by MOSES LEOS III
After a four year planning process, the Safe Routes to School Project is a near reality within Buda. The goal: to provide area school children easier access to sidewalks for a safer route to and from school.
The process for the Safe Routes to School project began in 2009, with the city submitting an application for funding to the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) in November of that year. Once TxDOT approved the application, the city “entered into an Advanced Funding Agreement in September 2010,” said Stanley Fees, Buda City Engineer in an emailed response. Once that was completed, the search for an engineering firm was cast, with KSA Engineers selected as the group to design the project. Once design and surveying was completed along the proposed areas where sidewalks would be placed, final design was submitted to TxDOT, who approved the project to be bid for in January 2013.
On March 19, Qro-Mex was awarded the bid to build the contract for $458,261.50, below the budgeted $500,000 dollars set by the city and TxDOT. The last phase of the process prior to construction was for the city to have its final contract to be approved, in order to receive a “Notice to Proceed” with construction. On April 18, the contract was approved, with Buda hoping to receive a notice to proceed within the next week, with the contract starting with in a ten-day period from that date.
The project will build sidewalks where there are currently none, with Buda, Elm Grove and Tom Green Elementary and Dahlstrom Middle School receiving new sidewalks for students to walk on.
“These new sidewalks will provide an avenue along which students will be able to walk to school and have a physical separation from vehicles,” said Fees. “Currently students are forced to either walk along the edge of the street or sometimes in the ditch along the side of the street.”
Two cases where the Safe Routes to School project will provide immediate assistance will be at Dahlstrom Middle School and Elm Grove Elementary. According to Fees, the project will connect existing sidewalks to provide a complete walkway to the schools, giving students who walk to school a buffer from the increased traffic along FM 1626.
Students who walk to Elm Grove Elementary from the Whispering Hollow subdivision are often forced to walk across a large field to get to school. When rain hits the area, students are less likely to trudge through the muddy field, deciding to walk along the side of FM 967, another road that has seen an increase in traffic.
With the Safe Routes project, the new sidewalks will connect to existing walkways near the entrance of the subdivision, giving students easier and safer access to school.
In the city proper, construction of new sidewalks will begin at the intersection of Main and San Antonio Streets. The sidewalk will extend down San Antonio, south onto San Marcos, west on to Elm, south along Bluff, then east along Ash. This sidewalk will give students safer access to Buda Elementary, with Fees saying, “there are just no sidewalks in Old town.”
In addition, the project calls for a pedestrian bridge to be built, “across Garlic Creek from the Garlic Creek Subdivision to the Elm Grove Subdivision and connect to the sidewalks in both subdivisions,” said Fees.
The construction process will take approximately 120 days from contract start time, with Fees saying that construction will not be obtrusive to traffic within those areas.
The Safe Route to School is a national effort that was established in 2006. According to their website, www.saferoutesinfo.org. This initiative is aided by parents, schools, community leaders and local, state and federal governments to “improve the health and well-being of children by enabling and encouraging them to walk and bicycle to school.”
