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Residents brace for North Colony construction
The North Colony Boulevard reconstruction project primarily consists of widening the road to a four-lane divided thoroughfare between Curry Drive and Paige Road, with associated turn lanes and further development of the city's trail system connecting the Park Loop Trail at Slay Baker Park with Main Street./File photo
By BLAINE CRIMMINS, bcrimmins@acnpapers.com
While the city as a whole eagerly anticipates the widening of Main Street, another sizeable project will soon be under way as dirt starts flying on North Colony Boulevard in less than two months.
The project primarily consists of widening the road to a four-lane divided thoroughfare between Curry Drive and Paige Road, with associated turn lanes and further development of the city's trail system connecting the Park Loop Trail at Slay Baker Park with Main Street.
At a cost of $6.8 million, funded entirely by Denton County and the Texas Department of Transportation, the North Colony project also includes work on drainage, water, and wastewater systems, as well as new traffic signals and street lights, and sidewalk repairs.
Resident Pamela Brinkman lives on North Colony Boulevard. She expressed concern Tuesday night that construction would affect her ability to park on the slip road in front of her home.
City Manager Troy Powell and Engineering Director Gordon Scruggs assured Brinkman that construction would not impede access.
“The guarantee is that you will always have access to your slip road (including parking), even if they’re working on the main road,” Powell said.
Brinkman also was concerned that drivers would create hazards by speeding through the slip roads in order to bypass the main construction areas. She suggested the city install temporary signage reducing the speed.
Powell said the city would have increased enforcement in those areas, including additional signage typical of construction zones. He also pointed out that the road should be safer when it’s completed next year, despite the potential for increased speeds.
“The way the street is being constructed, with the medians and more controlled turning access, I think the main street is going to be safer,” Powell said. “Access control makes thoroughfares safer, and that safer feeling could encourage people to drive faster … but I think that’s an enforcement issue. The key is that if we do have issues with speed, then we can have our police out there enforcing (the speed limit).”
North Colony residents Richard and Pam Strunk said they were unsure if the benefits of the project outweighed the costs.
“My house is at ground zero for all of this,” Pam Strunk said. “(My property values) are going to tank. The housing market is taking a beating now and I don’t know that I’ll ever recover,” adding that she’d like to see studies showing that The Colony will see an economic boon from the widening of both Main Street and North Colony Boulevard.
“I see it that we’re becoming a huge pass-through for Little Elm. Everything we have in The Colony, there’s in Little Elm. People in Little Elm don’t shop in The Colony. I think we’re going through a lot of difficulty and I’m not sure there’s a value for what we’re giving up,” she said.
Last month, the city held a meeting to gather public input on the project. In addition to the items discussed on Tuesday night, input from the meeting yielded:
*inclusion of a traffic barrier along the north side of North Colony at the intersection of Paige Road, designed to deter vehicles from driving over the curb of the slip road;
*realignment of Ragan Road, improving the sight distance and traffic flow at Griffin Middle School; and,
*a traffic study to determine if pedestrian signals or flashers would improve safety at Ragan Road and North Colony.
The engineering department has posted design schematics on its Web site, www.ci.the-colony.tx.us/Depts/Engineering/NorthColonyBoulevardWidening.htm. The page also will include progress reports once construction is under way.
In other business on Tuesday, the city council discussed the merits of conducting pre-council work sessions one hour prior to each council meeting. The idea behind the work sessions is to allow the council to informally discuss issues on the agenda both amongst themselves and with city staff members, facilitating smoother council meetings thereafter.
While the council generally agreed that the work session was a productive extensive of its regular business, members were concerned about public perception. Though the work session is open to the public and broadcast on television, council members Joel Marks and Jeff Connelly spoke to the value of residents seeing all of the discussion leading up to a given council decision.
“I want us to be really careful that the information that’s discussed (in the work session) makes it to the official open meeting agenda so citizens get the same gist of the presentations, the same general discussions, in order for them to see it fully open and transparent,” Connelly said.
Powell responded by saying he “got the message,” and that he understood the value the council placed on transparency of government. He assured them there will never be an item on a work session agenda that isn’t also on a regular agenda at some point thereafter.
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