Travis County Commssioners Court
June 1, 2004
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Citizens Communication
Citizens communication is next. And one citizen has signed in. Doris beard, doris beard.
>> yes, sir. I was primarily here asking about the closure of west grand avenue parkway.
>> okay.
>> come up here to the mic, ma'am.
>> good morning.
>> it's been five days, take care of my issue about it. You have 25,000 people out there that only have three ways out to the freeway, you are closing one of the majors. My other options are to go to 1325 and deal with dell or to go out to 1825 wells branch parkway. And if it's raining, notify choice but to go to wells branch parkway. So is there a possibility that we could reroute the west lane on to maybe one of the eastbound lanes?
>> we are in the midst of a giant c.i.p. Project out there that is going to completedly rebuild that roadway. So this unfortunately is the first of many detour that's we are going to have. Detours that we are going to have. The goal is to not have any lane closures, to at least have some traffic moving through there. There are going to be some times, this is one of them, because of the utilities or whatever we are doing, we are going to have to close down lanes for the safety of those that are going through that area. You will notice this is happening during the summertime as opposed to during the school. So we specifically delayed certain pieces of this so that we are -- inconveniencing folks as little as possible. But this is the beginning of a very complicated construction project in terms of what will eventually be very good movement of traffic through that area.
>> how long is this project supposed to take?
>> joe, what is it? About 18 months? About 18 months, yes, ma'am. This is a 1997 -- excuse me, 2001 bond proposition that's been approved by the voters. We had a meeting out in the neighborhood approximately four weeks ago to lay out the final design, what was happening, the time line, everything. I know that it's been in the Pflugerville flag, the local newspaper out there. So we have delivered information on the project to major neighborhoods out there. If there's extra information that we need to get to you, we are happy to do that. We have done that public outreach to w what's going on with that project.
>> my guess is there will be more --
>> the biggest issue is there's only three ways out. Two of them are already gummed up. You are basically asking me to take another 20 minutes on my commute to get into work. So -- so I like not having to leave at 6:00 to get to work by 8:30. It's a personal thing.
>> well, we understand that. Again, that's one of the reasons this road is being rebuilt from a two-lane roadway to a low water crossing there at the bridge. It completely floods out that whole area and people are forced for safety reasons to find other ways.
>> yes. I’m on the south end of that, but like I say if you close west grand avenue parkway, then my only choice is to cut through the neighborhood to get to 1825.
>> I’m afraid that's what some folks are going to have to do for a little bit of this simply because there are very few detour options on this thing. But safety is the number one concern here in terms of making sure -- can we go ahead and get your, talk to joe right here with the beard, get your name and phone number, we will make sure that -- that we get more information to you and make sure that any kind of alerts we specifically get information to you.
>> anyone like to give testimony during this public hearing?
>> this is actually under citizens communication, yeah.
>> ms. Beard. Thank you, anybody else under citizens communication to address the court on any matter no under the agenda?
Last Modified: Wednesday, June 2, 2004 7:47 AM