The Texas Department of Transportation hosted a public meeting last Tuesday at the Brownsville Event Center to receive input on its plans to widen Ruben M. Torres Boulevard (FM 802).
The project would begin on FM 1847 and turn east at Old Port Isabel Road. It would have a span of about 1.36 miles in the city of Brownsville.
The project consists of widening FM 802 to six 12-foot-wide travel lanes, two bike lanes that will be extended by 2.5% and constructing an 18-foot-wide raised median. The total construction cost is $7.5 million. No right of way will be needed. A right of way is land for maintaining highways and toll projects, according to the TxDOT website.
TxDOT’s project aims to target the problem of increased congestion, decreased mobility and an increased crash rate along the road.
Officials at the meeting said state averages revealed that crash rates along FM 802 are higher than statewide averages for singular roadway traffic. The conflict point on this road is where vehicles in the opposed two-lane roads, in each direction, meet at the two-way, left-turn lane in the centerline.
This conflict point will be reduced by 5% with the implementation of the raised median.
“You have over 33,000 vehicles, what we call average daily traffic in that area,” said Octavio Saenz, public information officer for TxDOT in Pharr. “Therefore, it makes it one of the most congested roads in the state.”
Jose Cardenas, central design project manager for TxDOT in Pharr, provided the meeting’s technical overview, which explained how FM 802 has experienced a significant increase in traffic over the last few years.
“It is ranked No. 92 of the top 100 congested roadways in the state of Texas,” Cardenas said.
Congestion on this road is expected to increase, he said, due to the city’s rapid growth. For this reason, the road has become a major safety concern for the city.
TxDOT plans to reduce congestion, improve mobility and enhance public safety with its additional lanes and concrete median.
During the public comments section of the meeting, Brownsville resident Rose Timmer expressed her concerns.
“How are you gonna deal with the congestion of the construction?” Timmer said. “Where are you gonna send us? Through the neighborhoods?”
Andres Espinoza, TxDOT assistant area engineer for the San Benito office, one of the three panel members, replied that construction will take place in the middle of the roadway; therefore, traffic will continue to flow within the same two lanes.
Also on the panel were Rex A. Costley, TxDOT Pharr deputy district engineer, and Cardenas.
Alfonso Vallejo voiced his concern about the new entrance to Walmart that will be reduced to only one lane. He suggested having two lanes to reduce traffic at the entrance, especially during the holiday season.
Espinoza responded to Vallejo, saying that traffic signals will be synchronized to help decrease congestion.
Asked why she thought it was important to attend these kinds of meetings, Timmer replied, “You need to have public input. I’m sure that some of the information he has, and why this project was started, was because of public input. That’s something that every citizen has a right to voice.”
During the widening of the Resaca Calmada Bridge, the Paseo de la Resaca Trail System underneath the bridge will be temporarily closed for about three to six months, according to txdot.gov. People who use the trail will have to take the detour and cross on Hudson Boulevard and Seville Boulevard in order to get back to the trail.
The project schedule started July 2019, when the preliminary design/schematic was determined. The next step in the project is to compile and consider the community’s input from last week’s meeting and incorporate it when finalizing the project design details.
Upcoming dates include environmental clearance, scheduled for January 2020; project letting, August 2020; and construction commencement, September 2020.
The purpose of the public meeting was to encourage and maintain effective communication with the community and provide project specifics.
At the end of the meeting, attendees were encouraged by Saenz to fill out comment forms and drop them in the comment box at the back of the room.
The public can also send written comments via email to Robin.Gelston@txdot.gov, fax (956) 702-6110 or mail to 600 W. Interstate 2 Pharr, Texas 78577.
The deadline to submit comments to be included in the public record is Sept. 25.
Contents of the public meeting will be posted on the TxDOT website at www.txdot.gov.
