TxDOT pushes for toll roads in meeting with Val Verde County Transportation Task Force
Transportation interests hear TxDOT updates
September 18, 2005
By Bill Sontag
Del Rio News-Herald
Copyright 2005
Thirteen Del Rio, Val Verde County, Laughlin Air Force base officials and business owners met Sept. 7 with four Texas Department of Transportation representatives to hear updates on transportation issues.
The Val Verde County Transportation Task Force meeting focused on “the loop,” also called the “Del Rio reliever route” to be built around the northeast quadrant of the city.
Before the task force’s 90-minute meeting ended, Del Rio businessman Frank Larson voiced a motion for the group to urge Val Verde County Commissioners Court to apply to TxDOT for “Regional Mobility Authority” status. As fast as the motion was made, Val Verde County Commissioner Beau Nettleton quashed it.
Nettleton said the county has insufficient information on which to proceed with the application, and The Bank & Trust President Jerry Simpton amplified the opposition. “It’s premature to ask the county to make an RMA commitment, Simpton said.”
Larson withdrew the motion.
Regional Mobility Authorities, authorized to build toll roads or create other sources of funding, are seen by TxDOT as opportunities to transcend traditional funding approaches, such as legislative appropriations, to highway construction projects. “The traditional way of doing it, you might never see some of this infrastructure out there,” said Jo Ann Garcia, principal engineer for the Laredo District Office of TxDOT.
In a spacious conference room of The Bank & Trust, 1200 Veterans Blvd., Garcia unfurled tabletop aerial photomaps, briefing the Transportation Task Force members about delays and rising costs of the project.
Armed with an $11.9 million estimate for the first phase of the first segment of the Del Rio loop project, Garcia painted an austere picture of what members and area residents could expect at current funding levels.
According to Eddie Sanchez, vice president of Turner, Collie & Braden, San Antonio engineering consultants, the total cost for all phases of the loop project would exceed $79 million, at today’s dollars. “Each year with inflation and rising fuel costs, you can add another three- to five percent on top of that,” said Sanchez Thursday.
The required funding, said Garcia, is for two lanes only, with no highway intersections, on that stretch of the loop from U.S. Highway 277 South, angling northeast to U.S. Highway 90 East. Several task force members expressed the view that the alignment in question is not the highest priority of many interests in Del Rio.
However, an $11.6 million-proposal, successfully piloted this year through the maze of congressional appropriations by U.S. Rep. Henry Bonilla, would construct a new “main gate” entrance to Laughlin Air Force Base. The new entrance would obviate the need for installation ingress or egress across Union Pacific Railroad tracks. Stalled trains, fast freights, and long lines of traffic on either side waiting for tracks to clear pose a number of security threats to the base, according to Bonilla and Air Force officials.
The new “main gate” access route now under consideration would stretch from Laughlin’s main campus, west to the new loop road segment proposed by TxDOT officials. Sid Cauthorn, CEO and President, The Bank & Trust, asked Garcia if the $11.6 million earmarked in the 2006 transportation bill for the Laughlin access road increased TxDOT priorities for reliever route work from U.S. Highway 277 South to U.S. Highway 90 East.
“Yes,” Garcia said, without elaboration.
Cauthorn then asked if details of the federal earmark for Laughlin’s main gate would be available soon. Garcia replied that her office is striving to obtain that information now from Bonilla’s office.
Sanchez and Billy D. Parks, principal with Turner Collie & Braden, led the group through three phases and several scenarios of development of the remainder of Del Rio’s loop. Sanchez emphasized the “controlled access” design feature that limits the numbers of interchanges and intersections at which vehicles may enter the stream of traffic.
Precise locations of the interchanges and intersections under consideration are fluid, according to Sanchez. He said city staff has not been able to provide TxDOT and Turner Collie & Braden planners with information on expected growth directions of the city and anticipated volumes of traffic. “So the planned access points are our best guess,” Sanchez said.
Right-of-way acquisition cannot begin before August 2006, and Nettleton told the group the county is estimating their cost of purchasing the right-of-way for the entire loop is $1.5 million.
Garcia reminded the group that the federally earmarked funds for Laughlin’s access road requires a 20 percent local “match” of the appropriated amount. She quickly added a plug for a Regional Mobility Authority to deal with the anticipated, unbudgeted costs.
“If we don’t have the money, you may not see some parts of your loop for several years,” Garcia said.
San Antonio Express-News: www.delrionewsherald
September 18, 2005
By Bill Sontag
Del Rio News-Herald
Copyright 2005
Thirteen Del Rio, Val Verde County, Laughlin Air Force base officials and business owners met Sept. 7 with four Texas Department of Transportation representatives to hear updates on transportation issues.
The Val Verde County Transportation Task Force meeting focused on “the loop,” also called the “Del Rio reliever route” to be built around the northeast quadrant of the city.
Before the task force’s 90-minute meeting ended, Del Rio businessman Frank Larson voiced a motion for the group to urge Val Verde County Commissioners Court to apply to TxDOT for “Regional Mobility Authority” status. As fast as the motion was made, Val Verde County Commissioner Beau Nettleton quashed it.
Nettleton said the county has insufficient information on which to proceed with the application, and The Bank & Trust President Jerry Simpton amplified the opposition. “It’s premature to ask the county to make an RMA commitment, Simpton said.”
Larson withdrew the motion.
Regional Mobility Authorities, authorized to build toll roads or create other sources of funding, are seen by TxDOT as opportunities to transcend traditional funding approaches, such as legislative appropriations, to highway construction projects. “The traditional way of doing it, you might never see some of this infrastructure out there,” said Jo Ann Garcia, principal engineer for the Laredo District Office of TxDOT.
In a spacious conference room of The Bank & Trust, 1200 Veterans Blvd., Garcia unfurled tabletop aerial photomaps, briefing the Transportation Task Force members about delays and rising costs of the project.
Armed with an $11.9 million estimate for the first phase of the first segment of the Del Rio loop project, Garcia painted an austere picture of what members and area residents could expect at current funding levels.
According to Eddie Sanchez, vice president of Turner, Collie & Braden, San Antonio engineering consultants, the total cost for all phases of the loop project would exceed $79 million, at today’s dollars. “Each year with inflation and rising fuel costs, you can add another three- to five percent on top of that,” said Sanchez Thursday.
The required funding, said Garcia, is for two lanes only, with no highway intersections, on that stretch of the loop from U.S. Highway 277 South, angling northeast to U.S. Highway 90 East. Several task force members expressed the view that the alignment in question is not the highest priority of many interests in Del Rio.
However, an $11.6 million-proposal, successfully piloted this year through the maze of congressional appropriations by U.S. Rep. Henry Bonilla, would construct a new “main gate” entrance to Laughlin Air Force Base. The new entrance would obviate the need for installation ingress or egress across Union Pacific Railroad tracks. Stalled trains, fast freights, and long lines of traffic on either side waiting for tracks to clear pose a number of security threats to the base, according to Bonilla and Air Force officials.
The new “main gate” access route now under consideration would stretch from Laughlin’s main campus, west to the new loop road segment proposed by TxDOT officials. Sid Cauthorn, CEO and President, The Bank & Trust, asked Garcia if the $11.6 million earmarked in the 2006 transportation bill for the Laughlin access road increased TxDOT priorities for reliever route work from U.S. Highway 277 South to U.S. Highway 90 East.
“Yes,” Garcia said, without elaboration.
Cauthorn then asked if details of the federal earmark for Laughlin’s main gate would be available soon. Garcia replied that her office is striving to obtain that information now from Bonilla’s office.
Sanchez and Billy D. Parks, principal with Turner Collie & Braden, led the group through three phases and several scenarios of development of the remainder of Del Rio’s loop. Sanchez emphasized the “controlled access” design feature that limits the numbers of interchanges and intersections at which vehicles may enter the stream of traffic.
Precise locations of the interchanges and intersections under consideration are fluid, according to Sanchez. He said city staff has not been able to provide TxDOT and Turner Collie & Braden planners with information on expected growth directions of the city and anticipated volumes of traffic. “So the planned access points are our best guess,” Sanchez said.
Right-of-way acquisition cannot begin before August 2006, and Nettleton told the group the county is estimating their cost of purchasing the right-of-way for the entire loop is $1.5 million.
Garcia reminded the group that the federally earmarked funds for Laughlin’s access road requires a 20 percent local “match” of the appropriated amount. She quickly added a plug for a Regional Mobility Authority to deal with the anticipated, unbudgeted costs.
“If we don’t have the money, you may not see some parts of your loop for several years,” Garcia said.
San Antonio Express-News:
posted by Porkus Maximus Tex: at Sunday, September 18, 2005
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