City of Marble Falls to tackle Avenue G traffic concerns
Steven Goad/Special to The Highlander
Marble Falls city officials are working on a solution to concerns about heavy truck traffic in a residential neighborhood. One resident captured images of 18-wheelers using the street where he lives, Avenue G, as a cut-through route.
By Connie Swinney
Staff Writer
Marble Falls city officials addressed traffic issue concerns April 2 from an Avenue G resident, who expressed that he and his neighbors faced a safety risk and diminishing quality of life due to growing large truck and cut-through traffic in the neighborhood.
City Manager Mike Hodge and Police Chief Mark Whitacre updated the council about their recent research and preliminary findings in their conversations with and data collection of Avenue G, where concerned resident Steven Goad resides.
“We met with Mr. Goad and talked with him about the issues that were going on,” Hodge said. “He's got a lot of good ideas.
Goad told council members during a March 6 regular council meeting that the amount of large trucks and cut-through traffic has spiked in the past decade due to a number of adjacent businesses such as Home Depot, Walgreens and Office Depot.
City officials reviewed data provided by Goad including video and photo images of traffic the street.
“He's right, there's several contractor-style trucks that have at least 16-ft. long trailers. They make a lot of noise when they're on the block,” Hodge said. “There were five or six semi-trailers, if you look at the video clips he provided, that shouldn't have been there.
“That caught my attention when we started looking at this.”
During discussions with Goad, Hodge gathered ideas about possible solutions.
“I think there are a lot of things that we had not talked about before, possibly put into effect,” Hodge said.
However, he worked to convince Goad that a “speed bump or hump” suggestion may not provide desired results.
“We just don't do that. We have some in the city over in Johnson Park,” he said. “(For neighborhoods) they're not as effective as people might think, and in the long-run, we're asked to take them out.”
Council member Dee Haddock said he noticed a radar device recently in the neighborhood.
“That's showing an effort,” Haddock said. “In that way, it's a data-driven decision.” . . .
Find the rest of the story in the Friday, April 5 issue of The Highlander, the newspaper of record for the Highland Lakes. To offer a comment or news tip, email connie@highlandernews.com or lew@highlandernews.com.
