"By placing a toll booth on a road we've paid the construction of . . . it's a double tax."
Toll on MoPac stretch may be axed
Transit board will hear proposal to remove William Cannon segment from area toll plan
November 7, 2004
Ben Wear
Austin American-Statesman
Copyright 2004
The de-tollification of MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1) at William Cannon Drive will begin Monday.
That evening, the board of the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization will consider calling a December hearing, to be followed by a January vote, to remove those proposed toll charges from the short stretch of MoPac from U.S. 290 to just south of William Cannon. And the involvement in this latest change by influential members of the board indicates that passage is likely in January.
The amendment would also change the status of proposed fourth lanes for each side of MoPac between Town Lake and Parmer Lane in far North Austin from "high-occupancy vehicle lanes" to "managed lanes." State Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos, D-Austin, the board's chairman and one of 16 CAMPO board members who voted in July to impose a toll on MoPac and on six other roads, put the item on the agenda that went out late Friday. And state Rep. Mike Krusee, R-Round Rock, the tremendously influential chairman of the House Transportation Committee, said Saturday that he, Barrientos and Austin Mayor Will Wynn had been discussing the change and that there is "a good likelihood" it will pass.
"And I will be working for that," Krusee said.
Barrientos, instrumental with Krusee in putting together the 16 votes for the toll plan, could not be reached for comment Saturday. Wynn, who had favored waiting until CAMPO approves its next long-range plan in the spring to make the change, said Saturday that he supports at least having a hearing on it now.
The change north of Town Lake is crucial to removing the tolls at William Cannon. Managed lanes can carry a variety of traffic, from buses only to tolls only, or a combination of buses, cars with multiple occupants driving for free and solo drivers paying a toll. The revenue from the managed lanes would essentially replace that lost from William Cannon and pay for sound walls along MoPac.
The new lanes would be added without widening MoPac's "footprint" and taking out existing homes, initially by restriping the road and taking most of the shoulders away, and later by expanding the road inward toward the Union Pacific rail line. That second step would be possible only after an agreement with the railroad for the state to control the right-of-way.
"I never say 'adding managed lanes' without saying 'adding sound walls,' " Krusee said. "That's important politically. But it's also important as a policy. If we're adding lanes, we're adding noise. And the sound walls give comfort to people that, yes, this is the established footprint."
Bob Daigh, the Austin district engineer for the Texas Department of Transportation, recently began the process of designing and constructing those sound walls, which would be installed at intervals along MoPac from Town Lake to U.S. 183, the section where many homes' back yards are adjacent to the highway. Daigh and Wynn indicated at the time that funding for the walls was secure.
The July toll road vote by the CAMPO board set off a political fireball, including a recall effort against Wynn and Austin City Council Members Danny Thomas and Brewster McCracken. Monday's action, and the January vote to follow, would have no effect on the other six proposed toll roads in the plan approved in July: U.S. 290 West and Texas 71 in Oak Hill; Texas 71 from Interstate 35 to the airport; Ed Bluestein Boulevard; U.S. 290 East from Ed Bluestein to the new Texas 130; Loop 360; and Texas 45 Southwest.
Sal Costello, a Circle C Ranch marketing consultant who initiated the recall campaign, said removing the key irritant to Southwest Austinites will not change his plans.
"It makes no effect on the recall because half the roads in this plan are 100 percent paid for with our gas tax dollars," Costello said. "Some of them they've started construction on, and one they haven't. By placing a toll booth on a road we've paid the construction of . . . it's a double tax."
Wynn, Barrientos and the Texas Transportation Commission, which is providing most of the money and the expertise for the multiple toll road plan, had sent strong signals in late October that such a plan was in the works. Wynn and Barrientos appeared at the commission's October meeting and asked for help. The commissioners, without getting specific, said they were ready to be partners.
Krusee said they've been more specific off-stage.
"I've had private conversations with commissioners where they have agreed" with the changed approach on MoPac, Krusee said. "You can take that for what it's worth."
bwear@statesman.com; 445-3698
© 2004 Austin American-Statesman: www.statesman.com
Transit board will hear proposal to remove William Cannon segment from area toll plan
November 7, 2004
Ben Wear
Austin American-Statesman
Copyright 2004
The de-tollification of MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1) at William Cannon Drive will begin Monday.
That evening, the board of the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization will consider calling a December hearing, to be followed by a January vote, to remove those proposed toll charges from the short stretch of MoPac from U.S. 290 to just south of William Cannon. And the involvement in this latest change by influential members of the board indicates that passage is likely in January.
The amendment would also change the status of proposed fourth lanes for each side of MoPac between Town Lake and Parmer Lane in far North Austin from "high-occupancy vehicle lanes" to "managed lanes." State Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos, D-Austin, the board's chairman and one of 16 CAMPO board members who voted in July to impose a toll on MoPac and on six other roads, put the item on the agenda that went out late Friday. And state Rep. Mike Krusee, R-Round Rock, the tremendously influential chairman of the House Transportation Committee, said Saturday that he, Barrientos and Austin Mayor Will Wynn had been discussing the change and that there is "a good likelihood" it will pass.
"And I will be working for that," Krusee said.
Barrientos, instrumental with Krusee in putting together the 16 votes for the toll plan, could not be reached for comment Saturday. Wynn, who had favored waiting until CAMPO approves its next long-range plan in the spring to make the change, said Saturday that he supports at least having a hearing on it now.
The change north of Town Lake is crucial to removing the tolls at William Cannon. Managed lanes can carry a variety of traffic, from buses only to tolls only, or a combination of buses, cars with multiple occupants driving for free and solo drivers paying a toll. The revenue from the managed lanes would essentially replace that lost from William Cannon and pay for sound walls along MoPac.
The new lanes would be added without widening MoPac's "footprint" and taking out existing homes, initially by restriping the road and taking most of the shoulders away, and later by expanding the road inward toward the Union Pacific rail line. That second step would be possible only after an agreement with the railroad for the state to control the right-of-way.
"I never say 'adding managed lanes' without saying 'adding sound walls,' " Krusee said. "That's important politically. But it's also important as a policy. If we're adding lanes, we're adding noise. And the sound walls give comfort to people that, yes, this is the established footprint."
Bob Daigh, the Austin district engineer for the Texas Department of Transportation, recently began the process of designing and constructing those sound walls, which would be installed at intervals along MoPac from Town Lake to U.S. 183, the section where many homes' back yards are adjacent to the highway. Daigh and Wynn indicated at the time that funding for the walls was secure.
The July toll road vote by the CAMPO board set off a political fireball, including a recall effort against Wynn and Austin City Council Members Danny Thomas and Brewster McCracken. Monday's action, and the January vote to follow, would have no effect on the other six proposed toll roads in the plan approved in July: U.S. 290 West and Texas 71 in Oak Hill; Texas 71 from Interstate 35 to the airport; Ed Bluestein Boulevard; U.S. 290 East from Ed Bluestein to the new Texas 130; Loop 360; and Texas 45 Southwest.
Sal Costello, a Circle C Ranch marketing consultant who initiated the recall campaign, said removing the key irritant to Southwest Austinites will not change his plans.
"It makes no effect on the recall because half the roads in this plan are 100 percent paid for with our gas tax dollars," Costello said. "Some of them they've started construction on, and one they haven't. By placing a toll booth on a road we've paid the construction of . . . it's a double tax."
Wynn, Barrientos and the Texas Transportation Commission, which is providing most of the money and the expertise for the multiple toll road plan, had sent strong signals in late October that such a plan was in the works. Wynn and Barrientos appeared at the commission's October meeting and asked for help. The commissioners, without getting specific, said they were ready to be partners.
Krusee said they've been more specific off-stage.
"I've had private conversations with commissioners where they have agreed" with the changed approach on MoPac, Krusee said. "You can take that for what it's worth."
bwear@statesman.com; 445-3698
© 2004 Austin American-Statesman:
posted by Porkus Maximus Tex: at Monday, November 08, 2004
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