Saturday, June 29, 2024
The Granbury City Council unanimously approved an expenditure for the construction of both a right turn and left turn lane on U.S. Highway 377 at Archer Court during a regularly scheduled meeting June 18.
The turning lanes — which will be located at the new entrance to the Granbury Regional Airport terminal building — were initially recommended by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) for safety reasons.
“When TxDOT did the review, they did say that for safety purposes that these are needed and if you've driven out there, you'll agree going both directions that the speed of traffic is going to be very helpful in making safe turn maneuvers off of 377 on to Archer Court,” Deputy City Manager Michael Ross said during the meeting.
The construction of Archer Court is complete, and there is about $16,000 remaining in that project budget available for use on the turn lanes. There is also a 10% contingency on the $2,754,684 Archer Court project, which equates to a total of $291,754 available for use.
"There was a 10% contingency that you approved on Dec. 6 of 2022, which gives us plenty of funding to recommend an expenditure for the construction of those turn lanes in an amount not to exceed $125,000, so we'll combine that with that $16,000 to get us the total number needed to construct those turning lanes,” Ross said.
“Michael, great idea,” Mayor Pro Tem Steven Vale said. “I mean, I think that's certainly needed there. I've been in and out at Archer Court a couple of times, and getting in there, you have to look in your rearview mirror pretty hard to make sure nobody's crawling up behind you. ... It’s a good project for safety.”
Place 3 Councilman Bruce Wadley asked Ross if the turning lane construction would interfere with the U.S. Highway 377 expansion project. Ross said while he is not heavily involved with that project, he doesn’t believe the expansion will affect Archer Court.
"If it changes, then they will have to address that change,” City Manager Chris Coffman said. “They're telling us to do this now, and they've reviewed the plans, approved them and said, ‘This is what you need to do.’”
Ross added he is still waiting for an answer from Jay Mills Contracting as he has encouraged the company to get construction completed before the airport’s ribbon cutting July 22.
“We've been working on this for quite a while and I’m glad to get it finally to this point,” Coffman added.
Vale made a motion to approve an expenditure for construction of the right turn and left turn lanes on U.S. 377 at Archer Court at the entrance to the Granbury Regional Airport for an amount not to exceed $125,000. Following a second by Place 4 Councilman Skip Overdier, the motion passed unanimously.
