Cedar Park: Bell Boulevard Road Realignment Alternative Groundbreaking Recognized Major Milestone

Press release from the City of Cedar Park:

October 09, 2020

The City of Cedar Park held a different kind of groundbreaking to mark a major milestone of the Bell Boulevard Road Realignment construction project – in consideration of group gathering, social distancing and face covering considerations due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This short, closed photo shoot took place Thursday, October 8, 2020, with the Mayor and some current City Council Members, key City staff and a few contractors in attendance. Attendees wore masks and maintained a safe distance from one another for the brief photo shoot. The City looks forward to resuming hosting in-person celebrations with broader participants when able to do so.

About the Project
This groundbreaking marked the official start of construction of the Bell Boulevard Road Realignment Project, which realigns a section of Bell Boulevard (US 183) from just south of Buttercup Creek Boulevard/Brushy Creek Road to just north of Park Street. The path of the realigned section of highway follows much of what is now Old Highway 183 just east of Bell Boulevard and is closer to the railroad. In order for the road construction to begin, crews have been removing vacant structures and have substantially completed the underground utility relocation work that began in January.

The road construction project will transform Bell Boulevard into a four-lane divided roadway with a raised median, curb and gutter, illumination, landscaping, generous shared-use pedestrian/bicyclist facilities on the west side of the highway and reduced ingress and egress points – or driveways – to improve traffic flow. It will also reconstruct the current six-way intersection at Bell, Buttercup Creek/Brushy Creek and Old Highway 183 into a more manageable four-way intersection. Construction will take place off to the side, and out of the way of traffic; when new section is complete, estimated to be in late 2021, traffic will shift to the new roadway.
The Bell Boulevard Road Realignment construction project is funded by $11.9 million in voter-approved General Obligation Bonds, part of the $63 million in Streets and Roads Bonds approved by 74.76 percent of voters in the City’s 2015 Bond Election. The road construction contractor is Austin Underground, Inc. The Design Engineer is Binkley Barfield.

Background
The road realignment of Bell Boulevard is the critical path forward for the Bell Boulevard Redevelopment Project, which dates back to 2014. That is when the City of Cedar Park began a city-wide comprehensive planning process, in which community members expressed a strong interest in seeing the area revitalized. For many years the City has heard concerns about Bell Boulevard (US 183), the primary north-south corridor for Cedar Park, not experiencing the same level of economic growth seen in other areas of the city. With the community engagement during this comprehensive planning process, the City was able to create the Bell Boulevard Redevelopment Master Plan in 2015. The Plan envisions the Bell District to be a special place where Cedar Park residents can live, work, shop, dine and be entertained. The Bell District will also include the new location of the Cedar Park Public Library and about 16 acres (about one third of project area) of park/greenspace. In February 2020 the City selected RedLeaf as the Bell District’s Master Developer. RedLeaf is in the process of designing and planning the Bell District. Before construction of the District can begin in early 2022, the section of Bell Boulevard between Buttercup/Brushy Creek and Park must first be realigned in order to open a large swath of land for development. For more information on the Bell District, visit www.DestinationBellBlvd.com.

This press release was produced by the City of Cedar Park. The views expressed are the author's own.