MCLENNAN COUNTY, Texas — More than 20,000 cars driving down Franklin Avenue every day, and it's more than likely that there's a good chance you've had to sit in traffic. But TxDOT and the Waco MPO have plans to minimize time spent at the traffic light, making the street a little safer.
- New $45 million overpass planned for Franklin Avenue and New Road intersection to ease traffic congestion for 20,000+ daily drivers.
- Road improvements include: Widening Franklin Avenue (Spur 298) and feeder roads, plus closing intersections crossing between Franklin to improve traffic flow.
- Construction timeline: Bidding process begins end of 2025, with construction estimated to take 2 years once contractor is selected.
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BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
An overpass at the corner of Franklin Avenue and New Road is exactly what the Waco Metropolitan Planning Organization and TxDOT are going to do within the next three years.
"Once it's completed it's going to be an easier flow of traffic, that frustration I have waiting at this light, it's going to be gone," Waco resident Charlie Buck said.
Right now drivers on Franklin Avenue are dealing with heavy traffic flow during rush hour.
"Driving down this road and hitting 5 o'clock rush hour and having to wait here for 10 minutes, maybe them putting in a bridge and overpass would help that," Buck said.
The Waco Metropolitan Planning Organization is noticing significant growth pressure on that side of the county, and officials are certain this project will be quite helpful in moving quite a bit of traffic from the high growth area to the center of the city.
The plans show Spur 298, also known as Franklin Avenue, will be widened. The feeder roads on the side are also getting wider. The planned overpass will span the intersection.
Those intersections crossing in between Franklin will be closed off, which could help alleviate the dangers Brian Schroeder, owner of Waco Motor Sports, sees on a regular basis.
"Hopefully that will prevent a lot of accidents that we see here, there's typically one good accident where the ambulance is called at least once a month here, and it resolves into a fatality as well," Schroeder said.
While Schroeder isn't looking forward to the construction that will impact his business's visibility, he is looking forward to the final product.
"The congestion is thick during certain time of the day early in the day between 8 and 9 then again between 5 and 7 it does get a little bit thick here, so we hope that flow of the bridge will increase the movement there," Schroeder said.
The original estimate was $36.5 million, but since construction costs across the country from labor to material are going up, we're now looking at a project that costs nearly $45 million. That money is coming from the Waco MPO fund with state and federal dollars.
As for a timeline, right now they're looking at the end of next year for the bidding process in looking for that contractor. Once that happens, construction is estimated to take two years.
The Waco MPO explained much of the construction we see around Waco is overdue. Kumar said the majority of our roads were constructed 25 to 30 years ago and now they need to be up to design standards for safe travel.
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