"American Idol" or toll roads?
Big crowd drawn to toll road hearing
Critics, planners square off on proposal for U.S. 290 East
February 07, 2006
By Ben Wear
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Tuesday,
MANOR — "American Idol" or toll roads?
About 400 folks made the tuneless choice Tuesday evening, packing a Manor school cafeteria to sound off on the proposed U.S. 290 East toll road.
That project, still at least a couple of years from groundbreaking and subject to modifications, would transform about nine miles of U.S. 290 east of Ed Bluestein Boulevard from a four-lane, stop-and-go road into a six-lane turnpike with free frontage roads.
The toll road would be all-electronic, meaning no cash toll booths. Cars without toll tags would have to remain on the frontage road.
The expansion, the cost of which is yet to be determined, would require the Texas Department of Transportation to acquire an additional 100 to 200 feet of right of way along the road.
That potential taking was much on the minds of those in the audience Tuesday, as were the tolls and the particulars of the design. Where officials choose to put overpasses, entrances and exits will create different sets of winners and losers.
The project would dramatically increase the capacity of a road that is increasingly congested during rush hours. Traffic has grown from 10,000 cars a day in 1980 to about 50,000 in 2004.
The road is a major commuter route for the many developments springing up east of Austin all the way to Elgin. The proposed turnpike is among five highways remaining in the much-discussed — and cussed — Phase 2 toll road plan approved by local elected officials in July 2004. The expansion would extend about a quarter mile east of FM 973.
Its final character — toll road or free road — in theory hangs on the results of a $305,000 study that won't be complete until the fall. But the planning work is well along on U.S. 290 East. The Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority, which will take over from the state and build and operate the road, has already solicited bids for final design and construction.
On Jan. 31, the mobility authority board of directors heard from local businessman Bill Milstead, whose company owns a 5-acre distribution facility on Springdale Road just south of U.S. 290. He wondered why that major arterial would dead-end at the toll road while Tuscany Way just to the west, which leads nowhere in particular, would get an underpass.
Bob Daigh, the Austin district engineer for the state Transportation Department, said in an interview Tuesday that residents on Springdale north of U.S. 290, tired of traffic, had pushed for putting the underpass at Tuscany.
"It's still bad planning," said Milstead, who came to Tuesday's public hearing.
Springdale is the only such anomaly along the length of the project, which would typically have three to four express lanes in each direction subject to tolls and two- or three-lane frontage roads that would be free to drive.
Aside from Tuscany Way, there would be underpasses at Arterial "A," a road that doesn't yet exist about a mile east of Springdale; Johnny Morris Road; Decker Lane; Parmer Lane, Gregg-Manor Road in Manor; and FM 973.
bwear@statesman.com; 445-3698
© 2005 Austin American-Statesman: www.statesman.com
Critics, planners square off on proposal for U.S. 290 East
February 07, 2006
By Ben Wear
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Tuesday,
MANOR — "American Idol" or toll roads?
About 400 folks made the tuneless choice Tuesday evening, packing a Manor school cafeteria to sound off on the proposed U.S. 290 East toll road.
That project, still at least a couple of years from groundbreaking and subject to modifications, would transform about nine miles of U.S. 290 east of Ed Bluestein Boulevard from a four-lane, stop-and-go road into a six-lane turnpike with free frontage roads.
The toll road would be all-electronic, meaning no cash toll booths. Cars without toll tags would have to remain on the frontage road.
The expansion, the cost of which is yet to be determined, would require the Texas Department of Transportation to acquire an additional 100 to 200 feet of right of way along the road.
That potential taking was much on the minds of those in the audience Tuesday, as were the tolls and the particulars of the design. Where officials choose to put overpasses, entrances and exits will create different sets of winners and losers.
The project would dramatically increase the capacity of a road that is increasingly congested during rush hours. Traffic has grown from 10,000 cars a day in 1980 to about 50,000 in 2004.
The road is a major commuter route for the many developments springing up east of Austin all the way to Elgin. The proposed turnpike is among five highways remaining in the much-discussed — and cussed — Phase 2 toll road plan approved by local elected officials in July 2004. The expansion would extend about a quarter mile east of FM 973.
Its final character — toll road or free road — in theory hangs on the results of a $305,000 study that won't be complete until the fall. But the planning work is well along on U.S. 290 East. The Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority, which will take over from the state and build and operate the road, has already solicited bids for final design and construction.
On Jan. 31, the mobility authority board of directors heard from local businessman Bill Milstead, whose company owns a 5-acre distribution facility on Springdale Road just south of U.S. 290. He wondered why that major arterial would dead-end at the toll road while Tuscany Way just to the west, which leads nowhere in particular, would get an underpass.
Bob Daigh, the Austin district engineer for the state Transportation Department, said in an interview Tuesday that residents on Springdale north of U.S. 290, tired of traffic, had pushed for putting the underpass at Tuscany.
"It's still bad planning," said Milstead, who came to Tuesday's public hearing.
Springdale is the only such anomaly along the length of the project, which would typically have three to four express lanes in each direction subject to tolls and two- or three-lane frontage roads that would be free to drive.
Aside from Tuscany Way, there would be underpasses at Arterial "A," a road that doesn't yet exist about a mile east of Springdale; Johnny Morris Road; Decker Lane; Parmer Lane, Gregg-Manor Road in Manor; and FM 973.
bwear@statesman.com; 445-3698
© 2005 Austin American-Statesman:
posted by Porkus Maximus Tex: at Wednesday, February 08, 2006
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