Haslet delays vote on TxDOT Spur 170 support resolution; council asks staff to meet with TxDOT

Haslet City Council members spent sizeable time Sept. 15 debating a proposed resolution to express the citysupport for construction of State Highway Spur 170 (Intermodal Parkway to SH 170) and to document the city's concerns about traffic impacts, utility relocations and right-of-way. Councilman Carruthers presented an amended, more detailed resolution that memorialized the city's prior meetings with the Texas Department of Transportation and asked TxDOT to address potential impacts to Haslet Parkway, utilities and needed right-of-way.

City engineers and staff told council the city's primary technical concerns include: whether TxDOT intends to make the project an on- or off-system facility (which affects long-term maintenance responsibility); potential bridge-column placement adjacent to Haslet Parkway; relocation of water and sanitary sewer lines that run down the road centerlines; and whether the projectand its traffic analysisadequately accounts for industrial trip generation that may route traffic onto Haslet's streets. City Engineer Michael Anderson requested a cross-section showing center-supported bridge columns for staff review and asked TxDOT to prepare a memorandum or project agreement to memorialize responsibilities for right-of-way, utility relocations and any advance funding.

Councilman Carruthers read an expanded resolution in the meeting packet that tracked the TxDOT project timeline and asserted that the city needed firm commitments from TxDOT before giving blanket support. A motion to approve Carruthers' updated resolution failed for lack of a second. Council then voted unanimously to continue the item to the Oct. 6 meeting, with direction that staff arrange a meeting with TxDOT and return with the technical materials the council requested. Carruthers said the city had been trying to get TxDOT to address these items for more than a year and that without those commitments the city could be negatively impacted by future traffic and utility costs.

No formal support or opposition to the Spur 170 project was adopted at the Sept. 15 meeting; the council instead sought a follow-up meeting with TxDOT to secure technical exhibits and written commitments about design choices, traffic analyses and reimbursement or mitigation for city impacts.