KILLEEN, Texas — A multi-million-dollar project to upgrade one of the worst streets in Killeen is set to begin in the coming months.
The city hopes to begin the reconstruction of Gilmer Street after the holidays.
Business owners on Gilmer say it couldn’t come soon enough.
Ausaf Khan has owned the Angel Food Mart on Gilmer Street for more than a decade — his store stays pretty busy during the day.
”There’s a lot of flow of people,” Khan said.
“A lot of traffic especially, during the rush hours when the road gets busy.”
Business drops off when the sun goes down.
”There is hardly any traffic in the streets, and you barely see any people,” Khan said.
“People are scared to come out of their houses because of the dark."
Crime rates go up after dark in Killeen, and his store has been hit several times — he even had to replace the entire front of his store back in July.
”On the 10th of July, somebody backed up into the building,” Khan said.
“They knocked down the whole front of the store, and that cost me a lot of damage and a lot of problems.”
This is one of the many issues the city hopes to fix when they finish a $4 million project to reconstruct Gilmer Street.
”We are going to be narrowing the lanes a little bit,” said Killeen City Engineer, Andrew Zagars.
“It's going to be a little narrower when we're done, but we’re adding sidewalks, and adding street trees for the whole length between Rancier and Veterans Memorial Boulevard.”
They're also working with the railroad to improve the crossing, and will be putting more streetlights in.
This is news that Khan is happy to hear.
”Once the street is laid and the road is better, there will be more traffic, and it will definitely help the business,” Khan said.
The city says they are presenting the contractor to the council for approval next week and hope to have the project in full swing by January.
