Plans for north-south route drive debate

Plans for north-south route drive debate

Written by Christi Covington Friday, 07 December 2007

City declares need for Wyoming Springs expansion to alleviate traffic while residents question road’s safety

For the five miles between IH 35 and Toll 45, RM 620 has no major outlet for northbound traffic and all the drivers who live beyond Brushy Creek.

That is why the City of Round Rock says it must expand Wyoming Springs Drive and connect it with Creek Bend Boulevard.

However, many residents in the surrounding neighborhoods of Oak Creek, Fern Bluff, Oaklands and Stone Canyon call the project a death trap for small children, a destroyer of property value and an ill-conceived push to ease congestion.

“I understand we all want convenience, but my daughter is worth more than convenience,” said James Cunningham, who leads the safety committee for Citizens for Responsible Growth, a group formed this fall to fight the project.

Funding became available in November so that by 2010, Wyoming Springs Drive, which connects to state road RM 620, is planned to go from a two-lane to a four-lane major arterial. For now, it will still end at Brightwater Boulevard, but an extension of Creek Bend Boulevard will connect the corridor to the busy Sam Bass Road and FM 3406.

C4RG’s main concern is the back of Fern Bluff Elementary abuts the road.

“Kids are walking to the school. Some are even walking alone,” said Gina Warrington, Keller Williams Realtor and area resident. “This is a nice, quiet neighborhood with deer grazing in the evening. I feel perfectly safe here.”

Neighborhood protest

In October and November, Warrington, along with hundreds of other residents appeared at city council meetings with children bearing signs that read, “We love Fern Bluff” and “Cars plus children equals death.”

While noting that other schools are located on similar arterials, the city has offered alternative solutions, such as adding tunnels under Wyoming Springs.

Public works director Tom Word notes this project is the policy of the council because the members adopted the project into the Round Rock Transportation Master Plan almost a decade ago in 1998 and updated it in 2004. Revisions were added in 2006 and in November. He describes the project as absolutely necessary because if more north-south traffic could get off RM 620 sooner, it would ultimately alleviate congestion, he said.

“I would agree if we lived in a perfect world that we would not put an elementary on an arterial,” he said. “That is just not where we are.”

On the books

In 1999, the city sent hundreds of transportation maps to area realtors and ran around 12,000 brochures in a local newspaper. However, Word acknowledges that most residents living in Round Rock moved to the city in the last five years and probably have not seen the plan.

Several of the leaders of C4RG did come to Round Rock within the last five to seven years, including Patrick Savarese, but he believes this is not just about moving residential traffic. St. David’s Round Rock Medical Center also sits on Wyoming Springs.

“I think people at the Round Rock hospital have lost incoming patients with the new [hospitals] that are opening, and this road would help them,” he said.

That is not the case, according to Word. The plans have been around approximately 20 years, even before the hospital. An old city map shows a future arterial running across the area where Wyoming Springs is today.

“[St. David’s] obviously exists down there,” Word said. “It’s not the primary issue. It could certainly benefit from the road being in place. Round Rock High School will benefit—but that’s not the reason it is being built.”

Early plans

The actual right-of-way for Wyoming Springs was acquired during the platting process, where the developer outlined the streets, drainage and lots. That is why none of the homes face the street. Before building began, the plan was approved by the planning and zoning commission and then recorded in the county courthouse.

This record is the dedication by the property owner that the physical development will represent what was presented in plans to the city, according to Word.

Initially, the road was going to be a six-lane arterial, but when Fern Bluff residents protested, the city took away two lanes in 1999 with the understanding that another road would be built at RM 620 from Deepwood Drive north to Sam Bass Road and south to Toll 45.

This alternative road, known as Arterial C, could not substitute for Wyoming Springs because it would relieve less traffic with its proximity to IH 35 and also funnel vehicles farther away from most of the northern neighborhoods, Word said.

Word said another problem is it would feed into Deepwood Drive and the Round Rock West neighborhood. While no homes face Wyoming Springs, many do on Deepwood, causing concern for children who play in the front yard and cars pulling out of garages.

Money in hand

In 2001, voters passed a bond election that included the funding for the Creek Bend project, but it was not until this last August that the money was issued making financing available this fall.

Then Nov. 8, Williamson County Commissioners Court and the city council both signed an agreement for joint funding. The county became involved because part of Wyoming Springs lies in its jurisdiction as opposed to the city’s, while the land where Creek Bend will be extended will be annexed into Round Rock.

According to the agreement, the county will give $3 million and another $3.4 million will come from Round Rock. With help from federal monies, the city will fund the Creek Bend extension at a cost of around $6.7 million. The agreement requires Wyoming Springs be expanded before the Creek Bend extension funnels cars through the area.

“The city is going to do this project, so I think it is important that we get Wyoming Springs ready with traffic improvements,” said Lisa Birkman, Williamson County precinct one commissioner.

If the city extended Creek Bend without an expansion of Wyoming Springs, then it would hurt the neighborhood even more, Birkman said.

Congestion concerns

However, residents also want to know where the southbound traffic will go once it hits RM 620, a road already known for its heavy congestion. A study from 2005 showed more than 40,000 vehicles travel the corridor each day, according to the Texas Department of Transportation.

The city does not have authority to fix RM 620 because it belongs to the state, Word said. While no plans are definite, TxDOT is conducting a study of the road.

Word said traffic on RM 620 has decreased by 20 percent since Toll 45 opened last year, but also admits the Wyoming Springs/Creek Bend project might increase congestion, at least temporarily.

“There are lots of extra trips,” he said. “Early on there might be more traffic to 620 that might not be there now, but it will balance out. People won’t have to go the whole way around [to almost IH 35] to get home.”

Meanwhile, the city has every intention of continuing. The Wyoming Springs project will take six to seven months of consultant work. Meetings with stakeholders will continue until next October. Construction will begin in March 2009 and will be completed in 2010.

Traffic patterns

Wyoming Springs Expansion/ Creek Bend Extension

For more information about the Round Rock Transportation Master Plan, visit www.roundrocktexas.gov.

Wyoming Springs expansion

• Four-lane expansion
• Cost: $6.4 million
• Completion: 2010
• City of Round Rock & Williamson County project

Creek Bend extension

• Future four-lane road
• Cost: $6.7 million
• Completion: 2010
• City of Round Rock Project

Texas Department of Transportation which has jurisdiction over RM 620, is conducting a study for road improvement that will continue through next year.

Option1: Improvements between Toll 45 and IH 35 on the existing route, with bridges at all major crossings. Possibly widen to six lanes with a raised median from Toll 45 to Deepwood Drive and a bridge for the Georgetown Railroad crossing.

Option2: Improvements between Toll 45 and Deepwood Drive, with a new road section connecting RM 620 to Hwy. 79 at IH 35. Leave the existing portion of RM 620 between Deepwood Drive and IH 35 in its current condition.

Known as Arterial C, this future road was added to the city’s transportation plan in 1999 as a compromise, so Wyoming Springs Drive could go from a six-lane corridor to four lanes.

Want to learn more about RM 620 projects? Read our October issue online at www.impactnews.com.

******************************************