City of WF hires firm for Taft Blvd. Improvement Project
WICHITA FALLS, Tx (RNN Texoma) - The City of Wichita Falls is one step closer to kicking off their Taft Boulevard Improvement Project, which was part of Proposition C that passed in May for street improvements.
On Tuesday city councilors passed a resolution to spend $565,000 to hire an engineering firm to design the project that will widen Taft Blvd. from Southwest Parkway to Kemp Boulevard from 18 to 36-feet.
Mayor Stephen Santellana said they're spending the money on a firm instead of doing it in-house because right now the city has five engineers working on 16 projects.
"We're just not going to have the ability to do everything in-house with the type of staff that we have and the number of staff that we have," Mayor Santellana said. "So we go to outside firms and these outside firms are experts."
Mayor Santellana said if the project was designed in-house, it would be in jeopardy of a major delay and projects with bond money have to stay on schedule because the money has to be spent by a certain time.
He said right now it's unknown how many lanes the road will be, but added their top priority with the project is improving traffic safety in that area.
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