Topic :   How to contact TxDot

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It's not really clear just HOW we, as a group of concerned citizens, can get in contact with TxDot or how/why they contact us. I'm assuming that folks who have property in the right-of-way for FM 2181 have been contacted. If so, please bounce the info over here so everyone gets to know what's up. TxDot’s email newsletter is at http://www.keeptexasmoving.com/index.php/enews/249.
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Here's what I just posted to TxDot. Let's see if they hear mice that roar. Or ducks that quack.


FM 2181 through Hickory Creek, Corinth and south Denton was originally planned as a 4 lane boulevard with turning lanes. Construction – with the targeted end-date of 2013, is now planned for a 6 lane highway with a turning lane, the same amount of paved surface as present I-35 and one lane shy of George Bush Tollroad’s size. At the TxDot informational meeting last year in Lake Dallas, we were informed by a TxDot engineer that there was no need for noise abatement since there is “virtually no difference in sound emissions from a 2 lane to a 6 lane road.” This is obviously incorrect, especially as FM 2181 will, by 2015, carry traffic flowing from the east and the North Texas Tollway via the new Lake Lewisville bridge (east-west) and from the south on FM 2499 which should relieve traffic heading north from the DFW airport and LBJ area.

In the last 4 years, I have noticed that the increasing volume of traffic on FM 2181 has made it often quite difficult to hold conversations in my backyard on the easternmost edge of Kensington Estates (which is not protected by Kensington Estates or Corinth Forest’s walls), and I am 1/8 of a mile, separated from the road by Army Corps woods! The situation is worse for neighbors immediately along and in the path of this road. 7 lanes of concrete will certainly create an unpleasant amount of noise in most of the neighborhoods adjoining FM 2181 and will even roar down Veal Springs Branch (adjacent to my residence) and echo down the hiking and horse trails around Lake Lewisville.

We appreciate that TxDot finds it necessary to build new roads to handle the ever increasing traffic in the Metroplex (at least until Texans discover the joy of Mass Transit when gas hits $6 a litre), however those of us in Corinth, Hickory Creek and south-east Denton think that unless a serious effort is made to mitigate the noise which will arrive with the traffic, our property values will drop along with the quality of our life which, I’m sure, isn’t TxDot’s intentions. Why is TxDot now finalizing plans for this virtual highway without including community-friendly noise abatement devices such as the sound walls proposed for FM 2499 and the new DCTA rail-line? Will TxDot at least use the UT designed Superpave™ wear surface system employed in San Antonio to cut tire-pavement noise by 1⁄2? I imagine that the latter will be more economical. I know that Arizona is presently planning to resurface 150 miles of road in order to quieten traffic and England requires this surface on roads to cut noise emissions and to cut down on water related issues.

Please inform us when noise emission studies will be done for the neighborhoods along FM 2181, taking into account the larger size of the proposed road construction along with accurate projections of the volume of traffic flowing from East and South into our region.

Re :   Elm Fork hiking/horse riding trails

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Here's a link to the City of Denton trail maps in their Parks and Recreation area  ---  http://www.cityofdenton.com/pages/parkmaps.cfm/

Topic :   Elm Fork hiking/horse riding trails around Lake Lewisville

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Here's a hiking/riding trail link:

http://www.swf-wc.usace.army.mil/lewisville/images/map_elm%20fork%20trail%20version%202.jpg.

Topic :   UT researched Superpave™ pavement-- 50% quieter?

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This article for FYI. The Superpave™ pavement was researched at UT and installed in San Antonio. Since it appears that it basically seems to cut the noise of vehicles on pavement by 50%, Superpave might be a better alternative to soundwalls. The UT link is at http://www.utexas.edu/research/superpave/index.html. I don't know if this is the kind of road surface FM 2181 will be made of, but it seems like it would certainly make this area suffer less from traffic noise.

I'd appreciate any input from civil engineers, traffic specialists so that we can know how valid this article is.

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http://www.acppubs.com/article/CA449409.html

PFC: Safe, Strong And Durable
Permeable friction course makes a positive impression as a wear surface in San Antonio.

By Jim Hedderichs -- Texas Contractor, 1/19/2004

After many years and over $50 million spent in research, the Strategic Highway Research Program has developed the Superpave system to provide asphalt roads that will be more durable, safer and longer lasting. Thus far the new mixes that have evolved from this research have proven themselves to meet these requirements while also being a cost-effective pavement choice.

Along with addressing pavement designs and mix selections, another concern is to construct pavement with as smooth a ride as possible. The public is appreciative of a smoother ride but builders know that if it is built smoother, it will last longer as well. The accelerated loading of traffic over a rough road is minimized, resulting in less damage.

Beyond providing a stronger, smoother pavement, the asphalt mix designs also have provided a side benefit that only enhances it as the No. 1 surface pavement in Texas. It is simply that the open-graded mixes such as stone matrix asphalt (SMA) and permeable friction courses (PFC) have also helped alleviate traffic noise.

As part of The National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, documents are developed for all federal-aid highway projects, to address impacts to the human and natural environment. Typical traffic noise analysis will include such elements as:

1. Determine existing noise level
2. Predict future noise
3. Compare predicted noise levels with the noise abatement criteria and existing noise levels
4. Analysis of noise abatement measures (i.e. noise barriers, vegetation, traffic management, or buffer zone)

There is no mention of pavement selection in this analysis as there are many things that influence noise such as exhausts, engines, number of trucks, etc. In addition, pavement condition and/or pavement type will change throughout the life of the highway. The Federal Highway Administration is not yet at a point where they can reduce project costs by eliminating a noise wall in lieu of choosing a quieter pavement, but it should be a consideration. Sound barriers can cost as high as $1.2 million per mile. In urban areas this cost can more than double.

Re :   Posting Forum Edit Issues

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Thanks to the "gods" that magically made things work. I'm glad you're listening.....

Topic :   Kensington Estates Annual Garage Sale May 2 & 3, 2008

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FYI Kensington Estates is on the south side of Teasley/Swisher just past the Pentacostal church (the one that just got new construction), about 1.5 miles south of Guyer High.

Topic :   FM 2181's impact

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George Bush Highway is an 8 lane regional highway and was planned as such. FM 2181/Teasley/Swisher which flows from Denton, through Corinth to Hickory Creek was planned as a 4-lane boulevard plus turning lane. TxDot now plans FM 2181’s expansion as 7 lanes of concrete (6 lanes plus a turning lane). In other words, we in Corinth will likely have what amounts to a regional highway literally IN many of our backyards. Or in our swimming pools. You’ve heard the one about the neighbor who got his permit from the City of Corinth after looking at FM 2181 expansion plans only to learn AFTER the pool was built that FM 2181 was going to be a whole lot bigger?

Because of this change in planning and because of TxDot’s refusal to recognize that a 7-lane road is not going to be real friendly to our small community – I don’t define large numbers of non-local residents flying by our houses at 55 m.p.h. as friendly --I’m afraid there’s going to be a largely negative impact on all of us when FM 2181 is completed in 2013 (assuming TxDot doesn’t use the crew that started Denton’s still unfinished Loop 288 back in the Stone Age). Soon, neighborhoods designed for a 4 lane boulevard will lose walls. Homeowners will lose fences and backyards. Thousands of cars, trucks and semis that a large road usually carries will pollute our largely rural neighborhoods with noise and sickening fumes. 7 lanes of concrete will inject massive amounts of rain and storm water into our communities and into local streams which feed into our local watershed, Lake Lewisville.

Will this hurt or help our neighborhood and our property values? What do you think? What are YOU going to do about it? Move in THIS real estate market? Why are many west Corinth residents unaware of the negative impact this road will have on the region? Why are many of us so ignorant of what’s happening in West Corinth? Why don’t most of us know about the road, about what it’s going to BE like for the next 4 years while FM 2181 is under construction?

For most of us, West Corinth doesn’t have a “regional identity.” It’s just where we live. Until very recently we didn’t have a way to find out what was really happening in our neck of the woods. We now have a community newspaper – The Corinth Times – but these days, most of us don’t read the newspaper. Some neighborhoods are slightly organized and have homeowners associations (HOA), some don’t. Traditionally, most HOAs are more concerned about the small picture --neighborhood beautification rather than the large picture -- community and regional activitism. Because of this, we’re just a disjointed and largely passive collection of neighborhoods, many lining FM 2181.

Sitting ducks.

This little duckie had figured that asking about sound walls along this highway was a good way to access how responsive TxDot was to an ordinary citizen. --Yes, I know it’s not going to be a highway according to TxDot, but put down 7 lanes of concrete on a base of Texas clay and THAT, folks, is a highway no matter what you call it. –If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it’s a duck. When I attended a TxDot information session at Lake Dallas High School last year, TxDot failed to make the grade. We didn’t receive the sort of answers one would expect.

Before the TxDot meet-n-inform on November 16, 2006, I’d done a little preliminary research and attended a few meetings (which unfortunately happened to coincide with the times that most people are working a