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Battalion/Page 3
December 3, 1982
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Bryan says computer
key to road repair
by Michael Larkin
Battalion Reporter
Street repairs in Bryan will
be more elficiently handled if
the city installs a computer
system to establish priorities
for repairing streets, the city’s
municipal services operations
manager says.
The City of Bryan Traffic
Division is considering install
ing a computer system that
would facilitate street repair
and maintenance, said Ed
llschner, operations manager
of the municipal services de
partment which oversees the
Traffic Division.
He said that a pavement
management system known as
PAVER can help maintain
Bryan streets by establishing a
priority system. The compu
ter could tell city officials
which streets need to be re
paired first.
PAVER, costing more than
$69,()()() to install, would be a
joint project between the
Municipal Services Depart
ment and the civil engineer
ing department of Texas
A&M University, llschner
said.
The University would help
develop the computer prog
ram for PAVER and provide
graduate students to help
gather information, he said.
While analyzing Bryan’s 250
miles of streets, the students
would record data on street
conditions and road composi
tions.
Using this information,
PAVER could tell mainte
nance crews which streets re
quire immediate repair,
llschner said. Currently,
Bryan depends on individual
complaints to fix streets.
In a move to improve ser
vice, the Bryan street depart
ment was reorganized as the
Traffic Division on Oct. 1.
The Traffic Division di
vides the city into three
maintenance and repair dis
tricts. Each district has an
operational supervisor and
trained crew.
Within the Traffic Division,
there are three sections to
support the maintenance dis
tricts: drainage maintenance,
concrete repair and traffic.
The drainage maintenance
section is responsible for
maintaining and repairing the
drainage system in Bryan.
This is the first time that an
individual section has been set
up for that purpose, llschner
said. A foreman and nine per
sonnel make up the section.
The concrete repair section
is assigned to the repairing
and maintaining of gutters,
streets, sidewalks and any
other city structure made
from concrete, llschner said.
A foreman and five personnel
make up the crew.
Finally, the traffic section is
responsible for the installa
tion and maintenance of
signs, lights and markings. A
superintendant and five crew
members are assigned to the
section.
llschner said the reorgani
zation will help Bryan main
tain its streets better. Since
each district has its own dis
tinct crew, a feeling of respon
sibility will be instilled within
the crew, he said. Crew mem
bers will develop an affinity
and a knowledge for the dis
trict that a temporary crew
would not have, llschner
added.
Although the changes may
help improve streets, the city
still faces an uphill battle to
repair its streets.
Because of rising costs, an
inadequate tax base and other
needs, the city tends to ignore
street repairs, llschner said.
One of the problems is a lack
of street user fees. There is no
way to charge people for the
use of streets, he said.
As a result, numerous
potholes can be found in
Bryan. Potholes, which are
caused by traffic and water,
cost about $50 to $ 100 each to
repair. The cost to repair the
potholes includes the use of
materials, labor and equip
ment, llschner said.
Although the Traffic Divi
sion is not responsible for the
major reconstruction of
streets, llschner cites the fol
lowing two projects as exam
ples of high costs.
The current Villa Maria
Project, which stretches about
one mile from Knoll Lane to
Briarcrest Drive, is costing
Bryan $2 million. The project
includes the consfruction of a
four-lane street with a con
tinuous left-turn lane.
The other project, which is
on Pinfeather Road and simi
lar to the Villa Maria Project,
will cost about $1.5 million.
In order to repair its
streets, the city of Bryan allots
the Traffic Division an annual
budget of approximately $1.7
million.
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by Shelley Hoekstra
Battalion Reporter
The College Station Planning
ahd Zoning Commission Thurs
day night granted permission to
the College Station Baptist
Church for the replacement of a
sign.
Pastor Kenneth Griffith said
that the church’s present sign
has been in use since 1973, when
the church first was founded.
The church has expanded both
in membership and building size
since its opening. Griffith said
that with the expansion of the
church, an expanded sign was in
order.
A 19-foot cross will be the
focal point of the new sign.
In other business, the com
mission:
—approved permission for a
40 children daycare center lo
cated in apartments #601 and
603 of the Plantation Oaks
Apartments at 1501 Highway 30.
—authorized the rezoning of
a 37.06 acre tract of land located
at.the southwest corner of the
intersection of West Luther and
Wellborn to a planned industrial
district.
—passed preliminary plans
for Shenandoah Subdivision, lo- office building located on Uni-
cated on the southwest corner of versity Drive and Forest Drive
Highway 6 and Barron Road.
—agreed to reconsider a when landscape plans had been
parking lot plan for a two story added to the parking lot plan.
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CONGRATS AGGIES!
It's time for graduation and graduation gifts...but before you begin
thinking of what you — the 1982 graduate of Texas A & M — would like
for graduation...
Say Thanks! Tell the people that stood by you during your academic
career at Texas A & M -- thanks! -- give them a 1982 Aggie Ringcrest®
plaque. A walnut finished deep cut moulding frames the original Aggie
Ringcrest®. An inscription plate is included making a very personal
"thank you." We will have a full stock of single and double Aggie Ringcrest®
plaques immediately after graduation to engrave the inscription of your
choice. And while you're saying "thanks"...
Single plaque: $ 29.95
Double plaque: $ 49.95
Don't forget to...
Preserve the Accomplishment
• with a photographic reproduction of your Texas A & M
diploma on bronze. This treasured momento will be
mounted on a maroon velvet background and touched off
with a walnut colored frame. We will photograph your dip
loma WHILE YOU WAIT so you can take theoriginal home
with you. Your bronze diploma will be in your hands no
later than Christmas!
available in three sizes.
Bronze Diplomas: $ 56.00 - $ 100.00
CMC will be open especially for 1982 Aggie Graduates
and their families on December 11, from 9 AM - 5 PM.
OMC is located on FM 2818 (the West Bypass),
north of The Texas Hall of Fame.
Harvey Road to change
Left-turn lane is planned
by Tammy Jones
Battalion Reporter
To remedy the high accident
rate on the Harvey Road section
of Highway 30, the State High
way Department is planning to
add a left-turn lane and lower
the speed limit on the road, City
Engineer John Black said.
Near the end of November,
the Waco Paving Co. signed a
contract to overlay the section of
Highway 30 to add a center left-
turn lane. The overlay will form
five lanes without widening the
highway, Black said.
“This left-turn lane is great
even though there will no longer
be a shoulder, but that still leaves
us with the high speeds and high
accident rates,” he said.
Last spring, College Station
city engineers began an effort to
convince the State Highway De
partment that some improve
ment must be made because of
the unusually high accident rate
on Highway 30, Black said. The
engineers have done studies on
speed limits and the increase in
the amount of traffic in the last
two years.
The results, Black said, were
not positive. The studies show
that in the last year the average
daily traffic on Harvey Road has
increased by 52 percent beside
Culpepper Plaza and by 33 per
cent beside Post Oak Mall.
The accident rate for Harvey
Road is six times higher than the
state average for an urban area.
“Since March, there have
been 116 accidents, with 70 per
sons having to be taken to the
hospital with injuries,” Black
said. “Compared to the previous
12 months’ 124 total accidents
and 79 injuries, this year will
have much higher rates because
of the Christmas traffic that is
just beginning now.”
College Station engineers
found that the high speeds,
along with the lack of a left-turn
lane on Harvey Road were a ma
jor cause of the accidents.
Black said the engineers
asked the State Highway De
partment to reduce the speed
limit by 10 miles per hour in the
congested areas. The state de
partment conducted another
study and agreed that the speed
limit should be reduced, but by
five miles per hour, Black said.
“The differences of opinion
have not been worked out, but
we have gone ahead and re
quested that the limits be re
duced at least seven miles per
hour if not 10,” Black said. “This
leaves us somewhat helpless be
cause the state has the final say
so in the issue since Highway 30
is a state highway, even though
we are the ones that know the
city.”
The Texas State Highway De
partment also has made plans to
install traffic lights on Harvey
Road at Highway 6.
Now you know
United Press International
An expectant mother, diag
nosed as carrying twins, inex
plicably produces but a single
baby. The other child has dis
appeared without a trace. This
phenomenon, known as the
“vanishing twin” in Europe, may
be far more commonplace than
ever expected.
The December issue of Scien
ce Digest reveals that vanishing
twin episodes first came to light
only in the past few years when
ultrasound allowed doctors to
peek into the womb and see mul
tiple pregnancies very early in
gestation. What they found,
with startling frequency, was
that one member of the fetal
pair suddenly stops developing
in the first trimester and is reab
sorbed into its mother’s tissues.
Obstetricians Louis Keith
and Helain Tandy of Northwest
ern University Medical School
have Ijegun combing case histor
ies to determine the frequency
of such episodes.
P&Z commission
approves sign for church
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