Construction kicked off Monday for a number of improvements to the city’s downtown.
Projects will include striping for additional parking spaces, updated landscaping, signage, and the installation of permanent street features on the northwest corner of Second and Main streets.
According to the city, construction will be completed by the Spring of 2023 and will only cause minimal disruption to residents’ daily commute through town, despite continuing through the holidays.
The final plans for the downtown improvements were presented to City Council in a public meeting in May of this year and put out for bid over the summer. Funding was approved by City Council in a public meeting on September 22. The improvements will be paid out of the City’s Capital Improvement Project fund.
Total Highway Maintenance will manage the parking project, which will involve restriping the onstreet parking in Taylor’s downtown district and will add 300 parking spaces in the downtown, plus15 additional spots at City Hall.
In addition, Utz Environmental Services will be handling the landscape improvements for downtown landscape islands, including plantings and drip irrigation within the islands. The City will be responsible for ensuring that each landscape island has a fully functioning irrigation source and controller.
The new signage for the downtown will be managed by Fazzone Construction, and will include way finder signage, decorative banners for existing streetlights, and new signs for City Hall, Heritage Park Stage and the Farmer’s Market Pavilion.
The improvement of the pedestrian and intersection streetscape at the northwest corner of Second and Main will be constructed by Lone Star Site Work. A temporary streetscape was put into place in 2020 as a pilot project; the new improvements will bring the project into permanence, with new curb, sidewalk, and brick pavers, bollards, which are short posts, for pedestrian safety, and pedestrian signal poles. The streetscaping was designed in consultation with the Texas Historical Commission as well as the Texas Department of Transportation.
For additional information about the downtown maintenance project and other CIP projects in the City of Taylor, visit the City’s website at taylortx.gov.
