The city of Cedar Park has been preparing to expand East Whitestone Boulevard from four to six lanes between Market Street and Cottonwood Creek Trail, and the Texas Department of Transportation may now be paying the entire bill.
Cedar Park plans to extend RM 1431 to Market to match the six-lane design of the pass-through project on East Whitestone, which runs from Market to Sam Bass Road and is in its final phases of construction. The planned project, known as the 1431 Gap Project, was selected by the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization in 2014 to be partially paid for with federal funds that were allocated through CAMPO, said Tom Gdala, Cedar Park senior engineering associate.
In 2014 the project was expected to cost $11.43 million, and CAMPO opted to pay $9.144 million using Surface Transportation Program-Metropolitan Mobility federal funds. The remaining 20 percent would be paid by Cedar Park and Williamson County, each of which would pay $1.143 million, Gdala said.
During a July 14 meeting, Gdala told City Council that CAMPO had revised the scope of the project to include elevating and lengthening the Spanish Oak Creek Bridge. He said CAMPO revised the total project cost to be $17.5 million, and TxDOT stepped in with a state funding alternative.
“There was a pocket of programmable funds of Proposition 1 funds—this is from oil and gas tax that gets deposited in the state highway fund,” he said. “[TxDOT] funded the project 100 percent with the state funding of Prop. 1 funds, so there’s no local share from Williamson County or Cedar Park.”
Cedar Park City Council unanimously issued a resolution during its July 14 meeting to request that CAMPO reallocate the $9.144 million and use the funds for other transportation projects throughout the CAMPO region, Gdala said.
“You just don’t see this very often, when an agency comes to you and says, ‘The bad news is that this is going to be way more expensive; the good news is that we’re going to pay for the whole thing and do it faster,’” Mayor Matt Powell said. “This is really kind of a pennies-fromheaven scenario.”
Williamson County Commissioner Cynthia Long, who also sits on CAMPO’s Transportation Policy Board, said she approved of the new funding source since the state transportation agency maintains the majority of RM 1431.
“It’s a great thing, because it means that TxDOT is paying for those state roads,” she said.
Long said the action also allows Cedar Park and Williamson County to hold onto the $1.143 million that each had allocated for the project. She said the county funds would likely help pay for rising construction costs on other current projects.
Long also said this was the first time she was aware of a city returning funds to CAMPO because of Prop. 1 funding.
“It’s the first time I remember, but Prop. 1 is still relatively new,” she said. “I hope this is the first of many.”
The CAMPO Transportation Policy Board approved the 2017-20 Transportation Improvement Program during its July 6 meeting, which included the funding for the 1431 Gap Project. CAMPO Executive Director Ashby Johnson said TxDOT will review the program in August and may vote to add it to the Statewide Transportation Improvement Program.
Gdala said the city hopes to start construction on the project later this year.
