City celebrates Northeast Downtown project as Texas APWA Project of the Year

City staff accepted a Project of the Year award from the Texas chapter of the American Public Works Association for the Northeast Downtown project, a streetscape and infrastructure upgrade encompassing North Elm, Trinity Avenue and Austin Avenue.

"My name is Matt Leffler. I'm the operations manager for the transportation and public works department," Leffler said as he described goals of the project: improve pedestrian accessibility, parking, lighting and general downtown aesthetics and place aerial utilities underground.

Leffler thanked Joe Farley and the electrical department and credited AT&T and Spectrum for coordinating utility work; he also acknowledged Jacob Kirkpatrick and the parks department for planter boxes and Rick Schafer and the water department for water and sewer infrastructure installed ahead of the project.

Council and attendees applauded as staff accepted recognition for the downtown improvements and Leffler said the department looks forward to continuing similar projects in other downtown quadrants.