CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — As Creekside Elementary School gets ready to welcome students for Corpus Christi Independent School District's first day of school on Monday, sidewalks are missing on Yorktown Boulevard near the school.
City officials said that portion of Yorktown Boulevard never had sidewalks since the road was built. However, the Bond 2020 project to expand Yorktown Boulevard will include a 10-foot shared-use path on both sides.
Corpus Christi Engineering Services said the Yorktown Boulevard project is expected to start next week. It will be done in two phases and take multiple years to complete. That means there will be no sidewalks on Yorktown Boulevard near Creekside for the first day of school.
The sidewalk eventually stops on Yorktown Boulevard as you head east from Rodd Field Road. Corpus Christi Engineering Services officials said once the Yorktown Boulevard project begins, phase one on the north half of the road will take about two years to complete.
"...Phase 2, where Creekside Elementary is, is on the south half of the project and is anticipated to begin mid-2026, lasting until mid-2027. Pouring the sidewalks takes place around the end of the phase, so the sidewalks near Creekside Elementary are estimated to be poured around mid-2027," Corpus Christi Engineering Services officials said in a statement sent to 3NEWS.
Marissa Groneman, a parent who moved to Corpus Christi this year, said she is concerned that there are not sidewalks near the new elementary school.
"Looking at it, it's a pretty busy road, and if you have a bunch of kids walking to school then they should be walking on sidewalk," Groneman said. "I would hope they have plans to do it in the future, but yeah, but I think they should have them now."
In a press conference addressing back-to-school safety this week, Corpus Christi Police Department Captain Timothy Frazier said drivers must be extra careful. Not only will the morning commute look a little more crowded, there are also only traffic signals on that stretch of Yorktown Boulevard.
"They're two lights in that area but there are no sidewalks," Frazier said. "Traffic is going to be kind of hectic, because right now it's only a two-lane road."
Frazier added that since it is younger students that are going to be at Creekside, they might not always be aware of the dangers.
"It's going to be the smaller kids, and the smaller kids are the ones that tend to forget to look left and right, you know, and they just kind of dart out," he said.