Copperas Cove median completion pushed into September, dog park groundbreaking tentatively for Aug. 1

By LYNETTE SOWELL 

Cove Leader-Press

The Business U.S 190 project continues, but the end date has been pushed into September of this year, according to Copperas Cove city manager Ryan Haverlah. 

He gave the city council an update on Tuesday evening, telling them that the curbing has been replaced in a number of sections.

“The replacement is at the contractor’s cost, so the city didn’t have to pay anything extra, TxDOT didn’t pay anything extra, and payment was withheld for the curbing that did not meet inspection standards, and was required to be removed and replaced,” Haverlah said during the meeting. “There are portions of the median that continue to be worked on such as the end. I think they call those the bullet noses. Once all the median work is done, there will be a mill and overlay for the entire project area, which includes new striping. After that is done, the expected completion date at this point is September of this year.”

Haverlah also told the council that the groundbreaking ceremony for Raising Cane’s Dog Park is tentatively scheduled for Monday, Aug. 1. Construction will begin in the months following. At the last city council meeting, the council gave its approval to the agreement between the restaurant chain, and the city, for the $50,000 in naming rights for the park.

Haverlah also talked about some street projects coming up, specifically the reconstruction of Constitution Drive, which is currently in the design phase. 

He said that they are moving forward with a change order to the design, from an asphalt roadway to a concrete roadway. 

“The primary driver of that is that the number of underground utility conflicts limit and greatly increased the cost of the project to do underground drainage, which is how the project was initially going to be designed. There’s not underground drainage now,” Haverlah explained. “And so by putting it into concrete roadway, it’ll actually continue to convey that water rainwater when it does occur.” 

He said that that section of road being paved with concrete should last upwards of 50 years with proper maintenance.

Haverlah said the park restroom project continues to move forward as expected, and that vertical construction has begun on a number of the new restrooms in City Park. Expected completion of those is next month. 

He also talked about some public works projects such as water, sewer, wastewater, and drainage, and he specifically addressed what he called “behind the scenes” projects such as are the water model and the wastewater master plan and drainage master plan. 

“Those are really important documents to help us plan for the proper improvement of all of our public facilities moving into the future and to account for the growth of our community,” Haverlah said. “As our community continues to grow, the needs within those plans will shift to accommodate that growth and it’s necessary that we update those plans to identify where the population growth is occurring, and the type of improvements that have been done by developers, to ensure that we are working with the most current information and data.

He said that the new Animal Shelter facility is currently in the design stages, with a drafted site plan and additional architectural plans that have been prepared. Haverlah told the council that if any of them are interested in seeing the plans he can arrange to have it available for them to review.