Winds of Change

Future of Lubbock's Economy, Transportation Riding on Bigger, Better Roads

By Eileen Schwartz

In the wind-whipped plains of the Texas Panhandle, a place most non-Texans imagine as a flatland of rolling tumbleweeds, a $295 million highway is progressing in the city of Lubbock, population 202,000, designed to keep up with the city's economic, educational and cultural growth.

With the development of the new Marsha Sharp Freeway, the Texas Department of Transportation is mapping out more efficient movement of traffic and faster access to Lubbock's points of interest.

In recent years the city has witnessed growth such as development and preservation efforts in the central business district, the building boom at Texas Tech University and the opening of the Buddy Holly Center in the renovated Fort Worth & Denver Depot building, which draws thousands of visitors to the hometown of the legendary rocker for programs centered around music and visual arts.

According to TxDOT, the 13-mi. highway job is expected to generate $945 million in economic output with an estimated $755 million remaining in the Lubbock region. The department also expects the creation of nearly 10,000 statewide jobs, some 8,000 of which will remain in the Lubbock area.

In May 2003 Granite Construction Co. of Watsonville, Calif., began the approximately $50 million first phase of the east-west freeway corridor dubbed the Marsha Sharp Freeway in honor of the Texas Tech University's Lady Raiders' coach who led the women's basketball team to a national championship in 1993. The completed project will eventually convert U.S. Highway 82 from a principal arterial highway to a controlled-access concrete freeway consisting of four lanes of travel from West Loop 289 to the Interstate 27 interchange.

In December the $120 million contract for the second phase of the freeway will be let, and construction is scheduled to begin in the spring. The third project, estimated to cost $65 million, is scheduled to let in 2009, and the fourth and final phase is the construction of the Interstate 27 interchange, estimated at $60 million and projected to let after 2010.

Tom Jones, project manager for Granite, said the first phase is about 60 percent complete with contractual completion slated for November 2005. Construction acceleration incentives are built into the contract with TxDOT.

"We plan to continue maximizing production operations this summer and minimizing rework," Jones said. "A mild winter would be very beneficial for the project schedule."

Ron Baker, TxDOT Lubbock Urban area engineer, said the project is 125 days ahead of schedule and should be finished in July. He attributes the quickness, in part, to creative solutions to traffic control.

"The traffic-control plan has really helped with the acceleration," Baker said. "We had more than 40,000 cars a day that we had to set down on the frontage road. So we did away with all of the traffic signals and put in two big turnarounds."

Traffic was able to exit but didn't have to stop at any signs or signals, and it could then re-enter. "This allowed us to do all the main lanes at the same time under no traffic," he said.

Hauling all of the dirt at night was a safety issue combined with productivity, Baker added. "We didn't have to deal with daily traffic congestion."

Jones said the goal of the first phase is to rebuild and widen existing facilities in order to accommodate anticipated future traffic volumes. The project represents the western end of the freeway and includes rebuilding 2.5 mi. of the U.S. 62/U.S. 82 interchange and 2.6 mi. of West Loop 289.

"From the beginning of the project, our focus was completing the new northbound and southbound frontage roads of Loop 289 so the mainline traffic could be diverted," Jones said. After that occurred in May, the existing mainline bridge structures were removed, and new bridge construction began in June.

The job is not the first in the Panhandle area for the company. Granite was the original contractor for most of Loop 289 and completed a substantial amount of the $180 million Interstate 27 between Lubbock and Amarillo constructed between 1985 and 1992. The project does mark the first time TxDOT is allowing reclaimed asphalt paving as mechanically stabilized earth retaining-wall backfill. "All of the structural concrete is being measured for in-place strength with maturity meters," Jones said. "That saves the time and effort involved with destructive cylinder testing procedures for seven-day and 28-day concrete strengths."

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That'll be the Day

The concept of an east-west access for the city of Lubbock goes back to 1964 with the publication of the Lubbock Urban Transportation Plan, a document addressing future traffic growth. A second volume was published a few years later, ideas were tossed around, and plans were developed, changed and redeveloped. The turning point was a public hearing in 1993 that drew some 1,000 participants. It then took the state four years to complete the three-volume 1,100-page environmental document that was approved in 1995.

In 1997 TxDOT hired Dallas-based HNTB Cos. and Houston-based Dannenbaum Engineering Corp. to develop design plans for the freeway.

And nearly four decades after its conception, roadwork is finally under way.

Milestones leading up to the groundbreaking included a $7 million storm sewer project completed in 1997 and the purchase of Texas Tech property by TxDOT in 2002 for $12.4 million, the largest acquisition in the history of the Lubbock district.

TxDOT had several meetings with representatives from the university to ensure that the Texas Tech Master Plan is consistent with the design of the Marsha Sharp Freeway. The new Texas Tech Parkway and the Ninth Street Bridge that are incorporated into the freeway design will ultimately serve as vital links to the Texas Tech campus.

"Texas Tech is on both sides of U.S. 82," Baker said. "So we did purchase a lot of land from the university to build the freeway. At the same time, we are providing pedestrian overpasses. It would be hard to cross without them. What was once a beaten path for students will now be replaced with pedestrian bridges."

Bridge bents planned for the Texas Tech portion will feature a Spanish colonial design to match the university's buildings.

An additional design feature is the "Windy Man" icon, originally planned for about 24 placements throughout the project. But after the first image was put in place and subsequently defaced, plans have changed.

"We think we can put up about 10 where they can't be easily accessed," Baker said, adding that the placement would likely be on 12-ft.-high retaining walls at select locations along the freeway.