New Road Leads Aledo Residents Down Unwanted Path
ALEDO (CBSDFW.COM) - Some residents of Southwest Tarrant County are raising concerns about a new road being built on the edge of their neighborhood. It's what's at the end of the road, and who might be using it, that has them nervous.
Workers were wetting down the base for a new road off Linkhaven Drive on Wednesday. It's near the entrance to the Lost Creek Estates, a quiet, established neighborhood full of families.
The seclusion is why Christine East moved to the neighborhood in the first place. "There's not a lot of traffic flow. kids still play outside in the evening, run around and ride bikes."
The new private road will take people in a direction you can't go right now from Interstate 30. Well-worn trails through the grass show people have been trying to find a way to get there anyway. At the end of the trail is Wet Willies, a honky tonk bar. The new road would also give new access to Wet Willies' neighbors--an adult video store, and a gentlemans club that is re-opening.
That prospect doesn't sit well with East. "We're going to have people that are probably on our roads, that are intoxicated in our neighborhood, on our roads with our children running around."
Wet Willies' manager, Dusty Brackney, says the road, being built with private money on purchased land, is primarily to address a safety issue. "This roads going to stop them before they get into the neighborhood. You don't pass a single residence bfore you get to our road. they're going to see it, and it keeps them out of the neighborhood."
People do try to get to the business up a one-way street, and he said emergency vehicles often go the long way around when they're needed.
To get to the club from Fort Worth, you currently have to drive four miles past it before you can turn and go back the other direction.
"The bottom line is it's a big safety issue. not just for us but for the general public," says Brackney.
The Tarrant County Sheriff's Office says emergency responders could go the wrong way down one way roads to respond to an emergency at the business, if the situation warranted taking that step.