Dukes demands more.
Texas 71, U.S. 183 tolls may be put off
Dukes argues that if west side gets a break, east side should, too
November 9, 2004
Ben Wear
Austin American-Statesman
Copyright 2004
Tolls would be delayed at least two years on the two major routes to the airport under the terms of a deal cut in recent days by leading Central Texas transportation policy-makers.
A section of U.S. 183 north of Springdale Road and Texas 71 from Interstate 35 to Riverside Drive, stretches of roads under construction with tax dollars, would have been subject to toll charges when they are completed in 2006. But leaders on the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization board, looking to defuse anger over a $2.2 billion toll road plan they approved in July, have agreed to delay tolls on those sections until improvements to the entire U.S. 183/Texas 71 project are completed.
According to estimates from the Texas Department of Transportation, the last segment of that project would be completed in 2008 at the earliest. Like most of the roads in the toll road plan, tolls would be charged on only the expressway lanes. Drivers could travel the same routes for free on continuous frontage roads.
State Rep. Dawnna Dukes, D-Austin, who voted for the turnpike plan in July, negotiated the East Austin toll delay in exchange for dropping toll charges on MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1) from U.S. 290 West to south of William Cannon Drive. The proposed tolls on that 1 1/2-mile stretch of MoPac had set off a civic earthquake last summer still reverberating through the e-mail in-boxes of Central Texas politicians.
The lost revenue from dropping tolls at William Cannon will be made up, eventually, by imposing tolls on added lanes to MoPac from Town Lake to north of Parmer Lane. Putting tolls on those so-called managed lanes had long been a part of the expected policy mix.
Dukes, able to bring several votes on the CAMPO board with her, demanded more.
"A major concern in eastern Travis County has been social equity," Dukes said after a meeting of the board Monday evening. "In order to be fair to all, when one's making a compromise over here (in West Austin), the least one can do is make a concession on the east side as well."
None of this is official.
In fact, all the CAMPO board did on the subject Monday was call a public hearing for December on the MoPac/William Cannon and managed-lane changes to its long-range plan, as well as another amendment dropping light rail from the plan and replacing it with the commuter rail line voters approved last week.
A final CAMPO vote likely won't occur until January.
But the telltale moment came when Dukes took the floor and said that the east-side toll delay would be a good idea, and that she planned to send a letter to the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority board asking it to incorporate such a delay in its toll road policies.
The board of the authority, which eventually will operate all seven roads in the July plan as well as another road, plans to approve its toll road policies in December. A public hearing on those policies is scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday at Northcross Mall on Anderson Lane.
No one from the authority was at the CAMPO meeting Monday when Dukes spoke.
But state Rep. Mike Krusee, R-Round Rock, chairman of the House Transportation Committee and the moving force behind most of what is occurring in Central Texas transportation, immediately spoke up in support of Dukes' proposal and asked that his name be added to her letter.
Board members said afterward that the mobility authority is on board with the toll delay.
When the toll road plan was pending early last summer, its supporters had said it was essentially a package deal, that removing one piece would make it fall apart financially. The vote July 12 was 16-7 on the CAMPO board. Several of those seven dissidents, joined later by Austin City Council Member Brewster McCracken, who had voted for it, had called for making changes or overturning the plan.
The Texas Transportation Commission has signaled that it will support the proposed changes, filling in whatever financial holes they create.
Originally, toll charges were to begin on MoPac at William Cannon as early as March. And the delay on the east-side highways will mean two years or more of lost toll revenue on 4.5 miles of road.
bwear@statesman.com; 445-3698
© 2004 Austin American-Statesman: www.statesman.com
Dukes argues that if west side gets a break, east side should, too
November 9, 2004
Ben Wear
Austin American-Statesman
Copyright 2004
Tolls would be delayed at least two years on the two major routes to the airport under the terms of a deal cut in recent days by leading Central Texas transportation policy-makers.
A section of U.S. 183 north of Springdale Road and Texas 71 from Interstate 35 to Riverside Drive, stretches of roads under construction with tax dollars, would have been subject to toll charges when they are completed in 2006. But leaders on the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization board, looking to defuse anger over a $2.2 billion toll road plan they approved in July, have agreed to delay tolls on those sections until improvements to the entire U.S. 183/Texas 71 project are completed.
According to estimates from the Texas Department of Transportation, the last segment of that project would be completed in 2008 at the earliest. Like most of the roads in the toll road plan, tolls would be charged on only the expressway lanes. Drivers could travel the same routes for free on continuous frontage roads.
State Rep. Dawnna Dukes, D-Austin, who voted for the turnpike plan in July, negotiated the East Austin toll delay in exchange for dropping toll charges on MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1) from U.S. 290 West to south of William Cannon Drive. The proposed tolls on that 1 1/2-mile stretch of MoPac had set off a civic earthquake last summer still reverberating through the e-mail in-boxes of Central Texas politicians.
The lost revenue from dropping tolls at William Cannon will be made up, eventually, by imposing tolls on added lanes to MoPac from Town Lake to north of Parmer Lane. Putting tolls on those so-called managed lanes had long been a part of the expected policy mix.
Dukes, able to bring several votes on the CAMPO board with her, demanded more.
"A major concern in eastern Travis County has been social equity," Dukes said after a meeting of the board Monday evening. "In order to be fair to all, when one's making a compromise over here (in West Austin), the least one can do is make a concession on the east side as well."
None of this is official.
In fact, all the CAMPO board did on the subject Monday was call a public hearing for December on the MoPac/William Cannon and managed-lane changes to its long-range plan, as well as another amendment dropping light rail from the plan and replacing it with the commuter rail line voters approved last week.
A final CAMPO vote likely won't occur until January.
But the telltale moment came when Dukes took the floor and said that the east-side toll delay would be a good idea, and that she planned to send a letter to the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority board asking it to incorporate such a delay in its toll road policies.
The board of the authority, which eventually will operate all seven roads in the July plan as well as another road, plans to approve its toll road policies in December. A public hearing on those policies is scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday at Northcross Mall on Anderson Lane.
No one from the authority was at the CAMPO meeting Monday when Dukes spoke.
But state Rep. Mike Krusee, R-Round Rock, chairman of the House Transportation Committee and the moving force behind most of what is occurring in Central Texas transportation, immediately spoke up in support of Dukes' proposal and asked that his name be added to her letter.
Board members said afterward that the mobility authority is on board with the toll delay.
When the toll road plan was pending early last summer, its supporters had said it was essentially a package deal, that removing one piece would make it fall apart financially. The vote July 12 was 16-7 on the CAMPO board. Several of those seven dissidents, joined later by Austin City Council Member Brewster McCracken, who had voted for it, had called for making changes or overturning the plan.
The Texas Transportation Commission has signaled that it will support the proposed changes, filling in whatever financial holes they create.
Originally, toll charges were to begin on MoPac at William Cannon as early as March. And the delay on the east-side highways will mean two years or more of lost toll revenue on 4.5 miles of road.
bwear@statesman.com; 445-3698
© 2004 Austin American-Statesman:
posted by Porkus Maximus Tex: at Wednesday, November 10, 2004
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