The Waco City Council on Tuesday will consider awarding a $4.3 million contract to Barsh Construction to convert an old East Waco railbed into a lighted pedestrian trail ending at Gholson Road.
The council could also approve funding for improvements at Cottonwood Creek Golf Course and more on Elm Avenue, and the finish of the Mars Drive repaving project.
The city council meets for a 3 p.m. work session and 6 p.m. business session at the Waco Convention Center’s Bosque Theater, 100 Washington Ave.
Waco-based Barsh Company was the low bidder to build the 12-foot-wide, 1.23-mile concrete bike and footpath to be built along the railbed of the abandoned Missouri-Kansas-Texas railroad. The trail will connect Dallas Street near Waco Drive to Gholson Road at Brown’s Lake, and the project will include lighting and landscaping.
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The old MKT right-of-way, seen here near East Waco Drive, will be converted into a hike-and-bike trail.
Other bids included TTG Utilities of Gatesville, with a $4.9 million bid; and HCS Inc. of Waco, with a bid of nearly $7 million. The engineer’s estimated project cost was about $3.9 million.
The project will use some $2 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Transportation Alternatives Set-aside Program.
The trail is also in line for $469,000 of the Waco Metropolitan Planning Organization’s $2.2 million grant through the federal Carbon Reduction Program.
Jim Reed, Waco capital improvement program manager, said the rails to trails project has been considered since the city acquired the MKT right of way in 2016 for a water line project.
There’s no concrete timeline yet, but Reed expects the trail could take a year to build, barring any surprises beneath the railbed and weather hang-ups.
The project is similar to the Cotton Belt Trail near West Highway 84, except that the MKT trail will have official trailheads at either end with parking spaces near Sherman Street and Brown’s Lake, Reed said.
Brown’s Lake is also subject to funding at Tuesday’s council meeting, as the council could approve a $100,000 contract with Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc., to study the watershed. Reed said the lake has been a spot for fishing and recreation for years, and the study will give the city a chance to step back and see what the lake could become.
Depending on the success of the Dallas Street to Gholson Road thoroughfare, the city may explore options to extend the trail into Bellmead and Lacy Lakeview toward Industrial Boulevard, Reed said.
Cottonwood Creek Golf Course
The council also is set to vote on a $240,000 contract with Walker Partners, LLC, for master planning and conceptual design of Cottonwood Creek Golf Course, Waco’s only municipal golf course. The course currently suffers from erosion due to increased surrounding development since its original building in the 1980s, and according to Tuesday’s agenda packet mitigation efforts for nearly half the course’s holes “will be significant and necessitate an extended closure of the course.”
The scope of the work will be determined by the study, but may include green resurfacing, irrigation replacement, bunker drainage corrections and driving range renovations to prevent closures in the future.
Waco Chief of Staff Ashley Nystrom said the plan could take 10 months to develop, and she doesn’t expect the course to close for another year or so.
Mars Drive
Mars Drive should be open in time for the new school year, Reed said, as the city wraps up its improvement project for the road and surrounding Old Hewitt Road and Texas Central Parkway. The city council could approve a final change order of $89,000 to account for construction management and inspection services by MRB Group.
Old Hewitt Road will be drivable for school, but its construction is expected to wrap up completely in October pending lasting drainage improvements, Reed said. Mars Drive, which serves Midway High School, is largely complete, and crews switched to the side of Texas Central Parkway closest to Mars Drive over the weekend to have both roads finished before school starts, he said.
Elm Avenue
The council could approve an eighth change order for an amount of some $417,000 , for the Elm Avenue corridor bike and pedestrian infrastructure improvements, bringing the total project cost to about $8 million. Reed said the contractor, Barsh, has a good grasp on what it’s up against and he doesn’t expect further adjustments, but he could not rule them out.
The current addition could include tie-ins to side streets, such as handrail and ramp revisions on Sherman and Peach streets; increased traffic control maneuvers; and addition of sidewalk drains. Reed said the improvements should be pleasing to pedestrians and cyclists.
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