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.

The city of Georgetown and Williamson County will jointly finance the expansion of 3.5 miles of RM 2338, which was left in question after TXDOT’s financial crisis left it unfunded.  TXDOT has to use funds intended for new road capacity for maintenance.

The state agency’s financial crisis is prompting other local governments to consider banding together to pay for new expansion  Round Rock and Georgetown are  considering widening part of FM 1460, along with the county and private developers, are considering taking over a project that would widen part of FM 1460.

Williamson County will pay for the project from its 2006 and the jurisdictions are working out a timeline for Georgetown to reimburse the County for about $14 million (65 % of the project).

Due to the state agency’s financial difficulties, TXDOT doesn’t have funding for the planned expansion of FM 1460, which are need to serve major business projects such as has Seton Medical Center Williamson and the Round Rock Higher Education Center. As a result, the cities of Round Rock and Georgetown, along with Williamson County and private developers, are considering jointly paying for the project. However, if they do so, the road will be removed from the state system, leaving the local jurisdictions to responsible for maintenance.

Williamson governments set to pay for building state road - Austin American-Statesman