=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
TX130 is a 49 mile toll road stretching from near Sequin to Georgetown bypassing Austin to the East by 20-30 miles.

It is a segment of a toll road which is planned to extend to the Oklahoma border as part of Governor Perry's Transportation plan which calls for massive 'transportation corridors' to be created across the state.

TX130 was promoted as a bypass for IH35 but according to this article is only expected to remove 5-15% of IH35 traffic.

Not that this is a bad thing - given chaos theory even a 5% reduction of IH35 traffic might do some good for reducing some of the worst of the congestion.

What I find troubling is that as near as I can tell, since most of the development along this road will be outside of city boundaries ("unincorporated areas") and the state has no interest in setting development guidelines, we're spending $1.5 billion to turn a 49 mile strip of rural Texas into Houston.

And if that wasn't enough, the problem of East/West connectors remains. Until 183 and Ben White / 290 between IH38 and MoPac were completed within the last 10y, Austin has no East/West freeway connections. Seem to me that we're repeating the process w/TX130.

If you're familiar with the construction of TX45 (roughly around the area of 620 in north Austin / Round Rock) and the TX / IH35 and TX45 / 183 interchanges which are being built (think the Sam Houston Toll Way / I10 or 290 interchanges in Houston) then this is that replicated on a massive scale through rural Central Texas.

Photos
Manor looks to balance private-public influence
Hutto street shows perils of hasty development

A letter I wrote:

February 13, 2005

To the Editors,

Stephen Scheibal's articles on TX130 ("Facing a boom along a toll road") raise several troubling issues.

1. As he noted in the article, the project was 'sold' to the Central Texas public as a bypass to IH35. Was it also pitched to the bond investors as such, and if so, how do they feel about the repurposing of the road to that of "ignit[ing] a parallel economy independent of the interstate"?

2. Until 183 and Ben White / 290 were completed as freeways within the last 10 years the Austin area had no East/West freeway connectors between IH35 and MoPac. It appears that the same 'planning' is being repeated with TX130.

3. Given that most of the road falls outside of any city jurisdiction and the state is not interesting in setting any development guidelines, is anyone else concerned that we're at risk of turning a 49 mile strip of rural Texas into a slice of Houston?