By Travis Measley | Published Sunday, December 21, 2008
The county's engineering firm, Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc., presented the county commissioners Monday with a preliminary draft of a county master thoroughfare plan.
The plan is in response to increasing population growth in the county and in preparation for population and employment growth numbers projected by the North Central Texas Council of Governments. NCTCOG projects that by 2030, the county's population will be more than 102,000, and there will be more than 37,000 jobs. County Judge Bill McElhaney believes those numbers are low estimates.
"Looking at the data, we are, population-wise, probably right at the 2010 projection right now (65,787), and I wouldn't be surprised if we reached 120,000 by 2030," McElhaney said.
The question behind the thoroughfare plan then was, with these population estimates, will the current transportation system and roadways accommodate those numbers? The general consensus among the commissioners was "no."
Aaron Nathan, the Kimley-Horn representative, showed the commissioners a map of the current road systems color-coded for traffic volumes. U.S. 81/287 sees the largest flow of traffic with more than 17,000 vehicles each day. Roads such as U.S. 380, Farm Road 51 and Texas 114 see between 4,000 and 17,000 vehicles per day, and the smaller roadways, Farm Roads 730, 2123 and 920, see less than 4,000 vehicles per day.
"The idea will be for us to take this map to the public, show them the areas we see as possibly hazardous, and ask them for their input on areas they believe to be troublesome or crowded," Nathan said. "The fact of the matter is that we can only be on the roads so often, but the people that live here and drive every -day will have a much better idea of where the bad spots are in the county."
Nathan said the next step for Kimley-Horn will be to hold a meeting in each of the four county precincts in to get public input on where the nasty intersections, roads, turns and accident-prone areas are. Nathan said they are planning the meetings for January, but the dates have not been confirmed.
Nathan then presented the commissioners with a rough-draft map of potential roadway changes and expansions that may result from the thoroughfare plan.
"This map is just a first-time draft of some ideas we had looking at the traffic numbers," Nathan said. "For example, one goal may be to find a way to divert large rock trucks that are coming out of Chico from Bridgeport, to try and decrease road damage and accidents in the Bridgeport area. Also, possibly a connecting road from Farm Road 407 to U.S. 380, for people that want to get from Rhome to Denton without going through Decatur."
The presentation required no action by the court. The report was a starting point to show commissioners possible areas of interest. Precinct 3 Commissioner Mikel Richardson stressed the importance of allowing the public to give their input and comments and voiced concern over steering the citizens toward an already-decided set of goals.
"We need to make sure that we respond to what the public believes is best and important instead of nudging them in a certain direction based on development of whatever," Richardson said.
All in all, the court was pleased with the presentation and the ideas that Kimley-Horn presented.
"I think they did a wonderful job," McElhaney said. "At this early stage it appears that their interests and opinions are very much in line with ours, and we seem to be on the same page. Now we just need to keep this thing moving forward."
The commissioners will meet next on Monday, Jan. 12.
