TxDot’s Pedestrian Landscaping Plan on Travis St. Getting Pushback

The La Grange City Council heard an update on the Travis Street sidewalk improvement project from the Texas Department of Transportation at a meeting Monday night, Feb. 13.

Jeff Vinklarek, director of transportation planning and development for TxDOT’s Yoakum district, and John Paul Clark, TxDOT design engineer, presented the agency’s 60-percent plans for pedestrian improvements along Travis St. near the courthouse.

Back when the City began discussing the improvements with TxDOT in 2021, the plans called for a median with landscaping to divide the lanes of traffic on Travis Street. That part of the plan has been scrapped.

The plans now call for installing planter boxes that will replace the sidewalk on the north side of Travis St. Vinklarek said the planter boxes will “funnel” pedestrian traffic to the crosswalks at the Washington St. and Main St. intersections. The design is intended to prevent jaywalking between the courthouse and the businesses along Travis St.

Plans also call for a sidewalk on the north side of the planter boxes. In order to fit the sidewalk and planter boxes into the space, TxDOT plans to switch from angle parking to parallel parking on the south side of the courthouse. That will result in the loss of eight of the 18 parking spaces.

Councilman Dusty Littrell told the Record on Wednesday that after the meeting, he spoke with owners and employees of the businesses on the block of Travis St. south of the Courthouse. He said they were all opposed to losing eight parking spaces in the courthouse parking lot. He said the parking spaces are vitally important on busy days at the courthouse, when many people walk across the street for lunch.

Moreover, instead of the planter boxes to prevent jaywalking, Littrell said the businesses would prefer a crosswalk in the middle of the block between Washington and Main St.

At the meeting on Monday, Littrell asked Police Chief David Gilbreath for data on accidents on Travis St. near the courthouse. Gilbreath said there have been seven wrecks in the past three years in that area. None of them involved pedestrians, he said.

“As long as I’ve been here, there hasn’t been one,” Gilbreath said. “The last pedestrian accident was at H-E-B.”

“So we’re having pedestrians jaywalking, but we haven’t had any accidents,” Littrell said. “There hasn’t been any problem.”

“Just because something doesn’t happen doesn’t mean it’s not a problem or won’t be a problem,” said Councilwoman Kathy Weishuhn.

“At some point its going to happen,” she added.

Littrell also raised concerns about vehicles turning into or out of the wrong lanes on Washington St. He asked TxDOT to paint arrows on the traffic lanes to direct drivers into the correct lane.

TxDOT budgeted $880,500 for the project, to be paid for by the State. Any costs above that amount will be paid for by the City, Vinklarek said. Bids for the project will be submitted in June. Vinklarek said he anticipates construction to begin late this year or early next year.

“We are trying to finalize this thing, but we are a little bit behind,” Vinklarek said. “We’ve got about two weeks to wrap this up. Any feedback you’ve got, please get it to us very quickly.”