City of Tyler to analyze Grande Boulevard ‘S’ curve crash history

TYLER, Texas - The city of Tyler is moving forward with plans to examine a roadway that has been the site of several crashes.

The stretch of road being studied is known as the ‘S’ curve. It’s between Old Jacksonville Highway and South Broadway Avenue.

“To my knowledge, these incidents have been pretty severe,” Tyler District 1 Councilman Stuart Hene said.

In the last 10 years, the city said 60 crashes have happened in the area – three of them resulting in fatalities.

At Wednesday morning’s city council meeting, council members voted to spend about $96,000 to hire a local engineering firm to study the history of the road.

“It’s something we’re gonna take a deep dive on the crashes that have occurred there and look at alternatives and solutions for what has occurred,” City of Tyler Traffic Engineer Cameron Williams said.

Once the study is complete, the city will use the findings to navigate a path forward.

“That will give us a range of options that we can evaluate and look at what’s going to provide the most benefit to help alleviate these concerns and then that will move into an actual recommended improvement and then design and construction of that,” Williams said.

From a barrier separating traffic, to redoing the road entirely, all options are on the table.

“These solutions take time. We make sure that we come up with the right improvement to make things better,” Williams said.

In the meantime, the city has scored the road in effort to give it more traction.

“Hopefully, that study shows that there are remedial measures that can take place, and that those remedial measures are not just cost effective, but also the right solutions for that roadway to ensure a safe travel through that ‘S’ curve,” Hene said.

They anticipate the study will wrap up at the end of the year. Then, they’ll decide the best action to take to improve the ‘S’ curve.

The project was approved in the 2020-2021 Half-Cent Work Plan. The Half-Cent Sales Tax Board authorized funds at the Aug.10 board meeting.

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