July 2010 - Community Impact Newspaper

Transportation Report | CAMPO’s 2035 Plan includes $27 billion in regional projects
By Jenn Rains and Eric Pulsifer
The CAMPO Transportation Policy
Board voted May 24 to approve the 2035
Plan, with former Sunset Valley Mayor
Jeff Mills and Travis County Commissioner
Karen Huber as the two votes
against it. The plan identifies the top projects
for transportation at the city, county
and regional levels.
“[The Texas Department of Transportation]
sets the priorities if it’s on the
CAMPO 2035 Plan. The construction
dates in there aren’t ones set by CAMPO;
they’re ones set by TxDOT,” Huber said.
“CAMPO is the metropolitan planning
organization, and it seems to me like if
the representatives on the Transportation
Policy Board are going to take the heat
for the roads that don’t get built, then we
ought to have some authority in setting
the priorities for them.”
The new plan came about because federal
law requires metropolitan planning
organizations in attainment to update
long-range plans every five years, former
CAMPO Executive Director Joe Cantalupo,
who rretired in June, said.
CAMPO includes five counties: Williamson,
Travis, Hays, Bastrop and
Caldwell. Bastrop and Caldwell counties
were included in the organization in
February.
Cantalupo said while many people
think a metropolitan planning organization
is just a place to go to receive federal
money, there’s more to CAMPO than
just that.
“What we’re trying to bring more
awareness to is that we’re supposed to
help coordinate the planning process,”
he said.
The new long-range plan for CAMPO
serves two purposes, it “ensures our
region can receive federal funds for transportation
and [functions] as a coordinating
document,” Cantalupo said.
The plan includes a description of each
project along with the location, sponsors
and cost for roads and other transportation
projects.
The latest long-range plan differs from
ones previously and shows a growing
trend: more local spending on state
systems.
“Local spending on transportation
used to go toward local roads, but now,
the federal and state government cannot
give us as much as we need to maintain
systems,” Cantalupo said. “Not only are we
accounting for more local money to be put
into [maintenance and operations] of local
systems, but local money is being spent on
state transportation systems, too.”
Based on the 2035 Plan, about one-third
of the projects—more than $9 billion out
of a total of about $27 billion—of regional
transportation in the next 25 years will be
funded by local governments.
Local governments used to fund city
roads, and state agencies, such as the
Texas Department of Transportation, were
responsible for state and regional roads,
even the portions that fell within the city
limits. However, with budget woes at the
state and federal level, local governments
will be forced to “pick up larger portions of
the bill,” Cantalupo said.
He said the problem with this new
trend is that local governments do not
have the resources needed or the authority
to handle state projects, a problem
that must be addressed if the cities will be
forced to fund the projects.
West Austin
There are practically no transportation
projects in western Travis County
included in CAMPO’s 2035 plan.
Travis County Commissioner Precinct 3
Karen Huber said she believes West Austin
has been neglected.
“I think the CAMPO process is broken—it
ends up being a wish list of every
small locality. Part of the problem with
West Austin is it has grown so fast in
recent years, there was not the need earlier,”
Huber said.
She said CAMPO modeling does not
take into account known growth factors,
such as roads that are platted but not yet
CAMPO 2035 Plan
620
71
Slaughter Ln.
360
2222
Ben White Blvd.
William Cannon Dr.
45
183
MoPac
Lamar Blvd.
S. 1st St.
S. Congress Ave.
Parmer Ln.
I-35
Braker Ln.
7th St.
built in subdivisions off Hwy. 71.
Huber also said West Austin opting out
of Capital Metro early on has kept the area
from being included in its plans, since the
area residents are not paying taxes to the
transportation authority.
SH 45 SW and the Y at Oak Hill
Improvements to SH 45 SW and the Y
at Oak Hill were among projects in the
Airport Blvd.
Riverside Dr.
I-35
Cesar Chavez St.
Addressing traffic in southern Travis County
45
MoPac
45 SW
Bliss
Spillar Rd.
MLK Jr. Blvd.
290
183
Dessau Rd.
290
Brodie Ln.
Ravenscroft Dr.
1626
Frate Barker Rd.
Travis County
Hays County
Slaughter Ln.
130
130
N Map not
to scale
Community Impact Newspaper • impactnews.com July 2010 | 19
Manchaca Rd.
N
plan. In the ’90s, TxDOT began rebuilding
Ben White Boulevard as a freeway
starting at I-35 and working west toward
Oak Hill, but work came to a halt in Oak
Hill with opposition from some residents
and elected officials. Now, TxDOT is set to
return to finish the improvements to the
Y at Oak Hill, which will carry a combined
cost of approximately $764 million.
Proposed route of SH 45 SW
Roads proposed to be widened
via pass-through financing
The CAMPO 2035 Plan calls for SH 45 SW to be
built, most likely as a $93 million four-lane toll
road with an opening date of 2022. Though
the road would end at FM 1626, Hays County is
exploring extending the road to I-35 as it was
originally envisioned when planned as part of a
loop around Austin in the 1980s.
In the interim before the road can be built,
Travis County is looking at short-term
improvements such as widening Manchaca
Road and FM 1626 and making improvements
to Frate Barker Road.
Sample projects in Austin
from CAMPO 2035 Plan
Many of Austin’s projects included in
the CAMPO 2035 Plan focus on arterial
roadways—major roads connecting the
city, HOV lanes and public transportation
services.
Ben White Boulevard at I-35 is a TxDOTsponsored
project that will see the
construction of four direct connects at the
interchange. The direct connects will allow
traffic to flow smoothly from one roadway
to the next without using access roads or
having to exit. The project is scheduled
to start in 2010 and is expected to be
complete by 2012.
TxDOT and the Central Texas Regional
Mobility Authority are sponsoring a project
in two phases to create managed lanes
on northbound and southbound Loop 1,
or MoPac, from Parmer Lane to Slaughter
Lane. Unlike HOV lanes, managed lanes
would restrict the speed on the road and
charge a toll, though the charge would
depend on the amount of traffic in the
lanes. Phase one from Parmer Lane to
Cesar Chavez is due to begin in 2013 and be
completed by 2015. Phase two, from Cesar
Chavez Street to Slaughter Lane, will start in
2015 and be completed by 2017.
A project to create bus-only or highoccupancy
lanes on North Lamar Boulevard
from the Tech Ridge Park and Ride, 900
Center Ridge Drive, to downtown Austin,
is projected to begin in 2025 and will take
about 10 years to complete. The project is
unsponsored; and funding has not been
allocated but could come from local, state
or federal resources.
An urban rail extension in the south part
of the city is being sponsored by the City
of Austin, is projected to begin in 2020
and will take about five years to finish.
The extension would involve expanding
the streetcar from downtown Austin
along Riverside Drive to Austin-Bergstrom
International Airport.