Burnet moves forward on plan to improve U.S. 281
“This is really a wonderful opportunity for the city,” Assistant City Manager David Vaughn said. Vaughn also serves as Burnet’s director of planning and development. “What’s happening here is we are not only going to get a turn lane but ingress and egress lanes along U.S. 281 in which the safety issues we’ve been concerned about for so long will be resolved.”
The project includes two main phases. The first is to install a center turn lane along the four- mile stretch extending from the entrance to Delaware Springs subdivision south to Park Road 4 with ingress and egress lanes. Second, the portion of 281 from The Green Mile at Burnet High School to Houston Clinton Drive, and from Fannin Street to Hill Street on Texas 29, will be resurfaced to eliminate flooding problems that occur during heavy rains.
The project initially began when city officials were approached 18 months ago by developer Steve Hurst of The Ranch at Delaware Creek, who asked if the city was interested in making improvements to the roadway. They were joined by Lou Christensen, the developer of the proposed Honey Rock subdivision, and a presentation was made to TxDOT to get their input.
“We even had a representative from state Rep. Jimmie Don Aycock’s office with us in that first meeting because this project is so important. At the time, TxDOT was very receptive but there was no money available, so the project just sat there until right before our last city council meeting,” Vaughn said. “We were told if we could quickly come up with $500,000 necessary for the engineering study, we could get this going.”
The current proposal has each developer providing $100,000 while the city covers the remaining $300,000 for the engineering studies. The plans will then be turned over to TxDOT, and the project will be paid for with a federal grant.
Early figures have the project slated for an estimated $13 million and is expected to take up to one year to complete.
Ninety percent of the engineering phase is expected to be complete by the end of January and Vaughn says TxDOT officials hope to have a contractor hired by next summer.
“The total cost has yet to be determined until the engineering phase is complete, but it’s still a great deal as the grant will pay for the project. What makes this so important is they’re going to solve some serious flooding and drainage issues along that path,” City Manager Mike Steele said. “It’s an extremely dangerous situation right now. We need to fix these areas to help the economic development of the community by attracting big box stores wanting to come here.”
The bridge by The Ranch at Delaware Creek will also be reworked, making it passable in the event of a 100-year flood, city officials said.
“Safety is the main issue, and adding the turn lane will open up about two and one half miles of commercial frontage property to develop,” Steele said.
Vaughn said the number of interested clients who want commercial property gives the city the potential to appeal to retail interests that were otherwise not possible.
“This is such a great opportunity for the city,” Vaughn said. “All the stars fell into place to put this alliance together in such a short time. Everyone involved has been great to work with as we all realize the benefit of something like this. It has been necessary for quite some time.”
Vaughn said officials will continue to work with property owners along U.S. 281 to work on issues pertaining to re-cutting some driveways along the highway. That work will be necessary to bring the roadway into compliance according to new rules recently imposed by TxDOT.
brenda@thepicayune.com