A “conceptual design” with two options for the reconstruction and beautification of the eastern segment of Bedford Road, between Woodson Drive and Industrial Boulevard, were presented to City Council Tuesday night.  The designs, based on standards approved last year as part of the City’s new Comprehensive Plan, were created by Westwood Professional Services, which was contracted for $98,000 by the City last month for the design concept.

The Council voted unanimously (7-0) to approve both concepts that are to be submitted for “grant funding to the North Central Texas Council of Governments and the Texas Department of Transportation for Transportation Alternative projects,” according to the Council’s meeting agenda.  The grant funding, if approved, is expected to fund 80% of the construction cost.

In a presentation of the project to Council, Joe Schweitzer, a city engineer for Bedford, emphasized that at this point we just have “rough conceptual plans.”  By stated that Bedford Road is generally “under used,” compared to the heavier volume of traffic on Harwood Road, which runs parallel.

According to the Texas Department of Transportation’s (TxDOT) traffic count map, that section of Bedford Road carries about 6,000 vehicles per day, compared to Harwood Road with a traffic count of about 15,000 vehicles per day.  TxDOT numbers show Bedford Road’s traffic count west of Central Drive as high as 8,800 vehicles per day.

The project Schweitzer explained would “expand the trail network and pedestrian options” with landscaping, shade trees and lighting “to improve sight distance, pedestrian safety [and] motorist safety.”  For example, he said, drivers typically reduce their speeds on narrower roads, a concept that appears to repeatedly appeal to Mayor Dan Cogan.

The agenda detailed that both options would remove two of the four traffic lanes road while retaining the middle turn lane to create space for an expanded “12-foot-wide multi-use trail” that would run along the side.  The trail would be an extension of Bedford’s existing trail network.

This is not intended in any way,” Schweitzer cautioned, “to be a copy-and-paste for all of Bedford Road.  This is specific to this location” as a “solution” for the “communities to the east of the trail network” and for the “east side of 121 to the overall trail network” and that it would “tie into” Stormy Jones Park.

Council member Joy Donovan Brandon reacted to the proposed project enthusiastically, exclaiming “I am all in!  I drove this during rush hour and I think this is a better use of the land that’s there.  Let’s encourage those students [at Trinity High School] to walk and be safe while they do it and ride their bikes.  I think that’s better for the environment; it’s better for their health.”

“What really tipped the scales in my mind,” stated Mayor Cogan, “was having those residents from the area who were concerned about pedestrian traffic, who were concerned about how wide that road is and the students trying to cross five lanes of traffic.”  They had a petition, he said, about “wanting to see this become safer for them.”