Copperas Cove approves Avenue D sidewalk project near high school

Copperas Cove moved to close one of its most visible sidewalk gaps along Avenue D, approving an advance funding agreement with the Texas Department of Transportation for a pedestrian project that runs from Myra Lou Avenue past Copperas Cove High School and through downtown to E. Business 190.

The work calls for about 4,700 linear feet of five-foot-wide sidewalk, 26 ADA-compliant ramps, a pedestrian crossing, multiple drainage bridges and safety lighting tied to existing electric poles. For students walking to Copperas Cove High School, people pushing strollers or using wheelchairs, and drivers who share the corridor, the project targets a stretch that has long needed a more continuous and safer path.

The estimated cost is $722,000, based on 2025 documents tied to the project. The city had already set aside $95,000 from savings connected to 2017 Certificate of Obligation bond funds, and those dollars will help cover the city’s share, including design costs. That local funding makes the project more than a concept on paper, even as the actual construction timeline remains ahead.

Copperas Cove had already put the Avenue D sidewalk work into motion before this latest approval. On June 3, 2025, the City Council authorized the city manager to submit two detailed Transportation Alternatives applications to TxDOT, including the Avenue D Sidewalk Improvements project. A public notice from the Killeen-Temple Metropolitan Planning Organization in January 2026 said the project had been awarded through the 2025 Transportation Alternatives call, was expected to be 100 percent federally funded as submitted, and was anticipated to go out for bid in September 2027.

That notice also said the project would include ADA-compliant curb ramps, crosswalks, drainage bridges and safety lighting. Under the city’s 2025 Transportation Alternatives resolution, Copperas Cove would still be responsible for the required local match, non-reimbursable costs and any overruns, making the city’s advance funding agreement a practical step in carrying the project forward.

The Avenue D work fits into a broader capital plan the city adopted on August 19, 2025, but it stands out as one of the clearest day-to-day changes residents are likely to notice once construction starts. In the same meeting, council members also handled an executive session on a potential economic development incentive tied to the future VA clinic project known as Project Hometown Hero, approved a renegotiated lease for the BNSF parking lot on West Avenue D, and took up several other service and utility items.