The Ecker Hill Park n Ride lot on Kilby Road has been open for nearly a week. We talked ot the county’s Public Works Director, Derrick Radke, about what that means for local citizens.
Radke said he parking lot has a little over 450 spaces.
However, there have been some concerns expressed about a site, with a lot of strangers parking across the street from Ecker Hill Middle School.
County spokeswoman Krachel Murdock reviewed how the county wound up on that site. Radke said they’re aware of the concerns.
“I can understand the concern.” Radke said, “Cameras will go up, deputies will be monitoring it. Just one more thing to watch for.”
“I think it’s important to remind people that this wasn’t our option or our choice.” Murdock explained,
“We certainly, number one we’re limited in open space options. There were a couple different options between that area and as far up as Summit Park. Really when it came down to it this area was the most feasible for putting in a park n ride lot. Beyond that we had hoped that maybe we could put in a freeway exit and entrance directly into the park n ride. We had to start working with the federal highway on those issues and ultimately, they said no. So, our hands were tied, we didn’t have another option for approaching, entering, exiting the park n ride without utilizing Kilby Road.”
While the lot is finished, Radke said some additional work is still left to finish up.
“A little bit of landscaping, around the perimeter.” Radke continued, “That’s the primary work going on. Electrical, we had some setbacks with some of the electrical stuff. The light poles were way backordered. We did get some temporary poles up in the center section so again its lighted during the evening for the primary area that’ll be used while we ramp up to full-use hopefully. The other major thing to be completed is the canopies that go in for the bus shelter, the cover for the electric bike facility, and the canopies that go over the pedestrian walkway.”
Snow is in the forecast but Radke said that his plow drivers can handle the new medians in Kilby Road.
“Our guys are used to working around medians. They do it around Kimball Junction all the time. We actually did have a skiff of snow where we had to go out last weekend even. Our road superintendent actually drove one of the plows and did the Kilby Road thing. He said, yes, I had to slow down dang it.” Radke laughed, “He did it fine, we’ll clear the road just like we always have. I don’t see and anticipate any issues there.”
