News

Road project outrages council

Print this story | Email this story

The Leander City Council had harsh words for some of its city staff at last week's meeting over the progress, or lack thereof for a better word, of the construction of County Road 272 - otherwise known as East Crystal Falls Parkway.

The project that could have been close to completion by now hasn't had one speck of dirt turned, it's had two different designers and now TxDOT is requiring an environmental study that could delay it even further.

As it stands now, completion of the first phase of the project may not be until the middle of November 2009 - nearly five years after talks about expansion of lanes began.

“It's embarrassing to me, and the council's credibility is being looked at,” Leander Mayor John Cowman said publicly. “We made a mistake somewhere. We made a wrong turn, but we need to go forward from here.”

The road expansion is part of the 2007 Bond package that passed. Talks of expansion began as early as 2004.

“I'm very concerned about the bond issue,” Leander resident Blanche Corley said at the council meeting. “This has [dragged] on and [dragged] on. Who's responsible for this and when are you going to start on this?”

The road is to be expanded from two lanes to four and five lanes from the 183A toll road to Ronald Reagan Boulevard. The original plan of three lanes would have cost the city $1.6 million, but a grant from the Texas Department of Transportation of about $6 million would guarantee the city could expand to four and five lanes. The one drawback of the grant?

“We didn't anticipate TxDOT's full-fledged environmental assessment of the area,” Leander Engineer Wayne Watts said.

The congestion on the current road is expected to grow as development builds up around Wiley Middle School and Rouse High School - which only has freshmen this school year but will add a grade each of the next three years.

Phase I of the project is already underway. The city will advertise for bids on Jan. 15, open for bids on Feb. 5 and award a contract by Feb. 19 with a groundbreaking on March 10. The scheduled completion of Phase I would be about Nov. 15, 2009. Meanwhile, Watts said the environmental study - which could take anywhere from six months to a year - could be ongoing while Phase I is happening.

Council is concerned about why the delay has happened, but they're more interested in getting work done on this immediately and having no further delays.

“We can't wait two more years as far as I'm concerned,” Place 6 Council Member Dave Siebold said. “And we can't get funding without knowing the stipulations of the grant.”

City Manager Anthony Johnson said the alternative would be to borrow money.

“To do that would raise taxes and we don't want to do that. I understand the time frame, but it doesn't make business sense [to not take the grant]. We need to move forward from where we are.”

Perez echoed the mayor's remark about this falling on the council's shoulders. Cowman said “This is the top priority.” Perez said the council must act now.

“We're going to have to be a council or wimps,” Perez said. “It's been too long. We've got to get that road built.”

E-mail editor@hillcountrynews.com

Reader Comments