GRAND REOPENING: City celebrates end of Hopkins Street Improvement Project

The City of San Marcos commemorated turning the page on a two-year street improvement project.

San Marcos city officials gathered Monday in the parking lot of Smiles Dental, 715 W. Hopkins Street, to celebrate the Hopkins Street Grand Reopening.

Mayor Jane Hughson and Richard Reynosa, the City’s Assistant Director of Engineering, led the event’s opening remarks, followed by a burst of applause. The crowd then dispersed to enjoy light conversation, donuts, and coffee.

Monday’s celebration follows several weeks of activity on the thoroughfare. Hopkins Street opened to traffic for the first time on Wednesday, Aug. 3 after a two-year construction project, much to the relief of commuters, project engineers, and city employees alike.

Construction on Hopkins Street between Bishop and Moore began in May 2020 to address drainage problems and reconstruct the street.

According to Reynosa, the improvements were “long overdue.”

​​“There was no drainage infrastructure in the neighborhood and so one of the big problems we were trying to solve was drainage in the neighborhood,” Reynosa said in a previous interview with the Daily Record. “We did a prior project which brought the drainage infrastructure from Dunbar Park to Hopkins so that we could create the drainage infrastructure for Hopkins Street. So, there was a lot of flooding of homes and stuff and so that was a big aspect of the project.”

Reynosa added that one of the biggest challenges of the project was managing traffic detours.

“Hopkins Street is the City’s major road connection from Wonder World Drive to Downtown San Marcos,” Reynosa said Monday. “The main detour route directed traffic to Craddock Avenue, however, many motorists found alternative routes.

“The city did its best to manage traffic and mitigate the impacts to surrounding neighborhoods.”

In addition to the drainage improvements, site workers outfitted Hopkins Street with electric utilities, reduced speed and street width, three raised intersections, as well as cosmetic enhancements, including bricks and decorative street lighting.

The city contracted with Jordan Foster Construction, an Austin-based contractor, to perform the improvements for an estimated $10,070,388.

Hopkins Street is the second of four planned projects following the Travis Street Drainage Project to address drainage in the area, according to Reynosa.

“The third, Bishop Street Improvements, is currently under design and the fourth project is along Belvin Street which is planned for the future,” he said.

Reynosa told the Daily Record that improvements have already begun to calm traffic on the roadway, adding that the city can now resume plans it had deferred while the project was underway to reduce the speed limit on Hopkins.

The current posted speed for Hopkins Street is 30 mph and 20 mph at the raised intersections.