On November 5, Lubbock citizens are expected to vote on a new road bond with a price tag of possibly $163 million – but that number may change.
What will be on it?
That’s not known until a committee makes final recommendations expected next month.
But City Manager Jarrett Atkinson recommends looking at a list of 11 leftovers from a $200 million road bond approved two years ago:
- Three portions of Broadway.
- Three more portions of 146th Street.
- Two areas of 34th Street.
- One area each of 19th, University and Erskine.
The committee doesn’t have to pick those. It’s free to add or subtract. Here’s that list:
Click here to see a brief recap of the 2022 election and recommendations for the 2024 election.
How we got here
After voters approved the $200 million road bond in 2022, there were projects totaling nearly $130 million not making the list.
That left a lot of road plans – well – by the side of the road.
Higher costs have increased that $130 million by nearly 27 percent to $163 million, which may be the number Lubbock residents vote on in November’s election.
When we do stories on road projects, there are often comments on our Facebook page wanting to know why one road is being done and not another. Along with the upcoming bond, this story will discuss the process of deciding where and when road work is done.
The two biggest sources of local road funding are federal dollars organized by the Lubbock Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) and city dollars – often authorized in bond elections.
We’ll examine projects in both. Our focus in this story is road work in the city of Lubbock not being done by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) – like 19th Street between Avenue Q and Interstate 27.
The crystal ball
It takes a while to get funding, so the city tries to guess in advance where major roadways are needed.
“We’ve got to be looking at things that are seven to 10 years out potentially – and trying to look into our crystal ball and anticipate where we think development is heading,” said Mike Keenum, city engineer.
Upland Avenue between 66th and 82nd Streets, is an example, he said.
“We had that on the list like 10 years prior and it’s just now coming to fruition,” Keenum said.
“Development moves faster than we can. … Our crystal balls aren’t always quite as clear as we would like them to be,” he said.
Another example, Keenum said, was 146th Street – now a priority when it hadn’t been in the past.
“Development has occurred on the south side of town that wasn’t on our radar five years ago,” he said.
“We’ve got a list of all the roads in the City of Lubbock – and which ones do we think need to go first? There’s a lot of art to that,” Keenum said.
David Jones, MPO’s executive director, said his organization is required to forecast out to the year 2050. The MPO includes the city, county, Wolfforth and a few other local agencies – only making the forecast more complicated.
Some of it is about traffic congestion. Some, driven by federal goals of reducing deadly crashes.
“TxDOT, on the other hand, has their vision set on zero fatalities by the year 2050,” Jones said.
But traffic planners and engineers are not the only ones with a say.
Keenum said, “As an engineer, I can say, ‘I need this street now.’ Well, that might not be what the priority of somebody else is.”
Wish list and constrained list
Jones said federal law requires MPO’s master plan development process to create two lists of projects.
There’s a list with money set aside. It’s called the constrained list because money’s already been budgeted for the projects.
There’s also an illustrative list – a wish list.
“Anything you can wish for falls into that so-called illustrative list,” Jones said. “It’s not constrained by a dollar value or construction technique or anything. It’s just a list of projects that for some reason you want to do.”
The most recent constrained list was approved in October.
It includes 114th Street between Quaker Avenue and Indiana Avenue along with multiple sections of Woodrow Road (already started), multiple sections of Upland Avenue and several sections of Loop 88 – the “outer Loop” replacing 130th Street/FM1585 in some places.
- Click here to see the constrained list.
- Click here to see the illustrative list.
Your thoughts
Until Thursday (July 18), the MPO is collecting public comments for two of its planning documents. One looks forward to the year 2050. The other covers from 2025 through 2028. Click here to fill out a survey.
An update on the 2022 bond
In late June, Atkinson told the City Council the 2022 bond projects are on schedule.
“Your 98th Street project –Alcove to Upland – is under construction as we speak right now,” Atkinson said.
Two projects along 34th Street are just about finished, he said.
“146th Street – Quaker to Indiana – Council has recently awarded the construction contract for that project,” Atkinson said.
Projects in the Dunbar Manhattan Heights area are also moving along, he said.
On project missing from the list is Quaker Avenue from 146th Street to Woodrow Road.
Atkinson said, “We have pulled it off simply because you are now in a developer’s agreement to have that roadway constructed.”
TxDOT updates
LubbockLights.com contacted TxDOT this week to get an update on Avenue Q north of 19th Street or 19th Street between Avenue Q and Interstate 27. You can find that update here.
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