CATC Mobility Headlines

The SH 29 Safety Task Force, formed to address safety and mobility issues and make recommendations for improvements on SH 29 from the Burnet County Line to DB Wood Road, presented their final report to Williamson County Commissioners on March 24.

Task Force members, which included emergency responders, school districts, local and state governmental entities, and planning personnel, reviewed construction documents, research, traffic and accident data research, made multiple project site visits, met with planning personnel from local agencies and individual property owners along the corridor, and reviewed information collected from open houses and e-mail sent to the County. They developed a list of 15 viable projects to improve safety and operational characteristics of SH 29, which were tiered in three priorities with an estimated total cost of $12.8 million ($5.9 million for high priority projects, $358,000 for medium priority projects, and $6.5 million for low-priority projects).

SH 29 Improvement Study
2009 SH 29 Safety and Improvements Study

Williamson County will hold open houses in each precinct to receive input on its updated long-range transportation plan. The Long-Range Transportation Plan focuses on what road and transit improvements should be built or improved over the next 25 years to help address expected growth in the County; it is this plan that guides future capital improvements.

Precinct open houses are from 6:00 - 8:00 PM

Mar 30 - Precinct 1 at the Rattan Creek Community Center, 7617 Elkhorn Mountain Trail, Austin

Mar 31 - Precinct 4 at the Taylor Public Library Meeting Room, 801 Vance Street, Taylor

Apr 6 - Precinct 2 at Pat Bryson Hall, 201 N. Brushy Street, Leander

Apr 7 - Precinct 3 at the Central Maintenance Facility, 3151 S. E. Inner Loop, Georgetown

The public input process will culminate with a county-wide open house on Thursday, April 16, from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m., in the Commissioners Courtroom in the Williamson County Courthouse, 710 S. Main Street, in Georgetown.

Capital Metro announced that the community celebration scheduled for March 28 has been cancelled amidst safety concerns raised by the Federal Railroad Administration due to alleged violations against rail contractor Veolia Transportation.

Capital Metro President/CEO Fred Gilliam said he has called for Veolia to replace its safety director and is bringing in rail experts to assist with startup operations adn safety implementation. Capital Metro staff will continue testing enhancements to the signal system.

Capital Metro will report on the status of the project by May 15.

Capital Metro cancels rail event; wants Veolia supervisor replaced

Martinez calls for further delay of MetroRail launch

Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority (CTRMA) Chair Bob Tesch has told Governor Rick Perry that he won’t seek reappointment.  Perry appointed Tesch as head of the CTRMA Board in 2003 and re-appointed him in January 2007.

During Tesch’s tenure, the CTRMA constructed Highway 183A, which was completed in March 2007 on time and on budget, and obtained approval for another $1.5 billion in new tollroads. CTRMA officials say Tesch will remain until Perry appoints a replacement.

CATC awarded Tesch with its “Flying Tigers” Award in 2004 in recognition of his service as the Chair of the state’s first regional mobility authority.

Tesch won’t seek reappointment to CTRMA

Tesch leaving behind well-oiled toll agency

CTRMA Executive Director Mike Heiligenstein has been appointed to the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) Advisory Council.

TTI is one of the largest university-affiliated transportation research agencies in the U.S.. Its Advisory Council is comprised of a small group of high-level transportation professionals from across the state of Texas and from every sector of the transportation world. The Council provides advice on transportation issues and trends, and supports the institute’s research programs and initiatives.

Heiligenstein appointed to Texas Transportation Institute Advisory Council

Heiligenstein appointed to statewide transportation advisory council

A hearing for SB 855, the Texas Local Option Transportation Act, will held tomorrow, March 18 at 7:30 AM in E1.016 of the Capitol. The Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Committee is expected to reconvene at 2:00 pm.

This bill would authorize the Austin, Dallas-Ft. Worth, and San Antonio areas to impose transportation taxes and fees (if approved by county voters) to fund mobility services and projects including passenger rail, transit, roads, and freight rail.

The 40-mile extension of SH 130 from Mustang Ridge to IH-10 in Seguin could be complete by November 2012 if all goes according to schedule.  TXDOT Engineer Ben Engelhardt told the Seguin City Council on Mar 3 that TXDOT hopes to being construction within the next 60 days.  Groundbreaking on the interchanges could begin in August.

The project, developed as a public-private partnership between TxDOT and the S.H. 130 Concession Co, will charge a toll of 12.5 cents per mile.

SH 130 construction to begin soon

http://mysh130.com/

The Transportation Commission just voted unanimously in favor of proceeding with allocation of $1.2 billion stim ulus package. The major changes from last week’s program was the increase in total project value from $2.3 billion to $2.6 billion. This was made possible by local MPO’s providing greater leverage using local, private and toll funds. As we previously reported, that was deftly accomplished in our region by taking money allocated to the 183/290E interchange and moving some of it to leverage funds from Williamson and Hays Counties. This allowed the addition of the Buda “Main St.” project – a bridge over IH-35 and the FM 1460 project in Round Rock.

Monday’s CAMPO discussion on further leveraging stimulus money:

Urge the Transportation Commission to take the $115M of discretionary funds going to direct connects at US 290E and US 183 (TxDOT’s first priority and CTRMA’s 1st, 2nd and 3rd priority) and further leverage it. Apparently, the $115M was “over estimated” and should really be $90M. Then take $10M and complete FM 1460 from Settlers Blvd to north of University Blvd. (Williamson County’s first priority and TxDOT’s second priority). Then take $7M and leverage Buda’s $8M to complete the Main Street project (TxDOT’s #3 priority) necessary to attract the new US Foods project (266-530 new jobs). This decision was ratified at the March 5th Commission meeting.

This vote was opposed by environmental and anti-toll groups as well as by some legislators/local officials whose areas didn’t make the cut. A big thanks goes to the Commission for the bravery to move these projects and spending forward without further delays. TxDOT, local government and MPO staffs all deserve a well done for burning the midnight oil.

You might want to take just a moment to thank the Commission - just click here and your comments will reach all the Commissioners and here to thank Senator Watson who played a major role in this success.

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More details on the action approved by the Texas Transportation Commission (TTC) this morning.  In addition to approving the US 290 at US 183 direct connects, FM 1460 to Old Settlers Boulevard, and the Buda IH-35 / Main Street overpass replacement construction projects, the TTC also approved maintenance projects in several districts, including ours.

The new Austin District rural projects are:

• Resurface SH 80 in Caldwell County from the Hays County Line to FM 20, $6.0 million
• Resurface FM 180 in Lee County from US 290 to the Burleson County Line, $0.65 million
• Resurface US 377 in Mason County from US 87 to the Menard County Line, $0.81 million
• Resurface RM 2341 in Burnet County from SH 29 to 11.7 miles north of SH 29, $2.74 million
• Resurface SH 29 in Mason County from the Menard County Line to US 377, $0.83 million

Additionally, to make room for the above rural projects, nine previously approved stimulus funded projects in the CAMPO area will now be funded through the Austin District’s FY 2010 maintenance allocation with the projects receiving construction bids in September 2009.

For more details, see:

TXDOT News Release

Texas Transportation Commission Approved Stimulus Projects

Texas Transportation Commission Approved Stimulus Maintenance Projects

State adds some Central Texas stimulus projects to list

Action at the March 2 CAMPO Transportation Policy Board meeting

CAMPO Chair Senator Watson responded to concerns about changes to the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) during the Public Hearing portion of the meeting.

• TXDOT requested removal of the SH71/IH-35 interchange direct connects (a $47+M project) as an individually listed project from the TIP because it is now being as as  safety-related project by TXDOT.    This type of improvement is not considered “added capacity” as it does not create a new traffic movement that doesn’t currently exist  (i.e., a driver can currently go eastbound on Ben White and make a southbound movement on IH-35 - though via the frontage roads).  Thus the project is considered a project under the group list of “Preventive Maintenance and Rehabilitation” that permits among the normal maintenance activities (adding ramps).
• SH 45 SW has had the construction funding pulled and was approved for design and right-of-way only.  The explanation by Watson was that due to reduced funding, the previously approved TIP was underfunded and, therefore, not “fiscally restrained” as required by Federal regulations. To rectify this required removal of many small projects or one large one.  45 SW was selected as it would not be able to begin construction within the 2008-2011 TIP anyway so the $70M construction costs could be deferred to the next TIP.  Supposedly this will not affect its eventual completion.
• $50K was moved from Air Quality programs “to fund a new program to implement transit model improvements.”
• Howard Lane from Cameron Rd to SH 130 ($22M) was approved.
• FM 3177 from US 290 to Lindell Ln ($7.5M) connecting Harris Branch Parkway with Decker Lane was approved.

The other big item was discussion of how to leverage stimulus money.  The CAMPO region is expected to receive almost $29M of highway funds as a direct sub-allocation through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009.

• Tactic 1 - Urge the Texas Transportation Commission to take the $115M of discretionary funds going to direct connects at US 290E and US 183 (TxDOT’s first priority and CTRMA’s 1st, 2nd and 3rd priority) and further leverage it.  However, it was reported that the $115M was “over estimated” and should really be $90M . Then take $10M and complete FM 1460 from Settlers Blvd to north of University Blvd. (Williamson County’s first priority and TxDOT’s second priority).  Then take $7M and leverage Buda’s $8M to complete the Main Street project (TxDOT’s #3 priority) necessary to attract the new US Foods project (266-530 new jobs). This decision will be made at the March 5th Transportation Commission meeting.
• Tactic 2 – An extended timeframe for committing funds (a year vs. 90 days), there will be a second call for funding for the $29M local stimulus funding within the next 45 days.
• Lastly, since Capital Metro and CARTS get their own direct stimulus funds. CAMPO will continue the tradition of not being involved in their prioritization and will let them do their own thing. Capital Metro gets a direct stimulus of $27M, which is almost equal to what CAMPO is struggling over.

Other approvals:

• >CAMPO can negotiate two agreements with Texas Transportation Instituteto develop a protocol for sharing their travel demand model and explore how best to address future funding of CAMPO initiatives.
• CAMPO awarded a contract to Peer Group Consultingfor a two year contract at $75K/yr to hype air quality.
• In a CYA (cover your a–) maneuver, CAMPO retroactively approved all action items from January 2005-January 2009