Streets getting somewhere in Marble Falls
Glynis Crawford Smith/The Highlander
Drivers navigate new traffic delineators as they exit Mormon Mill Road in Marble Falls. New roadside and roadway signage and diversions from two-way entry to Walgreens are designed to reduce errors in entering US 281 or Mission Hills Drive. Read about the solutions for one of the worst of the city's traffic snarls in the Tuesday, June 6, edition of The Highlander.
By Glynis Crawford Smith
The Highlander
Ask any travelers that frequent the uphill climb east along Broadway Street or the interchange of Mormon Mill Road and Mission Hills Drive at US 281 in Marble Falls and they will tell you a lot has been going on this spring.
The first has the biggest budget impact and the second the biggest effect on traffic and safety.
Broadway Street
The big project is a complete overhaul of Broadway—a $470,000 Capital Improvement Project begun in May—to bring one of the city's oldest residential streets into the 21st Century.
“We held several public meetings with all the people that live along Broadway, informing they of what was happening,” said City Engineer Eric Belaj. “Basically we are allowing local traffic in off-construction hours and blocking through traffic during working hours.”
Belaj said an extensive project of this kind typically could take up to five months, but the contractor has pushed the work forward so well that the street should be open by mid-July. The first step was replacement of water lines that dated to the 1920s and 1930s.
“It was very old cast iron pipe,” said Belaj. “It caused water discoloration but nothing like lead contamination.”
The Public Works Department replaced the eight-inch water line with 12-inch PVC pipe, making way for the most visible improvements—sidewalks, curbing and the new pavement to come from US 281 to Avenue D.
“We are trying something different—meandering sidewalks—because the right-of-way allows it,” said Belaj. “They have more of a trail feeling, going around trees and power poles. We hope more people will use them.”
New sidewalks were installed further south around the Marble Falls/Lake LBJ Chamber of Commerce, but these will be the first in the old hilltop neighborhood.
Mormon Mill/Mission Hills
City of Marble Falls, on levels from citizens to committees to staff and law enforcement, have struggled with clogged traffic and safety concerns at the interchange between Mission Hills Drive and Mormon Mill Road at US 281. Proposed solutions for new lanes and Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) involvement ranged over a million dollars and a time frame of two-five years.
“One of the least costly is underway,” said Belaj. “We are restriping and replacing signs at the intersection to eliminate points of conflict for smoother traffic and less likelihood of accidents.”
That may confound some of the motorists shrewdest at sniffing out the shortest route between two points, but the whole idea is to eliminate confusion and protect other motorists from those creative maneuvers.
There is too much going on in a short distance for a driver to make a decision, so we are eliminating some of the decision points,” Belaj explained. “We worked with Walgreens to partially reduce one of their entrances. There will be two exit points instead of three. They have been very good to work with.”
New delineators, raised plastic markers, prevent cross traffic from Mormon Mill Road into the drug store. Traffic can now exit only from US 281 or further east on the Home Depot Drive.
Delineators have been installed also on Mormon Mill Road. They are designed to prevent northbound traffic entering the Exxon gas station and the Arby's sandwich shop, leaving access free to southbound traffic and US 281.
New roadside signs and pavement markings alert drivers to upcoming choices and more specialty signs are being fabricated.
On the Mission Hills approach to US 281, a lane assignment has changed.
“We will have a right turn only lane from Mission Hills to US 281,” said Belaj. “It is a little confusing that Mission Hills Drive continues across the highway.”
Mormon Mill Road does not begin until the intersection on the east side of the highway across from Walgreens. Also, drivers sometimes think of the driveway into Home Depot as a continuation of Mission Hills and traffic from short cut seekers has been another problem city planners have been considering.
“The city engaged a civil engineering firm to identify issues and remediation,” the city engineer continued. “This project costs only about $10,000. Some other things will be considered in upcoming budget; perhaps introducing curbing and installing an extra lane on Mormon Mill Road for a short distance. But that is a big enough project to be considered on the budget.”
