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October 28, 2008
Ben White/I-35 interchange could be completed
The Ben White/Interstate 35 interchange, which has frustrated southside commuters because its four southern bridges remain undone, would be completed under a proposal the Texas Transportation Commission will vote on Thursday.
Construction could begin in about a year but no completion date has been determined.
Aside from the $41 million for the interchange, the commission’s $1.6 billion list of projects includes $171.5 million to complete almost all of the expansion of Texas 195 from I-35 to the Bell County line south of Killeen. The road, which the U.S. Army considers a critical route for troops and equipment headed to Gulf Coast ports, has seen a considerable number of fatal accidents over the years in sections where there is no median separating oncoming traffic.
Given the focus in recent years on using whatever urban construction dollars that TxDOT has as seed money for toll roads, the decision to seek funding for those two projects represents something of a changeup. But State Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, who had worked with TxDOT’s Austin district engineer Bob Daigh to formulate the Central Texas request, said he was looking for “long-promised, clearly needed projects” that could be done relatively quickly — without tolls.
As for the five pending Austin toll roads, which have been hung up at least in part after TxDOT pulled back a promise of several million dollars, Watson said “we’re going to have to keep dealing with that. This comes from a different pot of money.”
That pot, or at least most of it, will be $1.5 billion that TxDOT intends to borrow from the bond market, with the rest of the money coming from existing TxDot funds. Gov. Rick Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and House Speaker Tom Craddick had sent a letter to the agency this summer strongly urging it to go ahead and borrow up to $3 billion that the Legislature had authorized. The money to pay back the bonds, the leaders said, would come from the Legislature deciding next spring to fund the Department of Public Safety using general state revenue rather than money from the gas tax.
Doing so would give TxDOT what amounts to an instant infusion of $600 million a year. The law only allows TxDOT to borrow $1.5 billion a year against the gas tax, so the rest of the $3 billion would become available later.
Construction on the four remaining Ben White/I-35 bridges could begin in a little over a year, Daigh said Tuesday. The department has to amend a federal environmental document approved years ago.
How long would construction then take?
“I don’t even want to hazard a guess,” Daigh said. But he added that the project will be done on an accelerated schedule, one complicated by the work occurring over the heads of tens of thousands of daily motorists on I-35.
Texas 195, Daigh said, already has environmental clearance. The 15 or so miles of work, which involves creating a four-lane highway divided by a median, will be done in pieces with various projects beginning over the next one to three years, Daigh said. The agency in most places will have to buy right of way alongside the current road.
Individual projects would start, Daigh said, as soon as TxDOT acquired the needed land. Daigh and Watson, at least for now, were not able to get $32 million for one piece of Texas 195 south of Florence between Williamson County Road 233 and County Road 239. Daigh said that if Congress passes a bill to pump money into roads and other infrastructure, as has been discussed in recent weeks as a way to stimulate the economy, closing that remaining gap would be something Daigh would pursue.
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June 19, 2008
Clogged Austin intersections get national attention
Another traffic study, another bad day for Austin.
Austin, in fact, has the two nastiest intersections in Texas, according to a congestion study by Inrix, a Seattle-based company that gathers and sells traffic information. According to the report’s ranking of the 100 worst bottlenecks in the country, southbound Interstate 35 at MLK Jr. Boulevard is the 62nd worst place in the country to find yourself in a car. Coming in at number 75 was northbound I-35 and Riverside Drive.
No other Texas intersection made that list.
Austin’s “travel time index,” which essentially estimates the average extra time it takes to get around at rush hour, was seventh worst in the country at 1.28. That would mean that it takes 28 percent longer to get somewhere at rush hour in Greater Austin than it does in the middle of the night.
This number, calculated for 2006, is slightly worse than the travel time index calculated by the Texas Transportation Institute and released in September. Those Texas A&M University researchers, using 2005 data, gave Austin an index of 1.31.
Inrix used GPS tracking data from commercial vehicles such as taxi cabs and delivery trucks to analyze how many hours a week cars sit in congestion and the average speed they travel in traffic.
An oddity in the Inrix report: They show Austin’s travel time index much higher (meaning, much worse) than those of Houston, Dallas and San Antonio. Their numbers: Houston, 1.18; Dallas-Fort Worth, 1.15; and San Antonio, 1.09. On the other hand, once they have stirred in all their other measures of congestion, Austin’s overall congestion ranking comes in better than those three cities.
Austin, according to the study, is 26th in the nation, while San Antonio was 25th, Houston was seventh and Dallas-Fort Worth was fifth.
Other findings from the study:
• Exits along Interstate 35 make up 17 of the city’s 20 worst bottleneck areas — areas in which narrowing lanes create congestion. I-35 southbound at Martin Luther King Blvd., is congested 34 hours a week, or 4.8 hours per day, on average, the report said. The average travel speed is 9.8 miles per hour during congestion.
• Nationwide, the best traffic day is Monday and the worst is Friday. The worst morning commute occurs on Wednesday and the worst afternoon is Friday.
• The best morning commute nationally is Friday and the best afternoon commute occurs on Monday.
What do you think? Where else does traffic in Austin and environs come to a full stop?
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