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Friday, November 3, 2000

New road goes right to beach
Newport Pass Road to ease congestion
By Stephanie L. Jordan
Caller-Times
Nueces County's first new road of the century will most benefit beachgoers, officials said at a groundbreaking ceremony Thursday.
   The new road will provide access to the beach from Park Road 22. It will be built between two existing beach access roads - Zahn Road and Public Access Road 3.
   The new road is designed to ease traffic problems on Park Road 22 and the beach access roads during peak holiday weekends.
   The 3,500-foot road will cost $186,949, $78,976 of which is covered by a grant given the county by the Coastal Bend Coordination Council, said Nueces County Commissioner Joe McComb.
   "And the timing was good with (the Texas Department of Transportation) because they got the turn-in lanes for us when they paved the road, so that won't be an extra cost to the county," McComb said. "This will spruce things up and give more appeal to residents and tourists."
   The road will be a plus for law enforcement agencies forced to struggle with crowd control on Labor Day, Memorial Day and spring break. Some motorists trying to avoid traffic have been bold enough to drive across the grasses to get onto the park road, some said.
   "This will be a great thing because now people will have another road between Zahn and Road 3 to use to get to and from the beach," said Jerry Boucher, chief deputy with the Nueces County Precinct 2 Constable's Office.
   Before getting approval for the road, county officials received permits from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the Corps of Engineers and Texas Parks and Wildlife, said John Michael, project engineer for Naismith Engineering.
   For now the road is going to be called Newport Pass Road, but in the future, McComb said the county should consider a contest to name the access roads, including the new one.
   "It's so confusing because depending on what direction you're coming from you might not know which one is one, two or three," McComb said. "Maybe we should have the residents decide the name."



Staff writer Stephanie L. Jordan can be reached at 886-3724 or by e-mail at jordans@caller.com

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