By LYNETTE SOWELL
Cove Leader-Press
During Tuesday’s Copperas Cove city council meeting, the council approved changing the speed limit along a portion of West Business 190, from Georgetown Road to the intersection of F.M. 2657The decision was not unanimous, with the vote being 6-1 in favor of the change, and Place 4 councilmember John Hale opposing the change.
Director of Public Works Scott Osburn discussed the increased traffic in that area and more traffic to come, with the construction of the new senior center as well as Tractor Supply.
City Manager Ryan Haverlah also talked about the “conflicts” increasing on that stretch of roadway.
“As part of the conflicts, the neighborhood at the end of Walker Place Boulevard and Cline Drive, there are almost 200 new homes that have been constructed and are now being lived in as well, so that has increased the amount of traffic in that area also.”
Hale expressed that according to the data presented, there are roughly 14 accidents a year, caused by people not following the speed limit that’s in place, or the stop signs that are in place today.
“What is the speed limit change going to do to change this behavior among those 14 people a year?”
Haverlah said with the new speed limits, Deputy Chief Albert and Wiers and Chief Eddie Wilson’s crew will need to actively enforce this area to really modify that behavior.
“Behavior does not modify, as you know, overnight, it’s a taught response. So there will be necessary enforcement actions to continue to monitor this corridor, especially in line of posting these new speed limits.”
Initially, Councilmember Shawn Alzona expressed his thoughts on the change.
“Like a lot of people, I drive this road every single day. The terrain has a lot to do with it, more than the speed limit, I believe. If you’re going westbound from 116 and you hit the uphill, most people slow down like 15 miles per hour naturally, and they get in my way. But I’m not speeding,” Alzona said. “I just feel the terrain is more responsible for anything than the speed limit. Reducing the speed limit doesn’t stop people from speeding. That’s just my two cents.”
In the end, Alzona did vote in favor of the change, with John Hale pointing out that the number of accidents wasn’t out of proportion to the number of vehicles that take that route daily.
“I’ve done the math on this whole thing, and there’s approximately 5.8 million trips on that road annually, and we have 14 wrecks annually,” Hale said. “So the numbers bear out to about point 00000014 as a percentage of accidents. I just don’t see the justification for any speed limit reduction based on this list of criteria or this list of accidents that have happened. To me, it doesn’t make sense.”
The speed limit will be lowered to 50 MPH starting at the F.M. 2657/U.S. 190 intersection, from 55 MPH, and then decrease to 40 MPH just prior to the intersection with Georgetown sRoad. The change will go into effect as soon as the new speed limit signs are posted.
According to the agenda, the city received concerns from the community relating to the speed limit in that area.
Also, due development along that stretch of highway and evaluating crash data in that area, the decision was made to propose the speed change. The city already submitted the request to the Texas Department of Transportation, and a TxDOT engineer reviewed and agreed with the change.
From January 1, 2020 – March 31, 2025, there were 72 total crashes in that stretch of highway, which includes crashes that occurred at the intersections of Georgetown Road, Cline Drive, and F.M. 2657.
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