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Updated: City Council approves reduced speed on Whitestone
Updated 8:51 a.m. CST June 13
Cedar Park City Council on June 12 approved a temporary speed limit of 50 miles per hour for a segment of East Whitestone Boulevard where the Texas Department of Transportation has planned a 16-month construction project.
Tom Gdala, senior engineering associate with the city, said the TxDOT project will start in July.
Original story posted 11:52 a.m. CST June 10
Cedar Park City Council plans to vote June 12 on whether to reduce the speed limit to 50 miles per hour on East Whitestone Boulevard between Market Street and Sam Bass Road.
The current speed limit for the 2.12-mile section of road is 60 miles per hour.
The Texas Department of Transportation requested the new limit be in place during its Whitestone pass-through project this summer.
TxDOT plans to widen Whitestone from four to six lanes between Market Street and Sam Bass Road, modify turn lanes and make other changes to bridges, signals and signs.
The project also includes altering the intersection of Whitestone and Parmer Lane/Ronald Reagan Boulevard to create a partial continuous-flow intersection. According to TxDOT plans, the design would switch left-turning traffic on Whitestone to the left sides of the highway. Cars could turn left onto Parmer or Ronald Reagan without impeding straight-going traffic.
TxDOT said the Whitestone project should begin this summer and last until early 2016.
On May 23, Tom Gdala, senior engineering associate with the city, said the speed reduction would be temporary. After the city formally accepts the completion of the roadway improvements, the speed limit would automatically expire and reset to 60 mph. City engineers could also bring to City Council a new TxDOT speed study that recommends another limit, Gdala said.
