By Kase Wilbanks from kcbd.com
As the design phase ends for the overhaul of Woodrow Road, Lubbock County Commissioners approved a $706,100 expense for work related to its intersection with County Road 2330, a corridor for Lubbock-Cooper ISD transportation and other travel.
“As we see the needs that are happening at Cooper, now is the time,” Judge Curtis Parrish said. “If we’re going to expand that and put in traffic lights in that area, now’s the time to do that. I know it was an additional $700,000, but by increasing it now, we’re going to save the county five years from now from having to go back and expand that with millions of dollars.”
The intersection of Woodrow Road and CR 2330 is to the south of Lubbock-Cooper High School. A traffic signal will be added to the intersection and a portion of CR 2330 will be widened to accommodate the LCISD bus facility, as well as the South Elementary and resident traffic.
“We want to make sure that our infrastructure is adequate to not just meet the growth, but get ahead of the growth,” Parrish said. “The worst thing we can do is build for today, and build for what we need today. We need to build for what we need 20 years from now. That’s how we effectively manage the growth.”
The Lubbock County Commissioner’s Court was told at its Monday meeting that federal and state dollars could not be used for CR 2330. Parrish said the funds would come from the road improvement bond money.
“The idea now is to make sure that when we start construction on Woodrow Road, that is the road that we need to carry Lubbock County for the next 20 to 25 years,” Parrish said.
Parrish says the design of the Woodrow Road project, which stretches from Highway 87 to Slide Road, was completed within the past few months. Now, the county is purchasing right-of-way. The Commissioner’s Court entered into an agreement with an attorney who specializes in such acquisitions, also on Monday.
“As soon as the right-of-way is purchased, we will be letting out the contracts for that road,” Parrish said. “We will go through the contract process of making sure that we’ve got our construction permits and everything done so that we can begin construction.”
Parrish expects the acquisition process to take through the early part of the summer.