Longview City Council takes next steps to improve congested roadway

LONGVIEW, Texas (KLTV) - At Thursday night’s Longview city council meeting, action was taken to improve traffic flow for a Longview roadway.

That road is Fourth Street, between Loop 281 and Hawkins Parkway. For decades, it has been a subject of complaints for drivers.

Drivers say making a turn can be difficult with numerous restaurants and businesses located in a small stretch.

Thursday evening, the City approved moving forward by submitting a $250,000 grant to the U.S. Department of Transportation. If awarded, a traffic study will be conducted.

The City Director of Grant and Human Services, Laura Hill, said, “This need has been on our MPO, which is our metropolitan planning organization’s list for quite some time. And it’s a matter of, get the money for the plan. And once you have the plan, then we can hopefully try to get grants to do whatever the plan calls for, or we would go to our voters to see if they wanted to do the work and pay for it themselves.”

The City says they plan to continue applying for the grant if they are not awarded this year as they see the need for the community.