As Bear Creek Parkway gears up for a makeover, the City Council has waved the green flag on a new design intended to put the brakes on speeding drivers and smooth out the ride from Whitley Road/Elm Street down to Rufe Snow Drive. This roadway patch-up job is on the cusp of completion, and the fresh paint is ready to hit the asphalt potentially as soon as next week, aiming to squeeze in narrower travel lanes and a handful of turn lanes to funnel cars more efficiently.
Among the upcoming changes, detailed by the City of Keller, an array of dedicated left turn lanes will greet eastbound motorist faces at key entrances like Austin Street and Cindy Court. A nifty duo of lanes will deal with the eastbound cars itching to head north on Park North Lane and those westbound drivers looking to dive south on Bear Creek Park Road. All this re-striping intends to shuttle traffic toward Bear Creek Park and the surrounding communities more efficiently.
But it's not all about the turns. Safety's getting a buff too with zebra-striped crosswalks getting little street teeth — known among road aficionados as "sharks teeth" — catching driver's eyes and signaling that pedestrians have dibs. Blink-and-you'll-miss-them flashing warning signs are also getting in on the action, ready to light up when pedestrians hit the button to cross. And if that wasn't enough, a spanking new crosswalk will bridge Bear Creek Parkway at Pate Orr Road South, coming fully equipped with a sidewalk partner on the road's south side.
Provided Mother Nature plays nice, the City Council promises a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the project by month's end, according to the report from the City of Keller. With these tweaks to the Parkway, driving through Bear Creek could become less of a bumper-car scenario and more of a Sunday drive — or so the city planners seem to hope, given the new striping yet to see the rubber meet the road, which is designed to streamline commutes and tamp down on those with lead-foot tendencies.
