Heath 2025: Proposal #1 Amy Parks Bypass Extension

Heath suffers from a congestion problem, even with a fairly limited population. This can be linked to a number of bottlenecks that severely impact traffic flow. The worst of these is the short stretch of FM 740 between FM 549 and FM 1140 in downtown Heath. The ultimate solution to these bottlenecks is to create a more grid-like system that allows some traffic releive this pressure by bypassing these bottlenecks. As a first step, I propose that the Amy Parks bypass be extended to FM 550, as shown below.

Such an extension would allow for FM 740 traffic to bypass the Amy Parks School zone and also avoid the traffic turning into and out of the Tom Thumb development by passing straight through the FM 549 and 550 intersection and onto the bypass. The bypass would allow traffic to bypass accidents or localized traffic such as during pick-up and drop-off at Amy Parks and can be further extended into the McCutcheon Farms development when it is finalized.

The paving cost should be rather low, around half the cost of the original Amy Parks Bypass. Land acquisition costs should be low as the landowners will each dramatically increase their road frontage with the extension of the road.

The road will help to frame the development of the area properties and decrease the need for the development downtown to face the existing streets which should result in more balanced layouts for proposed developments. Additionally, the road can be incorporated into the proposed FM 740 bypass that is currently expected to snake behind the current houses along FM 740 immediately adjacent to the current Amy Parks Bypass.

Finally, this extension increases the resilience of the Heath traffic grid to an emergency occurring along the stretch of FM 740 between FM 549 and FM 1140. Currently if there is an accident that requires for lanes to be closed, there is no viable bypass for traffic, and no route for emergency services to leave the downtown area. For example, if a gasoline tanker caught fire on the way to the Shell station today, FM740 would be shut down with no real alternative route available.

As a first step towards streamlining the traffic flow through Heath, an extension of the Amy Parks bypass would be a low cost, high return investment in the city’s future.