MIDLAND, Texas — On June 25, the City of Midland unanimously approved the reduction of speed limits on portions of three major roadways including Briarwood Avenue, Midkiff Road and Rankin Highway.
During Tuesday's City Council meeting, Taha Sakrani, the senior associate traffic engineer for the city presented the following changes.
Briarwood Avenue
According to Sakrani, "We are planning to change the speed limit east of Avalon to Holiday Hill to 40 mph." That's a drop from the current speed limit there of 45 mph.
Sakrani also shared the current speed limit east of Avalon is 60 mph. This plan will reduce the speed limit to 45 mph.
Midkiff Road
According to Sakrani, that doesn't include the area between Loop 250 and Mockingbird, which has a speed limit of 45 mph. This will soon drop to 40 mph from the northern end of Midkiff Road to the centerline of Wall Street.
Rankin Highway
Both the northbound and southbound lanes from the centerline of Interstate 20 to Business Interstate 20 will be adjusted to 30 mph.
"These are large arterial roadways that were rural at one point so they had higher speeds," said Gabe McClelland, the director of engineering for the City of Midland. "As the city grows, we'll come out, we'll do a traffic engineering study.
According to McClelland, the study narrows down the speed at which 85% of the drivers are currently driving at or below and the department works to adjust the speeds based on the study.
"We found on these specific roadways that the speed limit needed to be lowered," said McClelland.
This was the first reading of the ordinance, another will follow in July. A rollout date for these new speed limits has not yet been confirmed.