CATC Mobility Headlines

On Monday, June 8 the CAMPO Board will vote on which projects to fund with the federal economic stimulus allotment. One project under consideration is the Highway Emergency Response Operator (HERO) roadside assistance program. CATC and other business organizations are advocates of this cost-effective strategy to reduce congestion on IH-35.

With a $2 million jumpstart using American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (AARA) funds, the HERO program can provide relief almost immediately for the heavily congested segment of IH-35 in Hays, Travis, and Williamson counties. The program can be sustained with a combination of future local Federal discretionary funds (STPMM) and private sponsorships. The most recent example of this is the Georgia Department of Transportation’s collaborative sponsorship with State Farm Insurance, in which State Farm will provide $5.1 million ($1.7m/year) in sponsorship fees over the next three years to support the Georgia DOT HERO program.

Fiscal constraints curtail the region’s ability to add enough road capacity to meet demand, so we must use make the best use of existing roadways. Roadway operational improvement is THE most effective means of reducing congestion. HERO should be implemented and the stimulus money allows us to do it now.

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

Yesterday, the National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission announced the release of its report Paying Our Way: A New Framework for Transportation Finance (press release attached). Congress created the commission for the purpose of analyzing future highway and transit needs and the finances of the Highway Trust Fund and making recommendations regarding alternative approaches to financing transportation infrastructure. Former Central Texas State Representative and House Transportation Chair Mike Krusee is a member of commission.

Culminating nearly two years of study and deliberation, the report concludes that current highway financing is unsustainable and offers specific recommendations for addressing the widening gap between federal investment and the nation’s transportation infrastructure needs.

The commission said that the country must shift from the gas tax to a mileage-based fee by 2020 and make it easier for state and local governments to raise additional revenues via tolling and congestion pricing. To support the transition from the gas tax to a mileage-based charge, the Commission advocates a 10-cent/gallon increase in the federal gas tax (15 cents / gallon for diesel) and indexing the tax to inflation going forward. The gas tax was last raised in 1993 and has since lost a third of its purchasing power to inflation, in addition to a trend of eroding revenues due to increased fuel efficiency. The interim gas tax increase of 10 cents / gallon would cost the average household about $9 more per month.

National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission

Press Release

Executive Summary

Full Report

Check out the cautionary Washington Post opinion piece from Joel Kotkin which examines issues Central Texas should consider and apply regarding the anticipated boon of federal infrastructure spending.

Make Sure All That Spending is Well Supported - Joel Kotkin, Washington Post Outlook and Opinions

A report from the Heritage Foundation Transportation and Smart Growth division reveals that Texas has been the greatest overall loser. On average for the past fifty years, Texas has received on average less than $0.80 per dollar submitted to the highway trust fund.

While recent years have seen a slight improvement over that average, Texas still only received less than $0.84 on the dollar in 2005.

Allocations to the states are based on a formula that attempts to measure need based on qualitative measures, such as miles of road and number of licensed drivers, resulting in the transfer billions of dol­lars from states in the South and the Midwest to the Northeast, the Mountain West, and Alaska.

Ronald Utt, the report’s author, noted that a “perverse consequence of the donor- donee misallocation is that most states on the losing end are experiencing above-average population growth rates and thus have a greater need to build new roads because of the increasing numbers of motorists. By contrast, winner states are generally experiencing below-average population growth and thus need fewer new roads.

Between 2000 and 2006, the U.S. population grew 6.3 percent, while among donor states, Texas’s population increased by 12.9 percent, South Carolina experienced a 7.7 percent increase, and Georgia’s population increased by 14.4 percent.”