anyone from public arts or um is an on the call? Um I don't see her yet. Okay. She should be. She messaged me earlier saying she would be okay.
Do we want to start without her or wait a couple more minutes? We should go ahead and get started. Thanks, though. That's what I figured. No, you're good. Um, all right. So, good evening everyone. Thank you for joining tonight. Um, this
is the pre-construction community meeting for the SH121 art project. Um, the city project number is uh C01639 and we're in council district 11. Um, at this time, if anyone from Council
District 11 would like to say hey, um, talk a little bit, uh, you're more than welcome to. This is Rachel Audiano. I'm chief of staff for Councilwoman Martinez. Just want to thank everybody for taking the time to be on the call and those for
filling in for Fanta. I'm just, it's an important project and we're excited um, to have everybody joining the call. I have Natalie Lopez, um, district director on the call, as well as Maya Perez, um, our summer intern from UT as well. So again, just thank you all for
being here this evening. Look forward to hearing more about this project and community input. Thank you. Awesome. Thank you, Rachel. All right. Um, and so for some more introductions today, uh, like I said, I'm Abby Tucker. I'm with City of Fort Worth. My program manager
for this project is Chad Allen. Um and then the landscape architects and engineers for this project are DSGN Associates and Baird Hampton and Brown respectively. And then the contractor for this project will be C Green uh C Greenscaping.
Um all right, so we can go over uh the agenda for tonight. Um first we'll go over a project overview and history of the project. Um then we'll go into the scope of the project and then typical construction process and project uh
traffic control and then we'll end it with the project schedule and notification. Um just as a little bit of a project overview, project history. Um in 2004 the Governor's Community Achievement Award was given to the city's environmental management department for
its keep Fort Worth beautiful efforts. Um, in 2016, text dot informed the city that a new site could be selected on a state highway, but not on the federal highway system. Um, this site was approved in January 2018, the one we're
discussing today. Um, on January 14th of 2019, um, the FWAC approved the artist team's revised prelim preliminary design for this project. Um, and that's what we we'll be discussing. Um, so just as a zoomed out version of the project
location, um, as you can see in yellow, um, we're going to be on 121 east of I35. And then zooming in a little bit, um, the project online says the limits are Maxine Street to Beach Street on 121. Um, and then the construction is really
going to be focused, um, in that yellow portion right there, pretty much in between Wayne Street and Clarence Street. So, as far as proposed improvements go, um this will be several signs that spell out Fort Worth. Um and it'll be visible
going west on 121 towards downtown. Um as you can see kind of from this plan sheet, um the letters will um closest to downtown will be closer to 121 and then they'll gradually move farther away towards the frontage road
um as you get farther from downtown. And um so that's a couple plan sheets for you from that. And then here are some sign dimensions for all the signs that'll be going up. As you can see, they're 10 ft in height and the widths
vary from between 5tish and 10 ftish. Um yeah, so there's some uh details for those. And then this is just a an early rendering of some of the signage
dimensions of the um foundation. Um as you can see that's the R with the the gray at the bottom is the foundation which goes under the ground um to keep the sign stable. Um and then this is a really fancy graphic we have um that shows you what it's going to look like
driving west on 121 uh looking towards downtown. Um, like I said, the the H at the end of Fort Worth will be closer to the fronted road. Um, vice versa for the F as you uh go closer to downtown. So, you can really see it from quite a ways
away. Um, so for project details, as I said, the project limits are going to be um 121 west of Maxine to Beach. Um, and the project scope is mainly the Fort Worth sign um plus the installation of native
flowers and grasses. Um, as far as the typical construction process goes, um, it'll start out with notifications about seven, well, seven days before construction. Um, the traffic control imple implementation will come next. So, you're going to see
barrels, signage, um, for the construction process. And then after that will come erosion control plan implementation. And then we'll go through um, rideway site clearing. Um so prepping the earth, prepping um the site
for construction. Um next there will be foundation work for the sign installation. Um followed by um the sign installation itself and the landscaping and then finally the traffic control and erosion control will be removed and final
cleanup will occur. Um, in regards to the traffic control, um, just some, uh, brief explanations. Um, no 121 main closures will happen or main lane closures will happen during this process. Um, barrels along the
shoulder of the main lanes will be placed um, between those entrance and exit ramps um, right at the location of the project. Um, and then the frontage road inside lane will be closed as needed and the site will be accessed from the frontage road. So, that's where
you're going to be seeing construction equipment entering the site. Um, none of that will be occurring on the main lanes of 121. And then, um, for the scheduling and notification process, um, the project
is, um, scheduled to start in either, uh, August or September of 2025. Um, the duration will be 210 calendar days, which corresponds with about 7 to 8 months. So, the project completion will be March or April of 2026. Um, for
working hours, we have scheduled 7 am to 6 pm for weekdays and then 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on weekends, um, if requested and approved. Um, and then as far as project notification goes, um, as I said
earlier, the notices to residences and businesses will go out 7 days before construction starts. And at that same time, variable message boards and project signs will also be placed. Um, and just keep in mind that the product schedule could be affected by unforeseen
events such as weather. So that's most of the presentation today. Pretty pretty quick and easy. Um, but we just wanted to give a plug to our recording system um, for City of Fort Worth. Um there is the My Fort Worth uh
app that you can download from the App Store or Google Play. Um and you can use this app to report outages on street lights on um signals. Uh you can report potholes. Um you can also see that um there's an online reporting in chat at
uh the Fort Worth Gov um customer care website. And then you can also um always call the city call center. And then um for any additional questions on this project um here's some contact information from all of us. Um as Chad
said earlier, I'm just filling in for Fanta. So my information is not up there. Um but uh we've got the program manager, the project manager, and then the contractor and the inspector for the project. I think that's it. So I'll leave it on this one for a little bit.
Um, yeah, I don't know chat if we have any questions in the chat or not. So, I'm monitoring the chat and I don't see any questions, but you know, we still have plenty of time. So, if any if anyone on the call has any questions about the
project, um, we have the project manager here. We have the contractor and the engineer. We have folks from our construction office. And we have folks from the city council members office. So, we have a lot of experts here and we can try to answer your questions about the project if anyone has any. We're in
no hurry to leave. Will the letters be lighted is the first question. So, that is a yes, right? Yes. So, um do we have any Matt? Can you tell us more about the lighting or should we Yeah. How will they be lit is the next question.
Uh the lights will be um ground mounted fixtures that will point up to the letters. Um there will be uh LED fixtures. So um and to and aim to avoid um pointing them at you know any neighboring windows or anything like
that and done accordingly um to address that. So I don't think but they're mainly just to uh upwash the letters that are visible at night. Okay. There is another that um do we have any more questions about the the lighting
from Daniel or anyone else? Hey Chad, so this is uh hey here. Um yeah, so I'll be the senior lighting inspector on this uh project here. Um, so I so I take it we're going to as we
get closer to that date, we'll actually have a uh a precon uh somewhere in the office there from what I understand or Yes, sir. Um we we as as soon um we will be scheduling the precon through the ebuilder process very soon and we appreciate the construction office being
in this call but um immediately after this meeting we're going to be coordinating the actual precon over there in the construction office. Okay. Hey, and Chad, this is Mike Myers, construction manager. I just wanted to add uh in addition to the 7-day notice,
there will be a uh a one-day notice and there should be message boards also placed up with information. Perfect. Thank you. And Chad, this is Ann Allen with Fort Worth. I have joined by phone. WebEx would not let me in. I tried every
which way. So, I'm here listening in purposefully keeping you out. Okay. Thank you for joining. We're glad you're here. We talked about the lighting. There's some other questions in the chat. Abby, I'm going to read to you now. The next one is, will the neighborhood streets be
blocked or do we need to go through the north end to get to the home? So, as far as I know, and we I think we have the engineer on the call. They can help us out with this or the contractor. As far as I know, um, no, there's no detours and no neighborhood streets are going to be blocked like Abby mentioned earlier.
Um, possibly the one of the lanes on the frontage road, uh, will be closed, but there, you know, traffic will still be able to get through there. But does anyone on the call have any other information about this question? Will the neighborhood streets be blocked or do we need to go through the north end to get to the homes?
No, you answered it perfectly, Chad. Okay. No neighborhood streets and and the most we're going to have is one lane closed on the access road. Okay, perfect. Um, it says the next question is, "Will there be space for people to
get out for photos?" Wow. Um, that that is a no. Um, this this um this art That's an interesting question. I like this art piece is meant to be experienced from your vehicle. Um, it would not be considered safe to get
out of your car and do so. Um, so the answer would no that would not be advised. I I agree with that answer. Um, keeping people from doing that like I don't think we have any barricades up but um I I can imagine people will you know would
want to do that. I would just say as a project design team the project was not designed to experience in that fashion. That is that is correct. So the next question is will the landscaping be continuous through all the letters or just islands of native plants? I think
that one's for you Matt. So in along the letters there will be um for the entire length of the of the letters there will be native grasses and native wild flowers going through the entire length around around the area of the letters and then normal um sort of
grass landscaping on the outside of that. Hey Matt, you are your connection is breaking up. You might want to type in the chat if I think that might I think that might be
your connection. I heard that very clearly, but you you are coming in and out. But but thank you. Did he um Rachel, could you hear Matt? Yes, I could hear him clear. Laura was
the one that was cutting out. He was clear. Okay, thank you very much. Um, there's several more questions I'm really happy that are in the chat. Um, the next one is, what will prevent a motorist from hitting the letters?
So the letters are outside of the area that um deemed by tech to there is a and trace you may want to correct me on the actual distances but there's a measurement from the actual travel lane and all letters and their foundations are outside of that area um that text
dot deems would be necessary to have any sort of um barricading or anything by their standards and that's on the main travel lanes on the um fronted road, we have a curb. And so the curb allows that. The curb is the main thing that
prevents someone from going in there in that situation. And but we were still outside of the distances um set by text standards for that area as well. Right. It's no different than all of the other hundreds and hundreds of roadside signs
that line the highway. They they this meets the same criteria. Okay. The next question is what will the letters be made of? Aluminum, steel, etc. What will be the finish on the letters? They will be unfinished C10 steel.
So if you ever seen like it's like have more of a rusted look um to it. So that would be it's an unfinished metal. So the maintenance would be very minimal on those letters because that's it's intended to have the appearance. I'm sure many people are very aware of that look. I mean, you see it in many
different areas and um used throughout our landscapes. So, if you see a piece of like a large um rusted metal, it's intended to do that. That's how the C tin steel is designed. Okay. Um Beth Beth has a question in the
chat. She says, "I can see a lot of visitors wanting to stop for pick." Yes, we had a question about that earlier. That that might have been from you, Beth, too. Yes, ma'am. It was um the I I think I think Matt stated it um correctly is that the this project and
this artwork was definitely not intended to be, you know, enjoyed like that and do you have any any thoughts about that or should I go to the next? Well, I know people have a tradition here in Texas of pulling over on the freeway and putting their kids out in the uh blue
bonnets in the spring to take pictures. That is a no no. But people still do it. Um, yeah, I think Matt has explained it beautifully. The artist team has always conceived of this project as something meant to be experienced from your vehicle. And in fact, those letters line
up perfectly at certain points as you come into downtown kind of like the old Burma signs and they spell out Fort Worth in kind of one glance. So that's the way the the project is meant to be experienced. Um, will people park on the
frontage road? Perhaps. Uh, but that's not the intention of the artwork. Okay. So, the next question is very similar. It says, "How will you detour people from getting out to take photos?" Um, you know, I don't think we're proposing
any barriers or anything like that. That might be more of a hazard than a help. But, um, I think we've sort of answered this question before. or if anyone else um ha has any information to add that would be great. But the question is, how will you detour people from getting out
to take photos? I'm not sure if we can add any more than what we've already discussed. No, I think it would it would be okay discouraged from doing that. Um the experience of the art piece was um as we said before meant to be experience by
driven. it would be a much different experience and not the artist intention. Okay. Um, next question. I was late to the meeting. How long will the project take and are there any pictures renderings? So, um, we'd be happy. We have plenty of
time. Abby, if you'd scroll back to maybe that nice ren that one. Oh, the rendering or the schedule. Sorry. Uh, both. So, yeah, go right ahead. Sorry. No, you're good. I'm being too controlling, man. I apologize. You're good. You're good. Um, so 210 calendar
days is the duration of this project, which corresponds with between seven and eight months. Um, so if we start in August, it'll be about March when it's completed, if September, than April. Um, and I'd be happy to go back and show
y'all the rendering again. Um, like I said earlier, this is um going west on 121, so towards downtown. Um, that's when the project will be visible in its most experiential form. It sounds like from the frontage road, I don't think
it'll be as much of a I don't know if it'll be as visible just because of the angles and stuff. Yes, correct. because it is it the letters are angled to be experienced from 121. And as you can see, it's uh that's the letters are
spaced out. So, so when you're driving in a car, you can you can see the fort where it's being spelled out. That's why I stated that it was that's how it was the intention and design was intended to be experienced. Sure. Thank you, Matt.
I have a question for Chad or Abby. Uh this is Ann Allen again. Is there a way after this meeting tonight for the city to put a page on its website with a rendering and some information about the project scope and timeline as a followup to this meeting tonight?
Absolutely, we can do that. Um, I think we already have a project page. We can definitely add this rendering to it. Um, we also are recording this meeting and I just looked at our City of Fort Worth YouTube channel. That's where all of our videos get uploaded to. Um, we used to upload them to the project page also.
I'm I'm not sure if we still do that, but we could definitely do that. But um there is the City of Fort Worth YouTube um page where we're going to put this video and we can definitely get this rendering up on the website, too. Great. Okay. Hey, Chad, I just wanted to
add to to to Matt's comment or in the questions about taking pictures in front of the sign. Yeah, because about that. So, go ahead. The letters are so spread out that it's virtually impossible to take a picture in front of the sign because it's so
spread out. Someone would literally have to be the other side of the freeway to be able to even get the whole thing, I believe, in into a picture. Yeah, I was I was thinking the same thing. You get a good shot of said somebody standing like next to an
individual letter, but it might be hard to get, you know, the whole sign, right? So, yeah, the ne the next question is, "How would we prevent a motorist from deciding to try to get out for a photo?" Daniel, I think we've think we've covered covered that one um quite a bit. We appreciate the question. Um Beth
asked, "Did you tell us much of a photo?" Yeah. And it's very unsafe. I think that's our official opinion. Did um Beth asked, "Did you tell us how tall the letters are going to be?" Yes, ma'am. Abby, can you scroll back? Yes. So, I know these dimensions, Beth, are hard to
see, but the letters are 10 foot tall. They're um made of made of the metal that Matt described. They're 10 foot tall, and they're about, you know, five foot wide for the, you know, the thinner ones, the the not as wide ones. Yeah. So, they'll be the letters
themselves are about 10 foot tall and then from the base, from the ground, so it's about 12 feet in total. Um once you factor in the part that's connected to the concrete base um it's probably about another additional two feet. So it's around 12 feet total. So yeah, again
very large and meant to be experienced from a car. You would have a very difficult time taking a photo next to one of them with them being so tall. Okay, perfect. Um will this project affect the property tax is Anna's
question. Um, I do not see how that would would be true. Is there someone smarter than me on the call that has a different answer for that? But I think the answer is no to that question. Um, what is the cost of the project? Uh,
gosh, I should know that number, but but I don't. Does um Carson, what can we give like a an approximate value for the construction cost like a um level uh like an overall all big number? How much
is it? I can This is an I think we were around 550,000 for the construction cost. Okay. Yeah. The construction cost for the base bid was five uh $571,578.
Okay. Um the next question is in the rendering there is a fence or clear panels shown. What is that? Can we go back to the rendering? Yes. What is that? I don't I don't Matt, do you know what that is? Is that just like an artifact in the Oh,
you may be referring to the transparent trees in the background, those are just to represent like existing trees that are on the other side of the frontage road. Um, and then some of those white those white blocks are just existing buildings. And this I apologize rendering was done many many years ago.
Um and so um has not been updated to be anything. It's just it's meant to landscaping you know trees that are existing there. They're not being planted. It's just background. That's correct. That's just a kind of a generic uh shape placeholder shape to
represent buildings and vegetation. Just very very abstract very general. Sorry about that. Daniel, man, you have a good eye, though. I didn't even see those things. But yeah, those those don't aren't meant to really represent anything regarding the art. Hopefully, um, after the project's done, we'll have
a beautiful fly over drone video of the artwork, but this is what we have right now. Um, let's see. Laura Laura chimed in. She said, "Yes, the rendering and the meeting recording will will be and can be placed on the project page." So,
we'll get that done. And um Beth says she loves it. I can't wait to see it. I think it's going to be very popular with our visitors. Thank you. We're excited about it, too. Um, thank you for bringing some vertical art, says Jan, to Riverside. Our other projects are horizontal with minimal
visibility. I I guarantee that makes the design team and Ann very happy. So, we really appreciate that positive feedback. So, those are all the questions in the chat chat. We had a lot of great questions. Thank you everybody for participating. This is awesome. And you
know, we're we're still here. Does anyone have um if you don't want to type in your questions, you can ask them now. Chad, this is Rachel. I just wanted to ensure that um we get notice in the office when construction begins just
that um when the residents are notified seven days prior to construction that um we get that information so we can share it as well. just on our social media channels um just so that residents are informed if they're following us too.
Okay. Um that'll be great. No problem. Who will be responsible for plantings upkeep? Text dot or public forward public arts. It will be Fort Worth public art. We have signed a landscape maintenance agreement
um and we have worked out with Matt firm um the preferred sort of mowing schedule and uh our collection manager has either has or is working on a contract um with a qualified uh landscape contractor. I
believe one that the city already uses and it will be on a MO schedule uh according to the landscape architect's desires for the intent for the grasses and the wild flowers. Um and you may have touched on the at the beginning of the meeting. I I joined late by phone.
Um that there will be a a watering schedule until the uh plant materials are established. Okay. Uh, now you're being a little bit psychic because you're anticipating the future question. So, the next question is, will there be irrigation?
This one just popped up when you were saying that. Will there be irrigation temporary or permanent? So, well, I'm going to let Matt address that in greater detail since he is the landscape architect. Okay. Yes, it will be temporary irrigation. These are native planting, so they are meant to exist
without irrigation. And um the the ir irrigation is just meant to get the um get this all done via seed um hydro mulch and seed and um it should be um that's done to just get establishment and then once germination happens uh
there will not be any irrigation. Yes, they ran out of ran out of questions. Go ahead, Matt. Sorry to answer. I saw Beth, please blue bonnets. Yes, there is a a a text wildflower mixture and that does include blue bonnets.
Beth is happy. I that one popped up and then Daniel's like, I ran out of questions. Those were a lot of good questions, Daniel. We appreciate you participating. Yes, thank you. Okay. Well, um I um you know, we're in no hurry to leave, but Daniel ran out of
questions and I don't see any others on the chat. Um there was a lot of um really good participants in this meeting. It's we love it when people um participate in our meetings and join us and talk about our projects and we're really anxious anxious to get this one started. So, thank you all for joining.
Abby. Um, you know, if there's no more questions, I don't see any in the chat. And if no one, you know, wants to speak up, um, we can go ahead and conclude the meeting. We don't have to stay around till 7:30. So, um, there's there's one other comment in the chat from from Lori. She
says, "Thank you." She's, um, um, very excited about this. And we are, too. Thank you very much. Awesome. Well, we appreciate all the questions. Um, this is Ann Allen with Art Fort Worth. We appreciate all the questions and the uh the people that are looking
forward to seeing the project realized. We're excited about it, too. Okay, great. And that's great. Yeah, I'll just Matt and Trace and Ed and everybody, we appreciate all your help. And Carson, yeah, I just want to add thank you for everyone attending. Um, this project, uh, many of you don't know
is a very long time coming. And so, from our design side and public art side, um, we're we're all very excited to see this project come to fruition. All right. Well, Abby, I think we can say good night. Oh, no. Go ahead. Yeah, Chad, I just wanted to add my sentiments from District 11 and Councilwoman
Martinez. Thank you all so much. I think this this is something Councilwoman Martinez will be very excited about. So, thank you all. Awesome. Okay. Thank you. All right. Thank you'all very much. Everybody have a good night. Thanks. Yeah. Everybody have a good night. Nice meeting. Thank you. Bye.
Bye. Bye. Thank you. Thank you.