MCKINNEY, Texas — The McKinney City Council this week approved moving forward with plans for the Lower 5 Plaza project to create a pedestrian connection across State Highway 5.
The plaza will create a pedestrian connection across State Highway 5 at Louisiana and Virginia Streets, McKinney city officials say. State Highway 5 will serve as a bridge with a park area underneath. The project will come back before the council for various contracts and agreements, though.
“Now that we have a direction on the framework going underneath the road, we’re going to take another look at the design and make sure it’s meeting the needs of the council, meeting the needs of the public,” McKinney Assistant City Manager Kim Flom said. “Components of the design will change over time to make sure we’re getting the best plaza for McKinney.”
The city council Tuesday, in a 5-2 vote, OK’d a $225,000 contract with Kimley Horn and Associates for engineering design services for the project, not to exceed $250,000. Also, in a 5-2 vote, the city council authorized a $435,000 contract with Kimley Horn for engineering design services, not to exceed $475,000. Gary Graham, McKinney’s director of engineering, says the city will be made whole for the contract amount through an exchange with the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NTCOG).
City Councilman Patrick Cloutier and Councilman Justin Beller voted against authorizing the contract.
“There’s one huge plus to me and that is that it does provide a reconnection that Highway 5 kind of took away from McKinney a number of decades ago. It provides a reconnection for people to walk across Highway 5 without the burden of traffic,” Cloutier said. “But there’s some concerns I’ve got. There is the money; McKinney’s share is roughly going to be $15 million, there’s an annual maintenance number, there’s also the construction. I’ve talked to some of the business owners downtown, and there is concern about that, about the access to the square…and then there is the moving of businesses that are here.”
The city is partnering with the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) and the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NTCOG) for the work. The cost of the project is estimated to be $40-45 million, infrastructure costs related to construction, right of way, and engineering are estimated at $25-30 million, and park construction costs, which the city will cover, are estimated at $15 million.
TxDOT will roll the project into work already being done on State Highway 5. TxDOT also committed to designing and constructing the bridge with state funds. The city will build the park after that, with NTCOG committed to funding up to $30 million in infrastructure costs.
“With our partnership with TxDOT and the fact that they’re taking components of this work, folding them into their corridor work, it means that the actual construction of the park isn’t going to happen for a while,” Flom said. “It is a lengthy process. Because of that, because of the timing, our costs are probably going to go up.”
Annual maintenance and operations for the park are estimated at $2-2.5 million, and city staff expect the costs of the park to escalate before its expected completion in 2030.