Tyler City Council approves $195,900 contract for downtown traffic study

TYLER – The Tyler City Council approved a $195,900 engineering contract on Wednesday to work on a downtown Tyler traffic study. According to our news partner KETK, the city is working with Kimley-Horn engineers. The city will pay for the study, but they will be reimbursed through a Tyler Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) grant. Toole Design will give recommendations on how officials can improve the downtown area. This has been Toole Design’s focus since the start of 2022. Engineers will survey the area then make recommendations for changes based on their findings, which they will show to the council. Between 2010 and 2020, the City of Tyler grew at an average rate of 1% per year. Some recent developments in downtown include the Fair Plaza Parking Garage, Smith County Jail, People’s Petroleum Building and Plaza Tower. Officials have also proposed building a new Smith County courthouse. The traffic study will last nine months and should be done by late spring 2023.