TRANSPORTATION UPDATES Smith Ranch Road project moves along
COMPILED BY RACHEL LELAND
ONGOING PROJECT
WIDENING ONGOING Smith Ranch Road is being widened from Hughes Ranch Road to Broadway Street.
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City of Pearland officials are working on a project that will provide citizens improved access to the Hwy. 288 toll lanes between Broadway Street and McHard Road. The project will also place the West Pearland Community Center on a major thoroughfare. The Smith Ranch Road widening project will upgrade the existing two-lane asphalt roadway from FM 518 to Hughes Ranch Road to a four-lane, divided, concrete curb-and-gutter roadway with an underground storm sewer system. In addition, the project will include constructing a continuous 10-foot-wide shared-use path along the west side of the roadway with a pedestrian ramp. Workers will add landscaping, irrigation and fiber-op- tic cables from Broadway to the Westside Event Center. The project will enhance overall safety in accordance with the city’s Major Thoroughfare Plan by con- verting narrow asphalt lanes with
roadside ditches into a concrete curb-and-gutter roadway with medians. Most of the money for the project is not local, city officials said. “The project is funded through the Transportation Improvement Program with [the] Houston-Galves- ton Area Council, so it’s about 80% funded with federal dollars,” City Manager Trent Epperson said. In fiscal year 2020-21, staff sub- mitted a request to U.S. Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Richmond, for legislatively appropriated funding, according to agenda documents. The request was approved, and the city’s proposed $2 million allocation for the completion of the Texas Department of Transpor- tation-funded widening of Smith Ranch Road will help meet the local share of that federally funded proj- ect, according to agenda documents. On June 26, Pearland City Council voted to amend a professional service contract with DEC, the contractor that has handled the
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Timeline: completion in January 2025 Cost: $13.7 million
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Hwy. 288 projects The Texas Department of
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ALL INFORMATION ON THIS PAGE WAS UPDATED AS OF AUG. 1. NEWS OR QUESTIONS ABOUT THESE OR OTHER LOCAL TRANSPORTATION PROJECTS? EMAIL US AT PLFNEWS@COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM. Transportation is working on several projects on Hwy. 288 from Rodeo Palms Boulevard to CR 60 in Brazoria County, including building multiple bridges at Rodeo Palms, Iowa Colony Boulevard, Cedar Rapids Parkway, Davenport Parkway, Dubuque Parkway and CR 60. The project includes adding a southbound frontage road between Rodeo Palms and Hwy. 6. Timeline: completion in late 2025 Cost: $197 million Funding source: TxDOT
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SOURCE: PEARLAND/COMMUNITY IMPACT
design work for the project. Council Member Rushi Patel voted against the motion and voiced that he felt the design fees were excessive. “I’m just taken by the numbers,” Patel said. The design work is about 90% complete and is expected to cost $13.7 million. The project should begin the bid phase by the end of September with construction expected to begin in early 2024.
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PEARLAND - FRIENDSWOOD EDITION • AUGUST 2023
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