By ABBEY KUNKLE
Special to the PRESS
Last month, SPI City Staff submitted an application for a Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP) Grant for $11.4 million, and the City Council approved a $160,000 contract to update the transportation plan in preparation for the project. The Council met Tuesday afternoon to discuss the recently approved transportation plan update.
Representatives from the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), the Laguna Madre Water District (LMWD), and Kimley-Horn consultants were in attendance for the meeting to discuss the project scope, coordination, schedule and data collection. The consultants will use the data to update the plan in regards to median opening locations, landscape components and sidewalk design for Padre Boulevard.
Tom Grant and his team from Kimley-Horn came to the area to begin surveying in preparation for the update from the original transportation plan that was created in 2010. The focus of the project, which ideally will be funded by the TAP grant, is installing new concrete sidewalks down the length of Padre Boulevard and extending the medians from Kingfish Street, where they end, to the Convention Centre. In addition, the plan will improve bicycle lanes and landscaping with buffer zones to increase safety for cyclists and pedestrians. The contract with Kimley-Horn involves creating an access management study and a raised median analysis, which are required by TxDOT. From Thursday through Saturday they will conduct a traffic count of 20 to 30 intersections as well as a pedestrian count, in addition to other field measurements.
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