"Local leaders learned what can happen when the public feels like toll roads have been foisted on them."
Wynn wants MoPac stretch to be no-toll zone
Mayor today may lay out proposal for alternate toll roads to state Transportation Commission
October 28, 2004
Ben Wear
Austin American-Statesman
Copyright 2004
Austin Mayor Will Wynn and other toll road supporters have been working with state officials to find a way to remove a short stretch of South MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1) from a turnpike plan approved in July.
But elements of that discussion, including imposing additional tolls elsewhere on MoPac, are so politically sensitive that Wynn treated his words like TNT on Wednesday.
"If the state grants my request and we get sufficient money, it gives us the flexibility to potentially remove the William Cannon overpass while sound walls are being constructed" on North MoPac, Wynn said. That would then allow "a sane discussion," Wynn said, about adding lanes to MoPac north of Town Lake when the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization completes the newest version of its long-range plan in the spring.
Wynn probably will be part of a delegation, Texas Transportation Commission Chairman Ric Williamson said, that will address the commission on the subject today at its monthly meeting.
Williamson, speaking in general terms, indicated Wednesday a willingness to work with Central Texas leaders to eliminate what has become a political problem for politicians including Wynn and Gov. Rick Perry.
Perry, who appointed Williamson to the commission, has been taking heat from Central Texas constituents on the MoPac question specifically and from potential gubernatorial challengers Carole Keeton Strayhorn and Kay Bailey Hutchison on the toll road question in general.
Wynn, meanwhile, and two council colleagues are the targets of a recall petition campaign because of their July votes as CAMPO board members to approve creating seven toll roads, including a mile or so of MoPac at William Cannon Drive that is under construction using gasoline tax dollars.
Removing that MoPac section from the plan, and the 50-cent toll it would carry, would mean the loss of millions of dollars of revenue from the $2.2 billion plan. That money was to be used to help pay for maintenance on MoPac, future expansions of the roads, those sound walls that Central Austin residents have been seeking for years and, potentially, part of the cost of moving most of Union Pacific's freight rail traffic to other tracks well east of Austin. How to replace that revenue?
In the short run, money that Williamson and the Transportation Commission can dispense at its discretion might pay for the sound walls.
As for the long-term problem, those familiar with the discussion say talk has centered on charging tolls on added MoPac lanes from Town Lake to Parmer Lane. If Union Pacific moves most of its operations, ceding its right of way in MoPac's median to the state, then the highway could be expanded to allow a fourth lane on each side.
The assumption in transportation circles has been that those added lanes could then be so-called "managed lanes" subject to tolls.
In the short run, however, by using some of the shoulders and slightly narrowing the lanes, the existing three lanes could be turned into four. That could move up the charging of tolls by several years.
But the political groundwork, transportation officials said Wednesday, has not been properly laid for that plan. And local leaders learned to their sorrow this summer what can happen when the public feels like toll roads have been foisted on them.
At any rate, Wynn said that reports are premature that he and state Rep. Mike Krusee, R-Round Rock, a CAMPO member and toll road advocate, had worked all this out. Krusee could not be reached for comment.
"I would love to find a revenue source that has better acceptance than the William Cannon overpass has," Wynn said. "But a deal has not been struck."
bwear@statesman.com; 445-3698
© 2004 Austin American-Statesman: www.statesman.com
Mayor today may lay out proposal for alternate toll roads to state Transportation Commission
October 28, 2004
Ben Wear
Austin American-Statesman
Copyright 2004
Austin Mayor Will Wynn and other toll road supporters have been working with state officials to find a way to remove a short stretch of South MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1) from a turnpike plan approved in July.
But elements of that discussion, including imposing additional tolls elsewhere on MoPac, are so politically sensitive that Wynn treated his words like TNT on Wednesday.
"If the state grants my request and we get sufficient money, it gives us the flexibility to potentially remove the William Cannon overpass while sound walls are being constructed" on North MoPac, Wynn said. That would then allow "a sane discussion," Wynn said, about adding lanes to MoPac north of Town Lake when the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization completes the newest version of its long-range plan in the spring.
Wynn probably will be part of a delegation, Texas Transportation Commission Chairman Ric Williamson said, that will address the commission on the subject today at its monthly meeting.
Williamson, speaking in general terms, indicated Wednesday a willingness to work with Central Texas leaders to eliminate what has become a political problem for politicians including Wynn and Gov. Rick Perry.
Perry, who appointed Williamson to the commission, has been taking heat from Central Texas constituents on the MoPac question specifically and from potential gubernatorial challengers Carole Keeton Strayhorn and Kay Bailey Hutchison on the toll road question in general.
Wynn, meanwhile, and two council colleagues are the targets of a recall petition campaign because of their July votes as CAMPO board members to approve creating seven toll roads, including a mile or so of MoPac at William Cannon Drive that is under construction using gasoline tax dollars.
Removing that MoPac section from the plan, and the 50-cent toll it would carry, would mean the loss of millions of dollars of revenue from the $2.2 billion plan. That money was to be used to help pay for maintenance on MoPac, future expansions of the roads, those sound walls that Central Austin residents have been seeking for years and, potentially, part of the cost of moving most of Union Pacific's freight rail traffic to other tracks well east of Austin. How to replace that revenue?
In the short run, money that Williamson and the Transportation Commission can dispense at its discretion might pay for the sound walls.
As for the long-term problem, those familiar with the discussion say talk has centered on charging tolls on added MoPac lanes from Town Lake to Parmer Lane. If Union Pacific moves most of its operations, ceding its right of way in MoPac's median to the state, then the highway could be expanded to allow a fourth lane on each side.
The assumption in transportation circles has been that those added lanes could then be so-called "managed lanes" subject to tolls.
In the short run, however, by using some of the shoulders and slightly narrowing the lanes, the existing three lanes could be turned into four. That could move up the charging of tolls by several years.
But the political groundwork, transportation officials said Wednesday, has not been properly laid for that plan. And local leaders learned to their sorrow this summer what can happen when the public feels like toll roads have been foisted on them.
At any rate, Wynn said that reports are premature that he and state Rep. Mike Krusee, R-Round Rock, a CAMPO member and toll road advocate, had worked all this out. Krusee could not be reached for comment.
"I would love to find a revenue source that has better acceptance than the William Cannon overpass has," Wynn said. "But a deal has not been struck."
bwear@statesman.com; 445-3698
© 2004 Austin American-Statesman:
posted by Porkus Maximus Tex: at Friday, October 29, 2004
<< Home