From the Austin American-Statesman, Tuesday, July 13, 2004:

 

Toll-road plan gets the green light

CAMPO board votes to make seven roads pay-as-you-go

By Ben Wear

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Tuesday, July 13, 2004

Central Texas, which until now had waded just shin-high into the chilly waters of toll roads, took the full plunge Monday evening.

The board of the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization overwhelmingly approved a $2.2 billion plan that will take the area from no toll roads currently -- although three are under construction -- to at least 11 within a decade. The plan, as now envisioned, would mean that drivers would have to pay to travel most area freeways -- except for Interstate 35, MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1) and U.S. 183 North -- unless they were willing to stop at traffic lights on frontage roads alongside.

The plan, unveiled three months ago by the Texas Department of Transportation and its adjunct agency, the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority, was approved 16-7 by the CAMPO board. A crowd of more than 600, which spilled out of an auditorium on the University of Texas campus and into four overflow rooms upstairs, greeted the decision by the panel of Central Texas legislators, county commissioners and city council members with boos, cries of “Shame, shame” and a shouted recall threat for Austin Mayor Will Wynn.

Voting against the plan were Travis County Commissioner Gerald Daugherty; Republican state Reps. Terry Keel, Todd Baxter and Jack Stick; Democratic state Reps. Elliott Naishtat and Eddie Rodriguez; and Austin City Council Member Daryl Slusher.

“The real motivation of this scheme is to serve as the funding mechanism for the regional mobility authority,” Keel said. “My constituents see through this plan, and they don’t like it one bit. We’ve been sold a bill of goods here.”

But supporters of the plan said that given the Texas Legislature’s resistance to raising the state’s 20-cents-a-gallon gasoline tax (which has been frozen since 1991) and the resulting cash crunch for new highway construction, Central Texas had no choice but to accept turnpikes in a big way.

The Texas Transportation Commission, made up of appointees of Gov. Rick Perry, a toll enthusiast, has said that Austin and other metropolitan areas faced a choice between toll roads and slow roads.

“I don’t much like this plan,” said state Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos, D-Austin, chairman of the CAMPO board, who voted for it later. “I wish we didn’t have to vote on it, but we do. The gas tax is not going to be raised, not anytime soon anyway.”

The CAMPO board’s approval was the first and last regulatory hurdle for all but one road in the plan. An amendment approved Monday would designate Loop 360 as a future toll road with four main lanes and four free frontage roads. But the project’s funding was removed from a companion plan, so it would need future action by CAMPO to become a toll road.

To qualify for critical federal transportation funds, highway projects must be approved by metropolitan planning organizations.

All nine highways in the plan as introduced in April were in CAMPO’s long-range plan, but seven of them were not listed as toll roads.

Monday’s vote changed that, and now both the state and the mobility authority can move ahead with planning and construction.

Aside from the wrinkle on Loop 360, the board made two other notable changes to the plan Monday night:

* Texas 45 Southwest, a proposed road set in the plan to be four toll lanes from MoPac Boulevard to RM1826, will instead have two toll lanes and two free frontage lanes. But if federal environmental regulators allow only two lanes to be built in the environmentally sensitive area, tolls would not be charged.

* $100 million in the plan intended for Loop 360 was transferred to the interchange of U.S. 183 and Texas 71, allowing the connections between those two roads to be upgraded.

Because three of the roads in the plan already are under construction (and a fourth has one segment under way as part of a connecting road project), Central Texans could begin to pay tolls as soon as 2005.

The most likely candidate to inaugurate tolls in Central Texas is also the most controversial. Officials plan to charge tolls on a 1.5-mile stretch of MoPac Boulevard from just south of William Cannon Drive to U.S. 290 West once work on an overpass at William Cannon is complete. Eventually, two more bridges from MoPac to U.S. 290 West would be a part of the turnpike segment.

The idea of charging tolls on that segment inflamed Circle C residents and thousands of others from Southwest Austin who have been looking at the elimination of the traffic light at William Cannon as a ticket to faster commuting. Those people, as well as many others along Loop 360, flooded elected officials on the CAMPO board with e-mail. They demanded that their MoPac “gateway” to Central Austin not be blocked with toll booths and that scenic Loop 360 and the unique Pennybacker Bridge over Lake Austin have no more lanes.

To no avail.

bwear@statesman.com; 445-3698

 

A wave of toll roads

Central Texas transportation leaders gave the OK on Monday to a $2.2 billion plan that will result in the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority upgrading and charging tolls on several major roads in the Austin area.

Approved Monday

* Texas 71: From a few hundred yards east of Interstate 35 to Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. The first 2.1 miles of this 3.6-mile project, from I-35 to west of Riverside Drive, is under construction using tax dollars. Construction on all segments would begin by 2005. Total new costs: $112 million.

* U.S. 183 (Ed Bluestein Boulevard): From I-35 (including a new direct ramp from I-35 to U.S. 183) to the interchange with Texas 71. The 2.3-mile segment from I-35 to Springdale Road is under construction. Construction on all portions of this 12.6-mile project would begin by 2006. Total new costs: $479 million.

* U.S. 290 West: From Williamson Creek, where the freeway currently ends, west to near RM 1826. Construction on this 2.7-mile segment will begin this year. Cost: $185 million.

* U.S. 290 East: From U.S. 183 east for 5.7 miles to Texas 130, a turnpike around Austin’s east side under construction. Officials estimate construction will begin in 2007. Cost: $400 million.

* MoPac Boulevard: From south of William Cannon Drive to U.S. 290 West, including two new direct bridges at the interchange. The overpass over William Cannon is under construction using tax dollars. The stretch subject to tolls would be about 1.5 miles long. Total new cost: $30 million.

* Loop 360: From MoPac in South Austin to U.S. 183. This 13.1 mile project would be built in two segments. The mobility authority would build the section from Bee Cave Road to north of Walsh Tarlton Lane beginning in 2008. A private entity would lease the rest of the road for several decades and build the improvements beginning in 2010, collecting the tolls. Cost: $550 million. However, a further Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization vote would be required to move forward with this project.

* Texas 45 Southwest: A proposed road from MoPac to RM 1826. Cost of this 3.6-mile project: $40 million.

Already approved

Texas 45 Southeast: From I-35 to Texas 130 at Mustang Ridge. This 6.9-mile road would not have continuous frontage roads. Cost: $220 million.

U.S. 183-A: From RM 620 to U.S. 183 north of Leander. The 11.6-mile road (including about one mile at the south end already under construction as part of the Texas 45 North project) should begin construction next year and will not have continuous frontage roads. Cost: $200 million.

Under construction

Texas 130: From I-35 north of Georgetown to Texas 45 Southeast. The 49-mile road, and the other two turnpikes under construction, will not have continuous frontage roads.

Texas 45 North: From U.S. 183 to Texas 130. Length: 13 miles.

MoPac extension: From Parmer Lane to Texas 45 North. Length: 3 miles.