In September 2019, the North Richland Hills City Council established a 2020 Capital Program Advisory Committee to review street and other infrastructure needs and make recommendations for necessary improvements. The committee included 35 residents from across North Richland Hills. The committee met from October to February to review and prioritize projects. They considered more than 100 streets that are in poor condition, the estimated cost for reconstruction and how much the city can afford without a tax rate increase. Committee members felt that a majority of proposed bond funding should be dedicated to improving heavily traveled streets such as Glenview, Iron Horse and Bedford-Euless, and the remaining to residential streets that carry less traffic. To stretch the funding further and improve more residential streets, the committee recommended that residential streets which are currently asphalt be reconstructed with asphalt, rather than more expensive and time-consuming concrete construction.
To prioritize the improvements, the committee considered numerous factors such as existing pavement conditions, traffic volumes, maintenance records, input from citizen surveys, whether or not the roadway is a primary public safety response route and estimated costs. While there are additional streets in need of reconstruction, the committee limited its recommendation to what the city can afford without increasing the property tax rate. The committee’s recommendation was presented to the City Council on January 27 and the City Council called for a May bond election at its February 10 meeting. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the May election was postponed to November.