MA1001-CS100604 (2)
(6/30/2010) George Marshall - Re: Bisecting the CityPage 1
From: Keith Marvin
To:Margolis, Scott
CC:Griffin, Ken; Marshall, George
Date: 6/4/2010 5:05 PM
Subject: Re: Bisecting the City
Mr. Margolis,
Thanks for your input on this. To answer the question, yes we do anticipate that Coppell residents that are familiar with
our local streets will seek routes other than the marked detour routes. While we would not sign Bethel School to Plantation
as a detour route, it is certainly a public street, and may provide a more direct route to our citizens.
On a larger scale, we also expect a lot of the traffic passing through town to find alternate routes to their destination that
does not involve passing through our local detour route.
The Bethel Road plans do include intersection improvements. We will be widening the westbound approach from Denton
Tap, and adding a dedicated left turn lane and right turn lane while retaining the through lane for eastbound traffic.
Please feel free to provide us your feedback next week after the work has begun.
Thanks,
Keith
Keith Marvin, P.E.
Project Engineer
(972) 304-3681
>>> Scott Margolis <semargolis@yahoo.com> 6/4/2010 2:46 PM >>>
Keith -
The most expeditious way to get to the west side of town, to Wagon Wheel, to old Coppell, to
anything in the quadrant southwest of the Denton Tap/Sandy Lake intersection is going to
be via Heartz to Bethel School to Denton Tap. You are now forcing citizens to take west
Bethel School to Plantation through the neighborhood with the absence of west Bethel road.
Do you really want to do that?
Alternatively, this plan squeezes the west bound traffic to W. Parkway, up N. Coppell road
to diverge from there, potentially trying to navigate through the stop sign at Sandy Lake and
S. Old Coppell road.
I would still propose that if you lengthen the light cycles for eastbound Bethel to accommodate
the demand, delay the W. Bethel road project until the Sandy Lake/Denton Tap intersection
is completed, you are going to end up with a lot fewer problems.
Also, to your point regarding right turning traffic onto west bound Bethel, is there any plan
to put a right turn carve-out on that, or ANY of the right hand turns at Sandy Lake and Denton
Tap? That would be a tremendous flow relief.
Appreciated,
Scott Margolis
(6/30/2010) George Marshall - Re: Bisecting the CityPage 2
________________________________
From: Keith Marvin <kmarvin@coppelltx.gov>
To: Scott Margolis <semargolis@yahoo.com>
Cc: George Marshall <GMARSHALL@coppelltx.gov>; Ken Griffin <KGRIFFIN@coppelltx.gov>
Sent: Fri, June 4, 2010 1:57:39 PM
Subject: Re: Bisecting the City
Mr. Margolis,
Mr. Griffin is out of town on business today, and asked me to respond to your email. My name is Keith Marvin, and I am
the project manager for the Bethel Road project.
You are correct in your assessment that the closure of Sandy Lake Road will cause significant disruption to the residents of
Coppell, as well as the traffic that comes through our town. Any time we take the drastic step of closing a major roadway,
we try to do so in a manner that will minimize the overall impact as much as possible. We felt doing this during the
summer months, while school is out, and our traffic flows are the lowest was the only way it could be successful.
The Bethel Road project will also impact many of our citizens. Again, a closure during the summer months will be less of
an impact than a similar closure during the school year.
As far as the overlap of these two projects goes, Bethel Road was not intended to be used as a reliever route for the Sandy
Lake project for a couple of reasons. First, Bethel Road is not a through street east of Denton Tap, so people seeking to
continue east would not be able to do so without turning either north or south on Denton Tap. Both Parkway Blvd. to the
north and Southwestern Blvd. to the south do continue east of Denton Tap, although Southwestern becomes Beltline Road
east of Denton Tap. The majority of the work is complete on Southwestern Blvd, and it will be available for uninterrupted
traffic flow on Monday.
The second reason Bethel was not intended as a reliever route is that the approach to Denton Tap is only one lane. Traffic
approaching this intersection backs up considerably under normal conditions, and right turn and through traffic backs up
and sits while left turn traffic waits to turn. This is one of the main reasons for the Bethel Road project, and would be
completely unbearable if we used it as a detour route during the Sandy Lake project.
We have contracted with quality contractors for both of these projects, and we have offered significant incentives for the
contractor to complete the closure and restore traffic as quickly as possible.
Please feel free to contact me to discuss any further aspects of the Bethel Road Project. I have copied George Marshall in
our office on this email, and I'm sure he would be happy to discuss any additional details for the Sandy Lake/Denton Tap
intersection improvements.
Keith Marvin, P.E.
Project Engineer
(972) 304-3681
>>> Scott Margolis <semargolis@yahoo.com> 6/4/2010 8:58 AM >>>
Ken -
If I read the schedules from 07-June right, 2 of the major east/west pathways through
town are going to by simultaneously shut down?
Certainly the Sandy Lake/Denton Tap paver replacement is significant and important.
It is going to cause significant disruption for all citizens.
If the city is simultaneously doing construction on Bethel from Denton Tap westward,
there is virtually no way to get across town east-west other than Parkway. Add in the
(6/30/2010) George Marshall - Re: Bisecting the CityPage 3
east west construction on Southwestern boulevard at Denton Tap and I think you are
creating a problem you need not.
I'd like to propose that the city delay the work on Bethel until AFTER the paver project at
Denton Tap/Sandy lake is completed.
Best regards,
Scott Margolis
137 Trailwood
972.393.3859