2005-01-24 Regular Meeting and Workshop Meeting of the La Porte City Council minutes

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* I Texas Department of Transportation P.O. BOX 1386. HOUSTON, TEXAS 77251.1386. (713) 802-5000 January 21, 2005 CONTACT: TRF ENG Safe Routes to School BS 146D & Spur 501 CSJ 0912-71-867 Harris County Mr. John Joems Assistant City Manager City of La Porte 604 West Fairmont Parkway La Porte, Texas 77571 Dear Mr. Joems: We wanted to provide a status of the proposed Safe Routes to Schools project, to be constructed on Business 1460 and Spur 501, from Fairfield Street to Fairmont Parkway. We also are requesting your written concurrence with design modifications to eliminate the pedestrian bridge as discussed in our October 8, 2004 meeting. We have completed the design plans and submitted them to Austin for review and inclusion in the March 2005 construction bid letting. Under this schedule, we anticipate construction would begin this summer. The proposal we received in 2002 from the City of Laporte included a separate pedestrian bridge over Little Cedar Bayou. During the design process (performed this past year), we identified the need to re-evaluate the placement of the bridge, due to the following factors: 1) The placement of the bridge could potentially impact the upper banks of Cedar Bayou. At a minimum this would have required additional environmental study, and would have delayed the project several months. If the area around Cedar Bayou was impacted, potential mitigation would result, and could have resulted in more longer delays. 2) There are future projects (CSJ 0389-15-006 & CSJ 0389-15-014) which widen this section of roadway. If a pedestrian bridge was installed, it would potentially conflict with the future roadwork and/or existing utilities, and would result in future additional costs and delays. 3) The existing Little Cedar Bayou bridge has a separated, raised crossing, which could serve pedestrian traffic as an interim measure. An Equal Opportunity Employer