TxDOT public hearing on medians set for Feb. 12

By LYNETTE SOWELL
Cove Leader-Press 

The Texas Department of Transportation is holding a public hearing on the Business 190 median project at the Copperas Cove Civic Center on Tuesday, February 12, at 6 p.m. 
On Oct. 2 the Copperas Cove city council approved a resolution to continue forward with the Business 190 median project and also approved additional funding of $72,000 for the redesign of the project that at that point was 30 percent completed.
At that time, councilmembers David Morris, Dan Yancey, Kirby Lack, and Marc Payne voted for approving the project to go forward, with James Pierce Jr., Jay Manning, Charlie Youngs voting against it.
Interim City Manager Ryan Haverlah submitted an alternative to the original project to the Killeen Temple Metropolitan Planning Organization, with KTMPO holding a public comment period on the proposed changes. The KTMPO policy board approved the changes to the project on October 24 after reviewing the public comments received for the project amendment. 
The changes to phase 1 include keeping three lanes of traffic for eastbound and westbound Business 190, and instead of a 10-foot shared bicycle and pedestrian sidewalk, having a dedicated four-foot bicycle lane and a six-foot sidewalk on the south side of phase 1. 
“The Business US 190 project design has been revised in response to public input from the May 31, 2018 public meeting, public comment period after that public meeting, and public comments received by City staff and City Council,” said Interim City Manager Ryan Haverlah about the changes. “The design has progressed to 30 percent or the schematic phase. The schematic drawings of the project will be posted on the City website soon.” 
Back in May, TxDOT held a public meeting at the Civic Center about the project and accepted written comments from the public. The report of those comments received has been posted on the official project webpage located at: https://www.txdot.gov/inside-txdot/projects/studies/waco/business-us-190....
“Please be aware that the previous schematic drawings are still posted on the project webpages,” Haverlah added. “These schematic drawings do not include the revisions from the public comments. The new schematic drawings will reflect three travel lanes both east and west with dedicated left and right turning lanes, a dedicated bike lane and sidewalk.”