways and culverts included, without that written permission.
Bastrop County: Development Services, through its engineering inspector. The driveway rides on the same county development application as the house.
Caldwell County: the Unit Road Department. The permit stays in force even on a tract exempt from platting.
Source: Travis County Transportation and Natural Resources, Development Services, read 2026-09-13.
Source: Williamson County frequently asked questions, County Engineer, read 2026-09-13.
Source: Burnet County On-Site Sewage Facilities and Development Services, read 2026-09-13.
Source: Llano County Development Services, read 2026-09-13.
Source: Bastrop County Development Services, read 2026-09-13.
Source: Caldwell County Development Ordinance, revised February 14, 2023, read 2026-09-13.
Why does the driveway come before the house?
In Burnet County, because the address depends on the driveway. Across these counties the address then gates the permits that follow it. Site work is not what you do while you wait on permits. It is one of the permits. The rest of the order is laid out in the guide to building a barndominium in Central Texas. County by county:
Burnet County: driveway approval must be in hand before a 911 address is assigned, and the address comes before every other permit. The order is fixed: address, then building permit, then septic permit.
Williamson County: the 911 address from county GIS and Addressing comes before a county permit application, and the Certificate of Compliance from the County Engineer has to clear before the septic application moves.
Caldwell County: the Residential Construction Permit requires the approved 911 address and the approved septic permit, and the septic permit requires the address.
Bastrop County: development permit, septic permit, driveway permit and 911 address all ride on one county application.
Llano County: the development permit is also the 911 address application. The county asks for seven to 10 business days on a review outside the floodplain, longer for floodplain work and septic.
Travis County: development includes driveways, grading, excavation and clearing land to prepare a site, and any development requires a permit.
Source: Burnet County On-Site Sewage Facilities and Development Services, read 2026-09-13.
Source: Williamson County frequently asked questions, County Engineer, read 2026-09-13.
Source: Caldwell County Development Ordinance, revised February 14, 2023, read 2026-09-13.
Source: Bastrop County Development Services, read 2026-09-13.
Source: Llano County Development Services, read 2026-09-13.
Source: Travis County Transportation and Natural Resources, Development Services, read 2026-09-13.
What does the ground do to a caliche driveway here?
It depends which side of the region you are on, because these counties sit on very different ground. The county record here sets no base material spec for the part of the drive on your own land. Travis County specifies only the approach: concrete, about 90 degrees to the road, corrugated metal pipe at least 18 inches across. Past the right of way it is your call and your money, so make the ground a question. Ask the road department whether it accepts caliche inside the right of way and whether it specifies depth or compaction. Ask any builder bidding the road what that material has done on soil like yours, and to see a road they built on it several wet seasons ago.
In Bastrop County, ask Development Services whether the tract falls in the Lost Pines Habitat Conservation Plan covered area, and whether clearing a road corridor changes that answer. Walking the lot first is the cheap version of this conversation, which is what land and lot evaluation is for. The ground under the road, west to east:
Burnet and Llano are core counties of the Llano Uplift, a granite batholith with Precambrian granites and metamorphic rocks in the central dome. At Inks Lake State Park in Burnet County, pink Valley Spring gneiss juts up through the limestone.
The Edwards Plateau has shallow soils underlain by limestone, many springs, stony hills and steep canyons.
The Blackland Prairies are named for deep black soils. Houston Black soil formed in clayey residuum weathered from calcareous mudstone, and when it dries it cracks 0.5 to 4 inches wide from the surface down 12 inches or more.
Post Oak Savannah uplands are sands and sandy loams with clay or clay loams in the bottoms, and a dense clay pan almost impervious to water sits under all of it a few feet down.
The Lost Pines is over 75,000 acres of loblolly pine on seasonally moist sandy soils.
Source: Texas Water Development Board, Report 360 Chapter 9, Paleozoic Aquifers of the Llano Uplift, read 2026-09-13.
Source: Texas Water Development Board, Report 360 Chapter 9, read 2026-09-13.
Source: Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, read 2026-09-13.
Source: Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Texas Ecoregions, read 2026-09-13.
Source: USDA NRCS, Official Series Description, Houston Black Series, read 2026-09-13.
Source: Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, read 2026-09-13.
Source: Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Bastrop State Park, read 2026-09-13.
Source: Travis County Transportation and Natural Resources, Development Services, read 2026-09-13.
Source: Bastrop County Development Services, read 2026-09-13.
Who sizes the culvert on a ranch road?
Where the record says, the county does. Burnet County's precinct commissioner sets culvert location, length and diameter at a site meeting on the property. Williamson County sizes the culvert as part of its driveway permit. Travis County publishes the spec instead: corrugated metal culvert pipe at least 18 inches across. In Llano County the conversation is with the precinct commissioner, because nothing goes in the right of way without written permission from that office and a road cut permit. In Bastrop and Caldwell counties, ask Development Services and the Unit Road Department how the pipe gets sized.
Do not let anyone set pipe and pour an approach ahead of the permit. A pipe already in the ground is a weak negotiating position.
Source: Burnet County On-Site Sewage Facilities and Development Services, read 2026-09-13.
Source: Williamson County frequently asked questions, County Engineer, read 2026-09-13.
Source: Travis County Transportation and Natural Resources, Development Services, read 2026-09-13.
Source: Llano County Development Services, read 2026-09-13.
Source: Bastrop County Development Services, read 2026-09-13.
Source: Caldwell County Development Ordinance, revised February 14, 2023, read 2026-09-13.
Does a low-water crossing need a floodplain permit?
If any part of the crossing sits in a mapped special flood hazard area, yes. A permit is required before construction or development begins inside any special flood hazard area.
Start with the map. The FEMA Flood Map Service Center is the official public source for flood hazard information produced for the National Flood Insurance Program, searchable by address, place name or coordinates. Then find the person who signs. The floodplain administrator is responsible for making sure development complies with floodplain management regulations and that permits are applied for.
Nothing here sets a design standard for a low-water crossing. Ask the floodplain administrator what design will be accepted, whether the crossing changes your permit class, and who certifies the finished work. Land surveyors, architects and engineers authorized by law certify elevation information on an Elevation Certificate. Who to ask in each county:
Llano County Development Services. A floodplain development permit covers any development in a special flood hazard area.
Burnet County Development Services, for the Floodplain Administrator appointed by Commissioners Court. A site inside a designated flood hazard boundary takes a Class B permit, an elevation certificate from a surveyor or a letter from an engineer, and two inspections.
Williamson County Engineer's Office. The permit is required in or next to the 100-year floodplain.
Travis County TNR, whose floodplain rules include a requirement that the work have no effect on the base flood elevation. That is the sentence a crossing has to answer.
Bastrop County Floodplain Administrator, inside Development Services. Permit class is set by the parcel's relationship to the mapped 100-year floodplain.
Caldwell County Director of Sanitation, the county Floodplain Administrator. The permit covers all construction and other development in the mapped flood zones.
Source: FEMA glossary, Permit for Floodplain Development, read 2026-09-13.
Source: FEMA Flood Map Service Center, read 2026-09-13.
Source: FEMA, NFIP Floodplain Management Requirements study guide, Unit 7, read 2026-09-13.
Source: FEMA 467-1, Floodplain Management Bulletin: Elevation Certificate, read 2026-09-13.
Source: FEMA, Elevation Certificate FAQ, October 2023, read 2026-09-13.
Source: Llano County Development Services, read 2026-09-13.
Source: Burnet County On-Site Sewage Facilities and Development Services, read 2026-09-13.
Source: Williamson County frequently asked questions, County Engineer, read 2026-09-13.
Source: Travis County Transportation and Natural Resources, Development Services, read 2026-09-13.
Source: Bastrop County Development Services, read 2026-09-13.
Source: Caldwell County Development Ordinance, revised February 14, 2023, read 2026-09-13.
Does a new ranch road trigger a Highland Lakes permit?
Above the Highland Lakes it can, and roads are named in the ordinance. The Highland Lakes Watershed Ordinance regulates construction of buildings, roads, paved storage areas and parking lots, plus any land-disturbing activity including clearing, excavating, grading, contouring and depositing fill. A driveway is most of that list in a line.
It covers the Lake Travis watershed in Travis County, the Colorado River watershed in Burnet County, and a portion of Llano County, above the Regulated Pool Elevation of the Highland Lakes, as drawn on the official Ordinance Map. An LCRA development permit is required if impervious cover will exceed 10,000 square feet and/or land disturbance will exceed one acre. A single-family residence may be built without that permit by filing a written notification with LCRA when it creates under 10,000 square feet of impervious cover and disturbs under one acre.
Two cautions. Eleven local governments administer part or all of the ordinance under interlocal agreements, so the LCRA permit may not be the one that applies. Ask which government administers it at your address. And a separate state permit uses the same acre: the construction general permit TXR150000 covers construction disturbing one acre or more, or work in a larger common plan of development that will. Below one acre, no coverage is required. A long drive, a turnaround, a pad and a crossing are all disturbance. Add them up before you assume you are under the line.
Source: LCRA Highland Lakes Watershed Ordinance program page, read 2026-09-13.
Source: LCRA Highland Lakes Watershed Ordinance, Section 1, Title and Scope, read 2026-09-13.
Source: LCRA Highland Lakes Watershed Ordinance program page, Required notifications and permits, read 2026-09-13.
Source: LCRA Highland Lakes Watershed Ordinance, Section 4.1(b), Written Notification, read 2026-09-13.
Source: LCRA Highland Lakes Watershed Ordinance program page, Interlocal agreements, read 2026-09-13.
Source: TCEQ, Stormwater Discharges from Construction Activities: Am I Regulated?, read 2026-09-13.
Is the road part of an Edwards Aquifer plan in Travis or Williamson?
On the recharge zone, yes, with no acreage floor. The Edwards Aquifer Protection Program covers eight Texas counties. In the Austin region it covers Williamson, Travis and Hays counties, handled by the TCEQ Austin Regional Office at (512) 339-2929. Travis County's own permit pages put the aquifer question ahead of the site work on the western side of the county, and in Williamson County a septic system over the recharge zone has to be designed by a registered sanitarian or a professional engineer.
Any regulated activity on the recharge zone, where the aquifer rock units crop out, needs an approved Water Pollution Abatement Plan before construction starts. On the contributing zone upgradient of it, a Contributing Zone Plan is triggered at five acres of disturbance, or work that is part of a larger plan of development or sale. Below that, no plan is needed there. A site sitting partly on each is treated as recharge zone.
Administrative review takes up to 30 days, technical review of a complete application takes 90 days, and construction cannot begin until approval issues. Check the parcel on the TCEQ Edwards Aquifer Map Viewer, which prints a map you can submit with the application. A single-family residence may not need its own plan if it is in a master community with an approved plan, or sits on a lot larger than five acres with only that one residence, or keeps impervious cover to 20 percent or less of the legal property. A paved drive eats into that last one, so count the road. More sits on the Travis County page.
Source: TCEQ GIS metadata, Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone - Chapter 213 Rules (TSMS), quoting 30 TAC 213.3(8), read 2026-09-13.
Source: TCEQ Edwards Aquifer Protection Program home page, read 2026-09-13.
Source: TCEQ GIS metadata, quoting 30 TAC 213.3(25), read 2026-09-13.
Source: TCEQ, Water Pollution Abatement Plan page, read 2026-09-13.
Source: TCEQ, What Plans You Might Need, recharge zone branch, read 2026-09-13.
Source: TCEQ GIS metadata, quoting 30 TAC 213.22(2), read 2026-09-13.
Source: TCEQ, Contributing Zone Plan page, read 2026-09-13.
Source: TCEQ, Edwards Aquifer Protection Program: What Plans You Might Need, read 2026-09-13.
Source: TCEQ, What Plans You Might Need, contributing zone branch, read 2026-09-13.
Source: TCEQ, Edwards Aquifer Map Viewer page, read 2026-09-13.
Source: TCEQ, Edwards Aquifer Private Residences page, read 2026-09-13.
Source: Travis County Transportation and Natural Resources, Development Services, read 2026-09-13.
Source: Williamson County frequently asked questions, County Engineer, read 2026-09-13.
What should you ask the precinct commissioner or road department?
Take these to the office that signs, in one call, before you price anything. Write down who you spoke to and the date. When the same question comes back from a lender, a surveyor or the builder pricing your shell, you will want the name. If the house is the next open question, start with barndominium construction.
Who maintains the road at my gate: the county, TxDOT, or nobody?
Which precinct am I in, and who is the commissioner?
Will you come to the site to set culvert location, length and diameter, and when?
What pipe material and diameter do you require, and is corrugated metal acceptable?
Do you specify base material, depth or compaction inside the right of way, and is caliche accepted there?
Does driveway approval have to be in hand before the 911 address is assigned?
Is any part of my access in a mapped special flood hazard area, and who is the floodplain administrator?
If I need a low-water crossing, what design will you accept and who certifies it when it is done?
Does the driveway ride on the same application as the house, or is it separate?
Source: Burnet County On-Site Sewage Facilities and Development Services, read 2026-09-13.
Source: Llano County Development Services, read 2026-09-13.
Source: Travis County Transportation and Natural Resources, Development Services, read 2026-09-13.
Questions people ask
- Do I need a permit for a driveway culvert on a county road in Texas?
- Yes, where the driveway meets a county-maintained road. Travis County permits it through Travis County TNR, Williamson County through the Road and Bridge Division, Burnet and Llano counties through the commissioner for your precinct, Bastrop County through Development Services, and Caldwell County through the Unit Road Department. On a state highway, TxDOT approves the driveway instead.
- Who decides what size culvert goes in?
- The county, where the record says so. Burnet County's precinct commissioner sets location, length and diameter at a site meeting on the property. Williamson County sizes the culvert as part of its driveway permit. Travis County requires corrugated metal culvert pipe at least 18 inches across. In Bastrop and Caldwell counties, ask the office that signs. Do not buy pipe before that conversation.
- My driveway comes off a Farm to Market road. Who do I call?
- TxDOT. Burnet County states that TxDOT approves a driveway onto a Farm to Market road, a Ranch Road or a State Highway, and Travis and Bastrop counties send state road driveways to TxDOT the same way.
- Can I build the driveway before the house permits?
- Check the order first. In Burnet County driveway approval must be in hand before the county assigns a 911 address, and the address comes before every other permit. In Bastrop County the development permit, septic permit, driveway permit and 911 address are one application. In Travis County grading, excavation and clearing land to prepare a site count as development and require a permit, so moving dirt early is not a free head start.
- Does a low-water crossing need its own permit?
- If any part of it sits in a mapped special flood hazard area, a permit is required before construction or development begins. Check the FEMA Flood Map Service Center by address, then ask the county floodplain administrator what design will be accepted and who certifies the finished work. The county record here sets no low-water crossing design standard.
- Is caliche an acceptable base for a ranch road?
- The county record here sets no base material spec for the part of the drive on your own land. Travis County specifies the approach only: concrete meeting the road at about 90 degrees, with corrugated metal pipe at least 18 inches across. Ask the county road department what it accepts inside the right of way, and whether it sets a depth or compaction requirement there.
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