Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Transportation topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
North Richland Hills council gives concept-level support to TxDOT Highway 26 median, asks for design fixes
Summary
City staff and TxDOT presented a concept-level median retrofit for State Highway 26 that the council is willing to support in principle, but council members and residents pressed for further design work on U-turns, access to businesses and the nearby Davis Boulevard "vortex." Construction funding and a firm start date remain undecided; TxDOT's preliminary project schedule suggests construction is unlikely before 2027.
TxDOT and North Richland Hills staff asked the City Council Dec. 9 to express conceptual support for a mile-and-a-half median retrofit on State Highway 26 south of Loop 820, a safety improvement that would add medians and limited openings through sections of the corridor that cross North Richland Hills and Richland Hills.
Caroline Wagner, the staff presenter, said TxDOT is in the early design phase and "is seeking support for the project, for the concept," not final design approval. She described the proposal as a median retrofit with targeted openings at signalized intersections and "hooded" openings to limit conflict points for left turns.
Council members and residents pressed staff on specific safety trade-offs that remain unresolved. Several speakers — including council members and public commenters — pointed to the congestion and crash patterns at the nearby Davis Boulevard "vortex" and asked whether medians on Highway 26 would shift or create new conflict points. One resident, Shauna Styles, told council: "That median is not gonna help reduce accidents. I would argue it's gonna make the accidents worse because people are gonna get frustrated that they can't get where they wanna get quickly." Mary Michaels, a neighborhood representative, asked that speed studies and enforcement be part of the evaluation because the roadway has changing posted limits and recorded fatalities.
Staff and TxDOT officials said medians can reduce the frequency and severity of some crashes by limiting cross-traffic and left-turn conflicts but do not solve all intersection-related collisions. Wagner noted that TxDOT aggregates crash data and selects safety projects based on total-crash counts; she warned that some localized crash types (for example, intersection collisions) may require separate intersection-specific treatments.
Key procedural points for council: - The request before council was for conceptual support, not final design approval. Richland Hills has already provided concurrence with a stipulation for continued design input. - TxDOT has identified funding sources on its project tracker; staff estimated that construction would likely not start before 2027 based on comparable projects. - Council and staff agreed staff will continue to press TxDOT for details on median openings, U-turn allowances, and how the design will preserve business access and mitigate new turning conflicts.
What happens next: staff will convey council—s questions to TxDOT and ask for additional studies or refinements addressing U-turn geometry, the Davis Boulevard intersection, and any traffic-calming or enforcement measures the city should pair with a median retrofit. If council decides to move from concept support to a formal concurrence or letter of support, a future staff report will return with recommended conditions.
By the end of the discussion, council indicated openness to the concept but insisted on stronger design commitments and continued local input before supporting a final plan.
