The City of Lubbock has publicly asked for professional services to update its thoroughfare plan. Companies wishing to do the work have until March 31 to submit an application.
The last plan was created in 2007, and generally includes the city’s Extra Territorial Jurisdiction (ETJ). The ETC extends five miles outside of city limits. That puts it all the way north of New Deal and all the west into a small portion of Hockley County.
Public records said, “As a part of the plan update, the Planning and/or Engineering firm selected to do the work will also be asked to identify and correct errors in the current plan, perform some level of traffic modeling necessary to recommend thoroughfare standards…”
Part of the work is to prepare a new thoroughfare map for the City Council to adopt.
One of the tasks will be, “Coordinate with the Lubbock District of the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) to identify the location of the ‘Outer Route’ for Lubbock, and indicate this location on the completed Thoroughfare Plan.”
Another task will be, “… Coordinate and meet with appropriate Planning Department staff to investigate possible changes in land use and zoning at the collector/thoroughfare street intersections, and any design changes appropriate for the collector street due to these land use revisions.”
“A lot has changed in 10 years,” Wood Franklin, the City of Lubbock Director of Public Works, said. “That sometimes happens.”
“The Outer Loop [or Outer Route] is a very good example of that,” Franklin said. “It might not affect our plan. But it might.”
Another possible change is to consider 5-lane thoroughfares in some new areas of Lubbock instead of 7-lanes.
“That could save us some money,” Franklin said.
