Lewisville Gateway Project finally complete: Town to consider new traffic mitigation in neighborhoods in August meeting

LEWISVILLE — At last, Lewisville’s Williams Road Gateway Project is done. Well, almost.

“The only thing left is the lighting to be installed at the monument signs,” said Town Manager Stacy Tolbert, who was the planner when the project got started in the 2017-18 time frame and has since succeeded departed managers Hank Perkins and James Ayers at the ultimate conclusion.

“I am excited to see this project come to completion,” Tolbert said of the project, which consisted of the widening of Williams Road to accommodate bicycles, a planted median, street lighting and new monument signs.

Coming off the main exit from the U.S. 421 North interchange into Lewisville, local officials had long envisioned a dramatic entrance into the town. Perkins, who was town manager for 10 years, including those early days when plans were unveiled, offered his take at the time: “A lot of what we want to do in Lewisville is to create a very pedestrian feel, slow things down, be more rural in character, not a very urban developing area.”

It just took much longer to finish than expected. The project first encountered delays due to the pandemic in 2020 followed by getting no bidders to take it on — despite multiple advertisements — with the overall state of the economy and contractors being overwhelmed with work.

That stretched into two years ago in July 2022 when Tolbert, in her former role, said, “We still haven’t gotten any bids, but we’re still trying.”

After Branch Civil Inc. emerged as the general contractor, construction started last year before reaching the finish line.

Tolbert said that there have been a few bumps in the road at the end, but the public reaction has been positive to the final product.

“We have had some growing pains with the requirement to make only right-hand turns and use of the roundabouts, but overall we have gotten nice feedback from residents, especially about the signs,” she said.

The Gateway Project was brought up near the end of last Thursday night’s meeting along with a discussion initiated by council member Jane Welch, who expressed her frustration with not moving forward at a faster pace in dealing with traffic concerns in some neighborhoods in the town.

Mayor Mike Horn said that a revised ordinance regarding traffic calming will be on the agenda for the August briefing meeting. Tolbert provided more details.

“We have a current traffic mitigation policy in place that does not lend itself to actually solving problems,” she said. “We have found that residents get to a point in the process where they are unable to qualify for a remedy or the request gets dropped and no action is taken. The purpose of the traffic mitigation policy is to have a consistent process to follow when a neighborhood has a concern about speeding on town streets.

“We hope the new policy, coming before council for their consideration in August, will better engage residents, have a more technical approach to traffic mitigation decisions and ultimately result in safer streets for our community. We do not have specific impacted areas at this time but know there are many concerns out there of speeding in neighborhoods we hope to address in the near future.”

In other highlights from last Thursday night’s meeting, the council:

• Approved a resolution authorizing a contract with Grimes Engineering not to exceed $35,000 for the final design/permitting phase and contractor selection phase for the Lake Marblehead dam repairs.
• Heard that Gump Fiction, the Ultimate 90’s Experience band, will perform on Saturday from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Shallowford Square, followed by Chicago Rewired, a Chicago Tribute Band, on Saturday, Aug. 3, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the square.

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