Austin's SH45 SW Tollway Plans Starting to move along

[thisdj78]

Are there environmental reasons why this wouldn't continue to IH35/SH45 SE?

http://touch.kxan.com/10001/164973547

[txstateends]

Would there be another linkie?  That one isn't working.

[Alps]

http://www.kxan.com/web/kxan/news/local/austin/plans-moving-forward-for-sh-45sw

[Henry]

According to the following excerpt, it may not get built at all.

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- A proposal to build a highway in south Austin is getting mixed reviews from neighbors.

Glenn Noble came out to a public meeting about a proposed highway: SH 45SW.

"I know that this area is growing rapidly and so I think the need is pretty obvious," said Glenn Noble, who lives nearby.

"I think they're moving in the right direction," said Pam Baggett, who also lives in the area. "They're looking at all the important things. Environment, light pollution, water pollution."

The proposal is for a four lane, divided toll road with no frontage roads.

It would, however, have a mixed-use path and extend from MOPAC to FM 1626.

"And roads have a tendency, if not done exceptionally well to pollute and then destroy the aquifer," said Richard Halpin, who opposes the plan. "They also bring, eventually unlimited development."

"We see that it's a huge threat to Barton Springs Edwards Aquifer and vulnerable water quality protection lands," said Bill Bunch, executive director for the Save Our Springs Alliance.

The community has been talking about a possible highway for years.

The study on the project isn't supposed to be finished until 2015 -- nothing's final yet.

We should know more about it in two more years.

[Bobby5280]

If this section of unfinished SH-45 was built it would probably increase the pressure to finish the other missing segments, like continuing the road from FM-1626 eastward to the I-35/SH-45 interchange.

It might be more difficult to extend SH-45 farther west from its current terminus at FM-1826 to dove-tail into US-290. A newly built convenience store and a few homes are in the path of that expansion. However, a lot of properties were demolished and cleared to make way for the 2 mile long widening project for US-290. I suppose anything is possible if funding allows for it.

[codyg1985]

The development taking place in that area can't be helping the situation with the aquifer, so why not build a road to help ease congestion? With it being a toll road, it probably won't cause as much development as what's already happening there without the toll road.

[pctech]

There was a recent piece on NPR about Austin's traffic issues. Some of the worst in the country apparently.

[Grzrd]

There was a recent piece on NPR about Austin's traffic issues.

Here's a link to the piece:

http://www.npr.org/2013/12/17/248757580/even-an-85-mph-highway-cant-fix-austins-traffic-tangle

It even includes a piece of trivia:

Austin is the largest city in America with only one interstate running through it.

[NE2]

It even includes a piece of trivia:

Austin is the largest city in America with only one interstate running through it.

However, this is only true if you look at population within city limits. Ignoring the question of how many Interstates run through Miami, Orlando has a larger metro area population.

[ethanhopkin14]

It even includes a piece of trivia:

Austin is the largest city in America with only one interstate running through it.

However, this is only true if you look at population within city limits. Ignoring the question of how many Interstates run through Miami, Orlando has a larger metro area population.

Don't get distracted.  The quote was city, not metro area.  Austin is the. 11th largest city in the USA and only has one interstate.  Through or stops in is irrelevant, so Miami doesn't count.   Plus Austin has no 3dis as well.

[NE2]

It's nice to be able to place the goalposts after the field goal is has been kicked.

[ethanhopkin14]

Of course!   How else are you supposed to make a field goal?

[ethanhopkin14]

After all the proposed sections of SH 45 get built, I would love to see it renumbered as Interstate 235. That in connection with SH 130 (which should be Interstate 435) would make a half loop for Austin. 

[MaxConcrete]

It looks like it may actually start construction within two years. But it is Austin - I'll believe it when I see it.

Posted: 9:01 p.m. Monday, Feb. 10, 2014

Texas 45 tollway on faster track after money shuffle

By Ben Wear

American-Statesman Staff

The long-delayed Texas 45 Southwest project could be on the fast track to construction within the next two years, thanks to a push by Travis County Commissioner Gerald Daugherty and a money swap approved Monday by local transportation planners.

Daugherty, the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority, the Texas Department of Transportation and Hays County officials have agreed on a tentative plan to fund the $100 million four-lane tollway. And the 16-2 vote Monday by the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization board, by effectively taking federal money out of the equation, paved the way for a quicker environmental review of what wouldbe a 3.6-mile-long road.

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