SAN ANGELO, Texas — After constant complaints from San Angelo residents over the years, the City of San Angelo launched a new website to answer any questions residents may have about streets.
The goal of the webpage is to serve as a general educational resource for citizens wanting to know more about City street projects and to provide information about what the City is doing to address our roadways.
‘We had the winter storm in February and so now our streets really have more issues than before. I saw comments on Facebook saying I don't know what the city's doing about streets. They don't have anything on their website and so we pay attention to that type of thing. After that we thought this was an opportunity for us to give some good information,” Brian Groves, COSA Public Information Officer, said.
Items included on the website include TxDOT upcoming street projects, report a pothole page, street maintenance and active street projects.
A month ago, FOX West Texas reported the street issues in regards to the lack of lining on the roads and the superintendent of traffic operations in San Angelo Dusty Hohensee said the problem with the lack of lines is more of an environmental and chemical issue than anything.
“This is not just an issue that is happening here in San Angelo but it’s a problem with all roads here in Texas. Between the oils already in the paint being on top of the oils in the asphalt and the gruesome Texas heat, it’s only a matter of time before the paint gives out and becomes hard to see,” Hohensee said.
The Chadbourne Street project is almost complete and people have mixed feelings about what they see so far.
One Facebook user who lives in San Angelo said, “I'm curious as to why Chadbourne was labeled as "reconstruction of a roadway" when all they're doing is adding a giant brick star in the middle of the road? That seems like an unnecessary waste of 7 million dollars that could have been used to help all those homeless people we have.”
In regards to that statement, Groves ensures the improvements are not solely cosmetic, but structural and beneficial to drivers here.
“There’s a lot more that goes into that. Obviously the star is what everyone is going to see first but if people look closely they will see there is new concrete, asphalt, and soon to be sidewalk there now. The street is also being made more ADA accessible and bringing things up to the standards they’re supposed to be.” Groves said.
Abilene has dealt with flooding and to avoid that in San Angelo, Groves mentioned the City is reconstructing the roads to ensure flooding is not a problem.
The webpage will serve as a guide to any questions or inquiries to residents about San Angelo streets.