City to start access management of West FM 518

LEAGUE CITY — City engineers are seeking approval from the Texas Department of Transportation to place temporary barriers along West FM 518 to determine if a median restricting left-hand turns would make the road section safer and alleviate congestion.

The barriers, which League City intends to install in June, would extend from the Interstate 45 southbound frontage road west to Newport Boulevard.

If approved, the Transportation Department will provide the temporary barriers, but League City will pay for the access improvements once plans are completed, city traffic engineer Linc Wright said.

The opening and traffic light at Hobbs Road-Lafayette Lane would remain.

“The barriers will help us determine what we need to do with that stretch of roadway,” Wright said. “I’m not sure how temporary the barriers will be. It depends on how well things go. If it’s working well and we don’t need tweaking, then we’ll move into median design phases.”

League City revisited the project, which was first introduced after a 2004 FM 518 access management study done through the Texas Department of Transportation and the Houston-Galveston Area Council, Wright said.

The plan addressed ways to improve safety and traffic flow along the road from FM 288 in Pearland to state Highway 146 in Kemah, said Christy Willhite, chief transportation planner with the council.

Access management transportation strategies reduce and consolidate entry and exit points at driveways, medians and interchanges between roads.

The plan provided funding through the state Transportation Department for the construction of a raised median between the east side of I-45 and Wesley Drive before department funding froze in 2008, League City engineer Jack Murphy said.

If the barriers, which would mimic the affect a median would have on the road, aren’t successful alone on the west side of FM 518, the city would barricade the intersection of FM 518 and Hobbs Road and place a temporary signal 500 feet west at Royal Drive, Wright said.

Moving the closest traffic signal to I-45 farther west could alleviate problems at Hobbs Road and FM 518, Wright said.

The city gathered resident comments on improving safety and mobility on the less than half mile stretch of FM 518 west of I-45.

Resident comments posted on the city’s website include “Saturday morning is the only real time we experience getting out of Clear Creek Village,” and “Place ‘Do Not Block Intersection’ signs at intersections along FM 518.”

Joe Mendez, a bus driver with the Clear Creek Independent School District, drives east through the intersection of FM 518 and I-45 three times a day on his school route.

After 3 p.m. on weekdays, traffic heading east toward I-45 usually backs up to Ross Elementary, about half a mile from the freeway, Mendez said.

Cars trying to get out of neighborhoods onto FM 518 usually block intersections because it takes so long to turn east, he said.

“When I’m driving 518, I’ll leave a few minutes earlier because I know there’s going to be problems,” Mendez said. “I’ve grown used to it because I’ve been driving that route for six years. You just have to keep your eyes open because there are always sudden stops.”