The city wants you to believe the Bunton Road bond project is 50 percent complete

Sometimes reality directly contradicts reality.

For example, what if I told you that the Bunton road bond project was 50 percent complete? If you drove along Bunton Road on a daily basis you’d be thinking "OK, perhaps some Bunton Road on some far off planet like Southern California is halfway done, but dearly, beloved Bunton Road in Kyle is not only not 50 percent complete, work on it hasn’t even started yet."

I’ll give you that, but then hit you with this retort: Did you know, did you have any idea, are you aware that work on Goforth road bond project is nearly that far along as well – it’s 48 percent complete? Now, you’re really desperately searching for someone to sign the commitment papers because Goforth Road looks just like it did yesterday, last week, last month, last year, last .... No, wait a minute, it is worse than that. It has actually deteriorated even further during the last year.

But, you see, it’s all about how the numbers are adjusted and those in government are adept at juggling numbers in a way that would put Enrico Rastelli to shame and if you don’t know who Enrico Rastelli is, prepare to be amazed.

But I digress. Jo Ann Garcia, the city’s project manager for the five road bond projects, briefed the Mobility Committee this evening on the status of those projects and without cracking even the smallest smile, she told them work on Bunton is halfway to the finish line and the Project Goforth is 48 percent of the way there. Not only that, nary a one of the four committee members raised an eyebrow. Nor did they question why the three projects on the east side of I-35 are fairly well along (Ms. Garcia told them Lehman is 37 percent done), while the two projects on the west side are languishing: Burleson at 17 percent and Marketplace at 1 percent. That’s right, 99 percent of the work still needs to be done on the Marketplace project.

Look, I don’t know about you, but if I’m driving from Kyle to Dallas, I don’t pat myself on the back when I get to Buda and shout "Hooray, I’m halfway there." But then I’m not a government official. For them the clock starts ticking the moment I begin thinking about driving to Dallas, so, by that standard, by the time I get to Buda, if a bond project manager was calculating, I could actually be 95 percent there.

Take the Bunton Road project for example. Ms. Garcia told the mobility committee the preliminary engineering is done, the environmental documentation and approval are done, and, by gum, they’re just about done with the design of the new road, so, voila, we’re halfway finished with the Bunton Road project. However, she also told the committee such trivial (my word, she didn’t even hint at the fact that these might be unimportant) matters as, say, acquiring the necessary right of way to widen the dang road was at 0 percent. There are 12 parcels the city needs to acquire before construction can even begin and so far the city is batting 0 for 12. Her report did predict that those 12 parcels will be in the city’s back pocket by the end of next month and I have no reason to question her on this. But it seems like acquiring the land needed for the project and the actual construction of it should outweigh some of the other factors in establishing how far along this project is to completion.

Because, I’m betting the hundreds of drivers who use Bunton Road every single day are simply not going to believe work on the project is halfway done when, to them, it hasn’t even started yet.

By the way, the Mobility Committee is looking for some new blood so if you would like to make some direct contributions to the future of the city’s mobility plans, or if you use Bunton Road a lot, here’s a chance to make your voice heard. Here’s where to go if this idea interests you.