PATIENCE ASKED FOR ON HIGHWAY 36 CONSTRUCTION
TXDOT is asking Brenham residence and travelers through Brenham on Highway 36 to be patient with their demolition of a highway overpass and the construction of a new intersection in that area.
Bob Colwell with the Texas Department of Transportation (TXDOT) said that once the debris is cleaned up, it will begin work on a new and improved intersection. The cost is to be an estimated $3.6 million dollars.
Road crews demolished the overpass at Highway 36 and Business 36 just north of Brenham Wednesday, and spent Thursday breaking apart what was left.
The original interchange was built in 1964, and Colwell said it didn’t allow drivers to easily access Highway 36 from Business 36. Colwell says that driving conditions have changed a lot since the original overpass was built, and that, “we had no idea we’d have as much traffic as we do now through that area.”
The new intersection will come with a traffic signal that will allow drivers to turn in any direction without making a u-turn.
Colwell says the project should be finished by the summer of 2015
The real reason why they are doing this is too accommodate the new loop that will be built around Brenham…. go to the city of Brenham website and look at the envision program 2020.
cityofbrenham.org/admin/documents/Envision2020.pdf.
You will know who benefits as soon as the first gas station/convenience store goes in. Then find out who owns it and then who they know in county government. In years to come when TXDOT determines a light was the wrong way to go they will purchase the land back at a huge profit to the owner who built his store there. You know lost revenue etc. !
As taxpayers we must ask why was this done? Who benefited the most from this shortened route to the south of town? And the resources and connection to get it their way? And the first fatality at this intersection should be placed on that doorstep.
Most of the accidents were not caused by people making the uturn to go back south, it was caused by people not watching when they came merged with the traffic from town. I did the uturn hundreds of times, and never once came close to being hit. I too think they could have come up with a better idea than another traffic light!
When the first person dies as the result of an accident at TXDOT’s temporary intersection….how much patience should their family have? FM 577 (Blue Bell Road) was extended to the Highway 36 Loop for easier access to both Highway 36 South and North, along with US Highway 290. A right turn out of Hohlt Park, and a left turn out of Scenic Estates, gets you to Blue Bell Road very easily. But TXDOT didn’t see the need for highway signage to direct people to the safer route, so they continued making illegal u-turns. Now we have an extremely dangerous temporary intersection for the next 9 months or so….before we transition to a dangerous permanent intersection.
I keep hearing that the main reason for journey back in time from overpass to stop light is the people who kept doing u-turns when coming out of town to get back south. Would it have cost an estimated $3.6 million to put up a concrete barrier between the lanes, so u-turns couldn’t happen? Though, I’m sure it still would have taken till summer of 2015 to complete a concrete wall…………….