TxDOT Form 2440, the Design Summary Report (DSR), is the central record of project development and design for every roadway project programmed into TxDOTCONNECT, and completing it well means assembling your project data before you open the PDF, filling each section so existing conditions, proposed design, environmental commitments, and funding tell one consistent story, and matching every design value to the Roadway Design Manual or an approved exception. The blank form is available on TxDOT’s Design Forms and Guides page at txdot.gov. A completed DSR runs roughly 25 pages. An incomplete or inconsistent one comes back for revisions and pushes the letting date.
What the Form Documents
The DSR walks a project from its current state through its proposed future condition and justifies the engineering decisions in between. The major sections cover:
- Project information: highway number, Control Section Job (CSJ) number, county, length, limits, type of work, and a plain-language description.
- Programming and funding data: working program, STIP year, funding participation breakdown by federal, state, county, and city share, tentative letting date, and PS&E submission date.
- Existing elements: current typical section, bridge and drainage culvert data, stream data, right-of-way width, land use, soil types, and existing constraints such as schools, parks, archaeological sites, hazardous material sites, and airports.
- Highway-railroad grade crossings: railroad owner, surface material, warning devices, and any consolidation or closure opportunities.
- Proposed ROW and utility elements: additional ROW needed, estimated residence and business relocations, and utility adjustment status.
- Environmental commitments and issues: anticipated document type, public meeting and hearing records, and commitment fields for each resource area.
- Advanced project development elements: survey status, aerial photography, and field survey progress.
- Proposed geometric design elements: current and projected traffic volumes, design speed, grades, and other design criteria.
Each section feeds the next: you document what exists, document what you propose, and explain why the proposal fits the constraints. The form also serves as a historical record so future maintenance teams can trace why a particular design speed or lane configuration was chosen.
What to Pull Together Before You Start
Opening a blank DSR without your data assembled is how forms end up half-finished for weeks. Gather the following first.
CSJ Number and Project Limits
Every TxDOT project is identified by its CSJ. The control section number is six digits: the first four are the control number (0001 to 9999) and the last two are the section (01 to 99). The CSJ links your DSR to the project’s budget, schedule, and tracking records in TxDOTCONNECT. You also need precise project limits defining start and end points, typically referenced by intersecting routes, mileposts, or county road numbers.
Traffic Data and Functional Classification
The form requires both current and projected traffic volumes for the design year. Pull the most recent counts from TxDOT’s traffic data resources. You also need the roadway’s functional classification, which drives the design criteria you’ll apply. The Roadway Design Manual classifies roadways by the balance of access and mobility, and the classification determines which criteria table in the manual’s appendix governs your values.
Funding Sources and Agreements
The Programming and Funding Data section needs a complete breakdown of federal, state, county, and city participation as both percentages and dollar amounts. Have the STIP year, working program number, and any active minute orders or advance funding agreements on hand. If the program estimate differs from the authorized amount, be ready to explain the overrun or underrun.
Environmental Clearance Status
Know the anticipated environmental document type — Categorical Exclusion (CE), Environmental Assessment (EA), or Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) — and whether it has been approved. Have your environmental consultant’s findings and the Environmental Issues Permits Commitments Sheet (EPIC) in hand so you aren’t leaving fields blank.
Right-of-Way and Utility Information
Document existing ROW width, the number of landowners, predominant land use, and soil types. If additional ROW is needed, estimate how much and identify how many residences and businesses would require relocation. Identify utility conflicts early. A utility certification confirms that all utility work has been completed or that arrangements are in place to coordinate it with the construction schedule, and clear utility certifications are required before the project can be advertised for bids.
Existing Conditions Data
Survey the current roadway: number of lanes, lane widths, shoulder widths, median widths, and whether curb and gutter is present. Compile bridge data (structure numbers, lengths, types, clear roadway widths, sufficiency ratings) and drainage culvert data (station, number of barrels, sizes, types). Note existing constraints including eligible historical structures, schools, parks, archaeological sites, potential hazardous material sites, ecological concerns, and nearby airports. Each has a dedicated field. Leaving them blank signals incomplete research, and reviewers will flag it.
Filling In the Proposed Design
The proposed design sections are where your engineering judgment gets documented, and where consistency with the Roadway Design Manual is checked line by line.
Geometric Design Elements
Enter your design speed (minimum, desirable, existing, and proposed), maximum and minimum grades, and the proposed typical section: number of lanes, lane widths, shoulder types and widths, median type and width, and surfacing materials. For freeways, the minimum and usual main lane width is 12 feet. Other facility types carry their own criteria in the Roadway Design Manual, and the values you enter must match those standards or be covered by an approved design exception.
Design Criteria by Project Category
The controlling criteria depend on project category. For new location and reconstruction (4R) projects, they include design speed, lane width, shoulder width, horizontal curve radius, superelevation rate, stopping sight distance, maximum grade, cross slope, vertical clearance, and structural capacity. Resurfacing, restoration, or rehabilitation (3R) projects have a parallel but distinct set. Every value you enter must meet or exceed the minimums in the Roadway Design Manual’s appendix tables for the applicable category.
The Remarks Field
Use the remarks section to explain site-specific constraints that shaped the design: utility easements, unusual topography, adjacent land use limiting ROW expansion, or traffic patterns that justify a nonstandard configuration. Reviewers rely on this narrative to understand decisions that would otherwise look arbitrary, and a clear remarks section prevents a round of clarification requests.
When You Need a Design Exception
If a proposed value falls below the minimum for a controlling criterion, a design exception is required. If values meet or exceed the minimums, no exception is needed. The controlling criteria for 4R projects are lane width, shoulder width, horizontal curve radius, design speed, superelevation rate, stopping sight distance, maximum grade, cross slope, vertical clearance, and structural capacity.
District review processes vary, but the final signature on an exception must come from the TxDOT District Engineer, and that authority cannot be delegated. Because design speed and structural capacity are fundamental to the project’s purpose, exceptions for those elements are expected to be extremely rare.
Document and preferably approve any required exceptions before you finalize the DSR. The design criteria fields and the exception documentation need to tell a consistent story. Conflicting entries between the two are one of the fastest ways to get a DSR returned.
Environmental Commitments and Public Involvement
The Environmental Commitments and Issues section is among the most detailed on the form. Field C.1 asks for the anticipated document type (CE, EA, or EIS). TxDOT’s Environmental Affairs Division manages the NEPA review process for department-approved highway projects, and the DSR must reflect the current status of that review.
Commitment fields are organized by resource area: noise, air quality, wetlands (including whether individual or nationwide Section 404 permits are required), water quality, Coast Guard coordination, natural resources (vegetation, endangered species), cultural resources (archaeology, historical), social and economic impacts including environmental justice, and Section 4(f) and 6(f) resources. Each field requires either a specific commitment description or a notation that the issue is not applicable. The form also asks whether hazardous materials issues are anticipated and whether the EPIC sheet has been completed.
Public involvement records belong here too: dates and types of public meetings held or proposed, and whether a public hearing has been scheduled, held, or determined not required. Marking environmental fields “TBD” is acceptable early in project development because the DSR is a living document, but those fields need to be resolved before the project advances to PS&E.
Submitting the Form and What Happens Next
TxDOTCONNECT is the central system for project information, and the DSR is required for each project programmed into it. Submission procedures are handled at the district level. File naming should incorporate the CSJ number per your district’s conventions; a file named inconsistently with district standards can delay processing before anyone opens it. Contact your district’s design coordinator for the current submission method, since practices vary. The submitted DSR becomes part of the project’s permanent file of record.
Internal review at the district typically falls to the District Design Engineer or a designated review team. Reviewers check each field for technical accuracy, consistency with the Roadway Design Manual criteria, and alignment with the project’s budget and scope. If discrepancies or incomplete entries turn up, the report comes back with specific comments identifying what needs to be addressed before resubmission.
Approval of the DSR allows the project to advance toward the Plans, Specifications, and Estimates (PS&E) stage, the final package needed before letting. The utility certification, signed by the District Engineer, must also be in place before the project can be advertised. The finalized DSR is archived in the permanent project record as the documented justification for every design decision made during development.
Federal-Aid Projects and FHWA Involvement
Projects on the National Highway System, including the Interstate System, may involve FHWA oversight. Under the Stewardship and Oversight Agreement between FHWA’s Texas Division Office and TxDOT, the department has assumed many FHWA responsibilities for project actions defined in the agreement’s Project Action Responsibility Matrix. FHWA has not designated any high-risk project categories for Texas under 23 U.S.C. 106(c)(4), so most NHS projects proceed under TxDOT’s assumed authority. FHWA can, however, designate a specific project as high-risk or require a project-specific stewardship plan, which would add a federal review layer that includes the DSR. If your project involves federal funding, confirm with your district whether FHWA involvement applies to any portion of the design review.