SH 45 SW, the proposed connection between MoPac and FM 1626 in Hays County, showed new signs of life in October.

The Texas Department of Transportation and the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority held an open house for the project Oct. 8. About 200 people visited Bailey Middle School in Southwest Austin to view maps, leave comments and hear updates from transportation experts.

When built, SH 45 SW is expected to relieve traffic congestion on Brodie Lane by providing Hays County drivers with a faster way to get to MoPac and downtown Austin.

The connector has been discussed in some form since the mid-1980s, when it was part of a loop concept encircling Austin.

In 1997, Travis County voters approved $3.3 million in road bonds to purchase rights of way to build the 3.6-mile segment dubbed SH 45 SW.

Four-lane tollway

Work on SH 45 SW has slowed for a variety of political, environmental and financial reasons during the past decade. Hays County Commissioners Court attempted to jump-start progress in 2011 by pledging up to $5 million of the estimated $20 million cost to build SH 45 SW as a two-lane county road outside of the state highway system.

The current assumption is that the road will be a four-lane tollway paid for using state and local funds and toll revenue, Hays County Precinct 2 Commissioner Mark Jones said. If built, the smaller county version would not have met the area's future transportation needs, he added.

Officials took a big step toward building the road in June when TxDOT and the Mobility Authority launched a new environmental study.

The 1989 study is no longer valid—the project has changed significantly, and the study itself has expired, Mobility Authority deputy director Mario Espinoza said.

Will Conley, Hays County Precinct 3 commissioner and chairman of the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, said he was encouraged by the new momentum.

"I think it's a needed roadway," he said. "We're going about it responsibly and in the right format and [when] we get an opportunity to build it, I'm highly confident we'll build it responsibly from a traffic perspective and from an environmental perspective."

At the Oct. 8 meeting, many residents and politicans were optimistic about the roadway's future.

Travis County Precinct 3 Commissioner Gerald Daugherty had campaigned on building SH 45 SW last fall.

"I'm glad people are calling [the new environmental study] a new process," he said. "It gives people hope after 16 years."

What's next

SH 45 SW is included in the 2035 Regional Transportation Plan of CAMPO, the Capital Area Metropolitian Planing Organization, a governing body that coordinates regional transportation planning for Bastrop, Caldwell, Hays, Travis and Williamson counties.

The roughly $4 million environmental study will include the project's impacts, constraints, and the needs of drivers, according to meeting documents.

SH 45 SW is slated to be built through the environmentally sensitive Barton Springs recharge zone and an area of the Balcones Canyonland Preserve.

The study will also consider the green design concepts for the roadway developed during the Green Mobility Challenge, a 2011 competition run by TxDOT and the Mobility Authority to raise awareness about green roadway design and encourage new problem solving. AECOM's "Manchaca GreenWay" concept took first place for its recycled road materials, low-power message signs and wireless toll collection.

In 2013 and 2014, TxDOT and the Mobility Authority will host more open houses and workshops while the environmental study is being created.

A public hearing on the project is expected in late 2014, and the study's findings should be complete by 2015. A final decision about whether to build the project is anticipated for 2015, according to meeting documents.

Reactions

The Oct. 8 meeting was intended to gather public input on possible mobility solutions in southern Travis County and northern Hays County, according to TxDOT and the Mobility Authority.

Espinoza said the two authorities are expanding their community outreach and involving neighborhood associations and grass-roots groups.

Jones was one of many people at the meeting who said that SH 45 SW "should have been built years ago."

"It's about transportation and quality of life," he said. "Also, we are doing more environmental damage idling on Brodie Lane than we would be if we had a green, free-flowing SH 45 [SW]."

Shady Hollow resident Pam Baggett touted SH 45 SW's green design features and said building it would make transportation safer for South Austin's children pedestrians and residents in general.

Baggett, a Democrat, said she had never voted for a Republican before but worked on Daugherty's campaign because of his promise to work to build SH 45 SW.

She also referenced former Travis County Precinct 3 Commissioner Karen Huber; Baggett and many SH 45 SW advocates accuse Huber of not supporting the road.

In 2012, Huber said she had been skeptical that the road would improve traffic on Brodie Lane and said there were schools on Brodie. She said that if the environmental study was done fairly and accurately, she guessed that it would be difficult to justify the cost/benefits of building the road.

State Rep. Paul Workman, R-Austin, said building the road with tolls and the Mobility Authority's help, rather than as a county road, will be a better fit for the area.

"Now it is strictly [planned as] a connector, and if you use it, you pay for it [via the tolls]," he said.

Next meeting

Environmental listening workshop, Nov. 14, 6–8 p.m.

Elm Grove Elementary School, 801 FM 1626, Buda, www.sh45sw.com