Council Report: Lane configuration changes on Hemphill

At Tuesday’s Fort Worth City Council work session, the council received an informal report on a proposed lane configuration change on Hemphill Street between Vickery and Seminary. The city is currently planning to resurface that area beginning in early 2019. This resurfacing project offers the opportunity to re-evaluate the lane markings on Hemphill, which is currently marked as a five-lane, undivided roadway.

In response to requests from the community and in an effort to calm traffic in this corridor, city staff is proposing to reconfigure the pavement markings along this segment of Hemphill to include one through lane in each direction, a continuous center left turn lane with on-street parking and bike lanes in both directions. The existing curb line of the street will remain the same.

This proposal was presented to the Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Commission in December of 2015 by the Hemphill Corridor Task Force and again by city staff at a general public meeting in August of this year. In both cases, the proposed reconfiguration received overwhelming support.

Near Southside, Inc. has partnered with the Hemphill Corridor Task Force through the preparation of detailed striping plans and a traffic analysis of the proposed conversion. Staff has reviewed the traffic analysis prepared by the consultant and has determined that the proposed cross section will provide acceptable levels of service for existing and future traffic conditions.

- FWBP Digital Partners -

The new pavement markings will be installed immediately following the roadway resurfacing project with an October 2019 completion. Striping costs are estimated at approximately $512,000 with $102,000 contributed by Near Southside Inc. and the remaining $410,000 provided by the city.