TXDOT: MEDIANS FOR BOCA CHICA BEFORE FIXING FLOODING

By Juan Montoya

Here we go again with those "medians," this time on Boca Chica Boulevard.

These medians, favored by the Texas Department of transportation not only inconvenience drivers to take long detours to run left – and contrary to what drivers have been taught – to make U-turns to get to their destinations across the medians/obstacles.

And it appears that the medians will go up before the drainage infrastructure is in place to handle the chronic flooding in that area.

And it's not going to come cheap. 

The $3 million project, which covers 1.5 miles, will take about 14 months to complete, and the installation of raised medians and sidewalks will be done in segments, said TxDOT spokesman Octavio Saenz.

They also pulled out some numbers which only they can verify. They say that Boca Chica Blvd. is ranked 93rd out of 100 congested roads in the state. The annual hours of delay per mile is 186,259 while the annual congestion cost is $5,531,648.

Now, to our way of seeing things, 93 out of 100 means that there are 92 roads in the state that are more congested than Boca Chica. Have they also been outfitted with the time-saving medians.

Those of us who have been "fortunate" to drive along Ruben Torres (FM 802) would have some slight dispute with that. Say you're coming from west 802 and cross the Old Alice intersection with Coffeeport. It won;t be until the next light at Paseo Dr. approaching Paredes Line before you can turn left to get to a business on westbound 802 (or Ruben Torres). 

The same applies further east. You can only go left and then have to make a U-turn to get to your destination on the westbound 802. Has anyone figured otu what the delay is for this "solution?"

But as usual, it may be too late to stop this TxDOT "improvment." Crews have already placed signs on Boca Chica Boulevard to alert motorists of the upcoming construction project. Additional signs will be erected as construction begins and continues.

The project calls for full median openings at Paredes Line Road, Old Port Isabel Road, Strawberry Square, King Highways and Security Drive. A directional median opening will be on North Street. Anyone who has to turn left between these streets will have to drive up to a turn lane and make the U-turns.

The next step of the proposed project is the bidding process in April. Construction is anticipated to start in July with an approximate completion length of 14 months.

Saenz said one of the things medians do is ensure safer rides. The median would enhance safety, reduce congestion and improve mobility.

“It limits cross-section turning,” he said. “That area is one of the state’s most, not only most congested, but has a lot of accidents. If we see several of the major avenues that we’ve had in the Rio Grande Valley … it allows traffic to flow faster because it prevents individuals from making turns wherever they want.”

Almost as an afterthought, one of the items for consideration during Tuesday’s meeting, the commission approved a resolution to sign an application requesting financial assistance from the Texas Water Development Board.

David Licon Jr., engineer 1 for the city, said the projects will help to reduce flooding in major areas, such as Four Corners (International and Boca Chica Boulevards) in Brownsville.The amount is not to exceed $7 million and will be used for “stormwater management projects to reduce the effects of major flooding events throughout the City,” according to agenda binder documents.

“We know that Brownsville floods in really extreme areas and the amount of money that’s needed to do a lot of those … improvements is normally exceeding what the city has available per year,” Licon said. “So, we thought that, really, to start doing some major improvements to our drainage system, we need to go ask for large amounts of money.”

OK. It will take months – maybe even years – before the TWDB considers and approves – if and when it does – the storm-water management application for the grant. 

By that time the medians will have been constructed on Boca Chica. Does that mean that the work done on Boca Chica and other streets – just like PUB and Public Works have done all along – will have to be torn up to implement the drainage improvements?

Isn't that like placing the cart before the horse?