http://www.kbtx.com/home/headlines/TxDOT-Planning-Underpass-For-George-Bush-Drive-And-Wellborn-Road-214449891.html

Seems to me this will be a lot more useful than the one at Old Main

It'll be a long while before anything is started with it!

They started planning this over 10 years ago. They completed drawings on it 6 years ago. I always figured they would start it after they got done with the 2818 interchange. Then the university decided to waste a bunch of money on the mostly useless new main work. So now I imagine nothing will start at George Bush for another couple years.
Link to completed plans from a while ago.
http://www.txdot.gov/inside-txdot/projects/studies/bryan/fm2347/maps-exhibits.html

[This message has been edited by Expert Analysis (edited 7/7/2013 2:46p).]

Just FYI, Old Main was primarily done for pedestrian safety.

I completely disagree about the critique of the new underpass at Main and Wellborn. The purpose is to connect the two parts of campus and there is a lot of pedestrian traffic at that intersection during class changes. I expect that the new underpass will get more use than the one by Kyle field.

Those diagrams are confusing to a non-engineer like me...am I reading it right?

It looks like the plan is to sink the entire intersection and then have thru traffic lanes for Wellborn at current grade but widened out. And it looks like to do that they not only demolish the apartments at the corner of GB and Wellborn, they have to do eminent domain on a bunch of stuff adjacent to Wellborn Rd all the way back to Fidelity. Isn't there a Unitarian Church in the path?

Highland and Grove will become dead ends on GB and Wellborn, respectively. Do the businesses on GB between Montclair and Highland lose their street access to GB? Also wondering about the McDonalds on the other side.

Or am I misreading the diagram?

Yet another project to rememdy the vote against LoTrack by short-sighted College Stationites. TxDOT, Brazos County, Texas A&M University and the City of Bryan had all approved funding for the grade separations of Wellborn and the tracks from Villa Maria all the way past 2818(or at least well past Bush), but College Station said, "not our problem".

[This message has been edited by Scotch (edited 7/7/2013 4:11p).]

I don't see how anyone who drives down Wellborn between classes and sees all the pedestrian traffic could call the Old Main project useless.

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Yet another project to rememdy the vote against LoTrack by short-sighted College Stationites. TxDOT, Brazos County, Texas A&M University and the City of Bryan had all approved funding for the grade separations of Wellborn and the tracks from Villa Maria all the way past 2818(or at least well past Bush), but College Station said, "not our problem".

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RIP, LoTrack.

In the meantime, the Penberthy/Jones-Butler extension should be complete by next year, and that will take pressure off of the horrible bottleneck between Olsen and Wellborn at certain hours, as well as Marion Pugh's backups.

Biobio,
You are not misreading those drawings.
Overlay shows a new RoW that cuts into the existing Aggieland Outfitters' lot, so all of "Varsity Apartments" has to go (which might not be a great loss).

However, turning an eye along the east side of 2154 as they have drawn it, everything goes all the way back to Fairfield. That last house on both sides of Fairfield probably has to go (CoCS setbacks & ROW setbacks). So, the locators place, the lease space, the Unitarians, all of it.

The McD's looks ok--other than the only way in or out of their d/t will be on Marion Pugh. But, they gain a location at the end of a pedestrian bridge straight to/from Olsen/Bluebell.

What strikes me, though, is the layout. I'd like to see the signage plan that will alert 2154 drivers that the through lanes are to the right; and that the "turning" lanes are in the center.

I imagine that CSPD is going to need to go over this if they intend to keep up the Gameday one-way-only traffic plan.

the Jones-Butler extension may be done by the end of this year. That will help the traffic situation tremendously in the evenings. Tremendously

and probably a good thing that the Kyle Field renovation will be completed before any major construction on Wellborn & Bush

lotrack never made sense to me. The real stupidity was not moving the golf course and building west campus on the other side of the tracks.

way before my time.

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lotrack never made sense to me. The real stupidity was not moving the golf course and building west campus on the other side of the tracks.

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The real stupidity was not getting the tracks out of the city completely when we had the chance. Now we are all going to end up spending probably 100x more for all these under/overpasses.

This is very much needed as that area becomes a real mess at certain times (more than old main I would say). Hopefully as others have said the new construction at penberthy will help. At 5:00 it is probably the worst intersection in the entire city especially if a train comes through.

[This message has been edited by jagouar1 (edited 7/7/2013 6:32p).]

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lotrack never made sense to me. The real stupidity was not moving the golf course and building west campus on the other side of the tracks.


The real stupidity was not getting the tracks out of the city completely when we had the chance. Now we are all going to end up spending probably 100x more for all these under/overpasses.

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Agree with this. NIMBY's prevented moving the railroad tracks, and that's too bad.

What's the 411 on this "lo track" thing?

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I don't see how anyone who drives down Wellborn between classes and sees all the pedestrian traffic could call the Old Main project useless.

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it will be useful for peds and buses, and that is what should have been built. building 4 lanes for vehicles is overkill and a gross waste of university and taxpayer dollars.

Didn't say Old Main was useless. Just think that the priority should have been to build George Bush and Wellborn under/over pass as the traffic there becomes awful at the end of the day.

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Didn't say Old Main was useless. Just think that the priority should have been to build George Bush and Wellborn under/over pass as the traffic there becomes awful at the end of the day.

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Pedestrian safety is more important than traffic control. You can wait 5 more minutes in traffic. It won't kill you.

I was told they are doing all this work to get rid of the lights on Wellborn, to help improve traffic flow. Is this wrong?

If you're at all familiar with CS and their love of lights, yes, that is wrong.

These are two different projects. The Old Main project was an earmark for TAMU back when Phil Gramm was senator. The Welborn GB project is all txdot, no tamu money. One does not and never did depend on the other. Just FYI

The sad thing is that College Station's portion of the LoTrack cost was only $3.2 million. 1991 or thereabouts was the bond election. Very little city staff or council advocacy was engaged before that vote...it's almost like they wanted it to fail. That was my impression, anyway.

What about the new TexAgs studio??

LoTrack was an answer for a number of problems, as the participants insisted upon see them.

The quick/cheap/short answer set up in the 60s-70s was to move the RR mainline from along 2154 to out to the outside curve of 2818. (Almost) All of the 2818 RoW was adjusted to add 100' to the width to allow for a dual-track mainline. So, there's a setback along much of the roadway.

Which runs into some complexities in actual fact. until the '90s, there were actually two, single-track mainlines, one for the Missouri-Pacific, one for the Union-Pacific. Southern-Pacific bought Katy, and then MoPac, all only to then be merged into UPac.

Oh, and RR RoW are different from auto roadways--the easements are granted, not sold outright; the RRs lease the RoW fro mthe various owners. These leases often have phenomenal lease terms, 50, 75, 99, etc. year leases exist. So, that complicates abandoning the RoW to other uses.

Then, at the time, there was as much, if not more traffic to rail spurs in CS than in Bryan. (Both cities needed spur lines running some major proportion of 2154--the U still uses the spur behind the Fred Dollar complex.)

The growth of student housing west of 2154, the increasing ration of students to cars (when I was a fish in '78-'79, it was about 6-9 students per car on campus; it's 2.1 or less, now) meant increasing problems of having a major road and a RR mainline through campus.

Train tracks, and highways were considered under-aesthetic in those days, thus enters LoTrack. All the 'ugly' would go in a ditch, and we'd have trees and parks and the like, and it would be like the banks of the Seine in March--and not Texas in August--every day.

Ok, so there were going to be some issues, like overpass lanes on Jersey (wasn't GB yet) which were going to create a big blank wall a couple feet from the Unitarian church and similar buildings at that end of Wellborn.

But, the fiddly-bits were worked out, like draining rainwater out of the ditch, and coping with rail equipment emergencies and the like. At least until the Important People decided to put their indignant feet down; and they did, an' they held their breat' utnil they turn'd blue, too, stamping those lil' feet all the time.

Which is why it's taken thirty years to get over/under passes built where they should/could have been all along.

Capn Mac, thanks for your contributions to this board. I always enjoy your posts.

Very interesting. LoTrak was only supposed to go from Southwest Parkway to Bryan, so the FM 2818 crossing would still be at-grade.

Didn't know that it was supposed to travel along 2818 as well...I thought the additional space was so that it could become a full freeway later down the line.

So glad to get that history lesson from Capn Mac. I remember talk of LoTrack when I got here as a freshman. It's a shame that CS didn't approve.

And now we get underpasses. Underpasses everywhere.

Doesn't look like the TexAgs building will be affected since it is past Highlinds.

I think the best news on this thread is that the Varsity Apartments will be razed!

I too enjoy The Capn's input and will use this post to update/clarify his above.

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Which runs into some complexities in actual fact. until the '90s, there were actually two, single-track mainlines, one for the Missouri-Pacific, one for the Union-Pacific. Southern-Pacific bought Katy, and then MoPac, all only to then be merged into UPac.

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The original railroad into town (we'll call town alongside the university for this post) was the Houston and Texas Central and that line remains in tact today. It is the mainline you see south of University drive to Navasota, Hempstead and on to Houston. It arrived after the Civil War.

The International and Great Northern arrived later on their own line from Valley Jct to Navasota and on to Stoneham, Magnolia and Spring. This is the line that takes the hard curve in downtown Bryan. The railroad track nearest Wellborn Road north of University, now called Main 2, was the original I&GN mainline. The line was where Wellborn Rd south of University Dr is today. You will note if a southbound train is on Main 2 it looks like it is coming right at you if you are driving north of Wellborn alongside the university.

The I&GN line crossed over the H&TC just north of today's George Bush Drive and was the roadbed for Marion Pugh, Holleman Dr South, and I&GN Rd. The line stayed to the west of the H&TC south of CS and crossed the H&TC again in Navasota.

Sometime around the 50s (would have to do the research to determine the correct time) the I&GN, then merged into the Missouri Pacific Railroad, abandoned their line between Bryan and Navasota and used trackage rights over the paralleling H&TC, then merged into the Southern Pacific Railroad.

In the 90s, the track nearest Wellborn Rd north of University Dr was called Bryan siding and operated as a simple passing siding controlled by the Southern Pacific dispatcher.

The Missouri Pacific was the first big modern railroad merged into the Union Pacific in 1982. The Western Pacific came in in 1983. The Missouri-Kansas-Texas (Katy) was merged into the Union Pacific in 1988 and finally, the Southern Pacific was merged into the Union Pacific in 1996.

What rail spur business was there in CS in your timeframe? Yes the university has the spur and there was probably a team track along Wellborn Rd. Was there a spur at the lumber company at FM2818?

I've seen old photos from the Cushing Library site of what looked like a spur track to the utility plant by the water tower, and old pictures of the "firemen" that kept the boilers loaded with coal from the railcars that came onto campus loaded with such.

I appreciate the history from the Capn and Marooned, too.

Looking to the future, it looks like both cities are wanting the proposed high speed rail line to go through here. Seems land is cheaper along I45, though. Interesting article in today's Eagle.

http://www.theeagle.com/news/local/article_e196de7a-e8c4-5a3a-9199-a6ca2c17a8b4.html

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Was there a spur at the lumber company at FM2818?

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Yes.

Wickes Lumber had a rail spur. It was decommissioned early to mid 90s I think.