The firm works as an engineering consultant to Belton.
Central Avenue is the major thoroughfare from Interstate 35 into the central business district and is the first impression visitors get of the city when they leave the interstate, City Manager Sam Listi said.
Improvements for the 3,800-foot-long stretch of roadway will include underground utilities, new paving, sidewalks, brick pavers at intersections, vintage street lamps on corners, uniform driveway entrances to businesses and a landscaped median down the center of the avenue.
Storm water drainage also will be improved by the project, Listi said.
Additionally, a street will be built one block south of Central Avenue along the banks of and parallel to Nolan Creek. It will link Water Street to Spring Street to improve traffic circulation, Listi said.
The council approved the conceptual plan at its April 8 meeting and gave the green light for the engineers to begin the first design phase after property owners were contacted. Estimated total cost is pegged at $1.5 million.
Listi said Central Avenue is one of three gateways to Belton from the interstate and the only one that takes visitors directly into the downtown. He said city officials met with the property owners June 2 to inform them about the project, and answer their questions and concerns.
“We will meet with them again during the design process to formulate the best locations for driveways into their businesses,” Listi said.
Sutton said driveways are placed sporadically - some too wide, some too narrow and others in the wrong place.
Signage along Central is currently inconsistent with the corridor look since it uses a gaggle of pole signs and other types. Business owners are not required to remove their current signs since they are grandfathered under the sign ordinance passed by the city council in May. But they have the option of erecting the monument-style sign the city adopted for uniformity, Listi said.
“At least one or two places said they would take their sign down and go with a new sign as part of the project,” Listi said. “The city is making an investment in the street. So if they will dress up their businesses it will simply attract more visitors to their district.”
Sutton said the first design element is relocating dry utilities - electric and telephone. After taking down utility poles, the phone and electric will go underground, he said. That will require coordination with TXU and AT&T.
The next item is sidewalks, he said.
Sutton said use of brick pavers along the sidewalks would be intermittent, such as at intersections, to match the look of the downtown between Penelope and Main Streets around the courthouse.
Sutton said the roadway has been overlaid so many times the curbs are only three inches high in some areas. The street will have to be milled out to its original concrete paving and then overlaid with new asphalt, he said.
Medians with curbs will be built down the middle of the street where the turn lane is now. It will be landscaped with a variety of shrubs and small trees such as crepe myrtle, Sutton said. A left–turn lane will be built at each of the cross streets.
Listi said that as part of the package a monument sign will go up at the Sixth Avenue exit on Interstate 35 southbound by coordinating with the Texas Department of Transportation. It will alert motorists that Central Avenue is the gateway corridor into downtown.
Sutton said signage on Interstate 35 northbound announcing the entrance to historic downtown Belton would have to be negotiated with TxDOT.
“Establishing a gateway will give us a chance to display the character of the community,” Listi said.
He said many improvements were made in the central business district in and around the Bell County Courthouse several years ago such as the antique lamps, brick pavers and landscaping. The gateway would extend those improvements all the way to the interstate.
“We want it to have a sense of place,” Listi said. “It will encourage people to get off the interstate and into our downtown area.”
Sutton said final design work should be complete during 2008 and a request for bids advertised. The council would vote on each major item for final approval.
Construction could begin in early 2009.
