Bailey widening project seen as key for Pearland traffic

Goal is to boost road as alternate east-west thoroughfare

With design plans complete and the contract bidding process set to begin on June 16, the city of Pearland expects work on a Bailey Road widening project to begin in August.

The plan is for the road to be increased from two lanes to four along a two-mile section from FM 1128 to Veterans Drive. The project is expected to take about two years to complete, said Skipper Jones, Pearland’s assistant director for capital projects.

Traffic is increasing on the road, which the city hopes to establish as an east-west thoroughfare to draw traffic off congested FM 518. By 2035, Bailey is expected to carry more than 20,000 vehicles each day, according to the Texas Department of Transportation.

The road will be widened from a two-lane asphalt street with 10-foot lanes to a four-lane boulevard with concrete curbs and gutters with 12-foot lanes and raised medians. The roadway will also have left-turn bays at certain intersections, drainage upgrades and a 10-foot wide mixed-use path on the north side for cyclists and pedestrians.

A large roadside ditch will be converted to an underground storm sewer system, which will improve safety to the roadway.

Jones said motorists will play a big part in how much the widened road will siphon traffic from FM 518.

“It takes people a while to recognize that (a new traffic option) is there even though they’ve been hearing about it for some time,” he said. “It takes about a year for the roadway to begin to see the traffic counts that we are anticipating.”

The latest construction esti-

mates put the total cost for the project at about $26.6 million, $7 million of which is expected to come from the city, Jones said. Pearland is sharing the expense with TxDOT, which is handling project oversight and will offer assistance throughout the construction phase.

The city is in charge of managing construction and developed the project’s design, including engineering and environmental studies.

Cara Davis, Pearland’s manager for the project, said the effort is one of the largest the city has undertaken.

“It’s a long-duration project which is a challenge in itself, but the work is fairly straight forward,” Davis said.

“There are some large drainage boxes to be installed to enclose the ditch on the south side, but I don’t foresee any major issues.”

However, with any large-scale road work on a heavily traveled roadway, traffic challenges are inevitable.

“We will be working with established traffic; so there will be some disruptions as traffic patterns are changed to accommodate the construction,” Davis explained.

To ensure residents are well aware of what’s going on, the City is prepared to communicate any traffic changes in a variety of ways.

“We send out traffic alerts via emails through a service residents can sign up for through the city’s webpage,” Davis said. “I am sure our communications department will be posting to Facebook and Twitter, as well, so followers will be alerted in that way. We may also use the changeable message boards you often see at construction sites as another means of notification.”