BY KATHY WILLIAMS
HERALD DEMOCRAT
SHERMAN -- Drivers on Taylor Street west of Travis in Sherman will experience a little traffic pain over the next few weeks to gain a smother commute in the future. The city will close Taylor from Travis to Woods Street on Monday for reconstruction of the intersections of Taylor at Crockett and Alexander. The project likely will take more than a month to complete.
The project to take the jarring dips out of Taylor Street at those two intersections will begin Monday and must be completed by Aug. 24, before school starts, said Sherman Public Works Director Jeff Miller. The streets will not be completely closed, so that residents of that area will have access to their houses.
Miller recommended two detour routes for other drivers who ordinarily travel those blocks of Taylor. To the north, Miller said, use Dexter and to the south, use Fairview rather than Taylor.
View Sherman construction in a larger map
The dips originally were designed as valley gutters to carry away storm water to prevent flooding at the intersections. They will continue to serve that function, but the intersection of Alexander and Taylor takes too much water flowing from Woods Street during heavy rains. So the city also is upgrading storm sewers, gutters and curbing in the area.
"The project is to smooth the transition (across the valley gutter) down and then bring it back up, so you can travel it safely at 30 mph and do away with the dips," Miller said.
When the project came up in a recent Sherman City Council meeting, councilors exchanged looks of relief. Many cars bottom out at those dips and people who travel that way frequently have to contend with the wear on their cars, nerves and schedules.
Taylor was part of the recent mill and overlay program that reconditioned many streets in the city. The new pavement stops on either side of these intersections where the road begins to dip. Miller said the scheduling of these two projects has worked well because they won't have to tear up the new surface to reconstruct the intersections. The result will be a new, smooth surface all along West Taylor.
Only one business will be affected by the construction, Miller said. A car wash at the intersection of Travis and Taylor will be blocked on the Taylor side, but customers can still use the Travis entry. Other than that, only homes are located in the area affected, plus those who are used to commuting to work or shopping via the street.
Miller added that the city has been lucky with its street programs this year. Voters several years ago approved additional sales tax money for four years to accomplish the mill and overlay projects. The various pieces of the project were completed on time or ahead of schedule. And economic forces drove down the cost of many. The major project of redesigning, rebuilding and sprucing up Crockett Street from Travis to Grand Avenue is behind schedule because of spring time weather. It wasn't just the rain Sherman had, but damaging storms in Dallas-Fort Worth played a role as well.
Miller explained that the utility companies, which are moving overhead power and telephone lines underground to cross intersections, kept sending construction crews to the Metroplex to deal with storm repairs.