City of Kyle provides updates on ongoing projects

KYLE — There have been a number of propositions on the ballot over the past six years aiming to benefit the residents of Kyle, including a railroad infrastructure improvement, park and road improvements and the construction of the Public Safety Center.

The city of Kyle provided the following information to update residents on ongoing projects stemming from propositions on the ballot in 2016, 2020 and 2022.

Consolidated Rail Infrastructure Safety Improvements (CRISI) Program (2016)

On Nov. 8, 2016, residents of Kyle voted to approve the Consolidated Rail Infrastructure Safety Improvements (CRISI) project, which aims to improve the safety, efficiency and reliability of intercity passenger and freight rail.

The project is part of the 2016 Road Bond program. In spring 2018, the project was selected to be awarded funds after the city submitted a Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO) grant application.

FILE PHOTO
Railroad siding is a track to the side of the main line that allows trains to pass and the uploading and offloading of stock. The project will relocate the existing rail siding.[/caption]

Railroad siding is a track to the side of the main line that allows trains to pass and the uploading and offloading of stock. The project will relocate the existing rail siding that currently overlaps South Street and Center Street (FM 150) and move it north between Burleson Street to north of Kohlers Crossing. Per Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR) requirements, the siding will be approximately 1.9 miles in length.

The proposed location was chosen to avoid impacting existing at-grade roadway crossings and to take advantage of the existing grade separation at FM 1626.

Additionally, the existing Union Pacific right-of-way (ROW) for a majority of the area is 100 feet wide, which minimizes ROW acquisition needs.

“The siding design is being done by UPRR’s consultant and is approximately 90% complete. Right of way acquisition has not begun,” said Leon Barba, city engineer. “The new siding location will extend past Kohlers Crossing and this triggers the need for an overpass over Kohlers Crossing since we don’t want to move the current problem from Center Street to Kohlers Crossing. The Kohlers Crossing overpass is approximately 30% complete.”

According to Barba, Hays County is taking the lead on the overpass project.

“The city initiated the project and the county agreed to help take over the project,” he said. “The city applied for the grant to help pay for the bridge construction through the Railroad Crossing Elimination program. We just found out today [June 5] we were not selected. If we had been successful, we could have completed the design and started construction sooner than later. Now, we will need to wait for the CAMPO call for projects to get funding for the overpass.”

Public Safety Center (2020)

On Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020, a majority — 55.49% — of Kyle voters passed Proposition A, the city’s bond proposal for a Public Safety Center. Funding from the passed bond financed the design, construction and equipping of the new Public Safety Center.

The Public Safety Center will also allow the police department to expand its services with dedicated space to:

• Improve emergency response times;

• Accommodate victims or residents experiencing trauma as a result of crime;

• Create an investigations suite and canine unit;

• Manage evidence processing and storage;

• Increase officer training and pursue accreditation; and,

• Expand community-based programs and mental health services.

The Public Safety Center will also provide the city with an opportunity to create an Emergency Operations Center (EOC). An EOC will establish a central command center and allow for collaboration with surrounding counties and authorities during critical times. Emergencies often addressed in an EOC include, but are not limited to, weather-related natural disasters, community-wide security threats, such as school shootings or hostage situations, major traffic accidents, such as those that occur on I-35 or even pandemics like COVID-19.

Finally, with room for the Kyle Police Department to grow over the next 20 years and beyond, the Public Safety Center will also provide immediate, temporary space for ancillary public safety functions, including communications, IT and city administration, until the police department requires the full building.

With construction nearing completion, the city of Kyle will host a ribbon-cutting celebration of the new Public Safety Center on July 20.

“We are very appreciative and excited to serve the community from a new, state of the art facility that will enhance our services and provide space for greater community collaboration,” said KPD Chief Jeff Barnett.

Park Improvements (2020)

On Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020, 56.23% of Hays County voters and 56.08% of Kyle residents voted to approve Proposition B — which would appropriate $10 million for the designing of parks throughout the city.

Currently, the splashpad designs have been approved and the city is waiting on construction to begin, while the skatepark and Plum Creek Trail System is set to begin planning soon, according to city of Kyle Mayor Travis Mitchell. Other improvements to Gregg-Clark Park include irrigation to ball fields and soccer field, new scoreboard and flooring in Ash Pavilion, new restrooms and ball field improvements.

The Plum Creek Trail System, which is in East Kyle, from Waterleaf to Lake Kyle, involves the already existing trail and adding developmental updates such as interpretive signage, benches and trash cans. The project is funded jointly with Hays County, with the county providing $2 million and the city providing $2 million.

Along with the trail system, there is the planning of the Kyle Regional Sportsplex — tournament size sports fields, picnic areas, pavilion, playground and sand volleyball courts — which has a total funding of $14 million split between the city and county.

“The sportsplex has not even started design and the reason is, number one, we had to wait more than a year in order to get the county’s match because they wanted to allow for some of the other jurisdictions to go out to bond, so that they could do the same thing,” said Mitchell.

The land underneath is being conveyed to the city as a part of the retail roads agreement — a stacking of funding mechanisms and contracts with developers that ultimately lead to construction of a road and conveying its land — in addition to funding for the park.

The park improvements bond passed in 2020, but required a retail roads agreement, which Kyle City Council voted to approve, in addition to a bond issuance and authorization of a bond sale, during its meeting on May 16, 2023.

“For years, I’ve been working on the sportsplex, but you’ve got to stack everything up to get where you’ve got a piece of land that we own and funding to build the park. And you can’t design a park until these other agreements are in place,” Mitchell said.

Road Bond (2022)

In November 2022, city of Kyle voters approved Proposition A. The proposition, which totals $294.4 million, provides funding for critical transportation projects that will decrease congestion and improve overall safety and mobility in Kyle.

There are eight roadway projects across Kyle, totaling 10.3 total miles of new location, reconstruction and widening projects in order to improve the city’s transportation network.

These projects will provide additional capacity to support current and future traffic, strengthen connections between the east and west sides of Kyle and construct key segments of the Vybe trail system.

In the spring and summer of 2022, Kyle city staff and council carefully reviewed existing street conditions, listened to expert engineers and traffic modelers and looked at dozens of potential projects across the city. They also used data from the city’s 2022 Community Survey results, where citizens expressed interest in safety, mobility and maintenance of existing roads, to inform their recommendations.

Kyle City Council held two bond workshops that were open to the public and broadcast on the city’s website and Kyle TV. On Aug. 22, 2022, the city council voted to put Proposition A on the ballot for voters to decide. On Nov. 8, 2022, voters approved Proposition A.

In early March 2023, Kyle City Council approved a total of five task orders for engineering and design services for three projects, including Bunton Creek Road, Bebee Road and Kohlers Crossing to Seton.

On Tuesday, March 21, council members approved three additional task orders for engineering and design services for three of the bond projects, including Center Street (on-system), Windy Hill Road and the Kyle Parkway/Lehman Road Extension.

Mitchell said that the city learned many valuable lessons from its first road bond package passed by voters in 2013 and is working to roll out this program more efficiently.

“Here we are just a few months after the 2022 bond was approved and preliminary engineering has already been completed, allowing us to hit the ground running with design phases.” Mitchell said. “It just goes to show, we waited a year to take it to the voters so that we could thoroughly prepare this bond package and program and roll it out very intentionally and expeditiously.”

The city plans to keep citizens involved every step of the way. Plans for public meetings and online interactive opportunities, where Kyle residents can express their opinions about roadway design, are underway and updates about these projects will be on the city’s bond website, www.kylebonds.com, along with the city’s website and social media channels.

For more information about ongoing projects, visit .