The Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization sought input Sept. 13 from western Travis County residents on amendments to its long-range 2040 plan—or projects that will fulfill the area’s transportation needs by 2040—and its 2017-20 Transportation Improvement Program.
The Lake Travis Community Library, 1938 Lohmans Crossing, Lakeway, hosted the three-hour event, the seventh out of nine scheduled open houses that provide citizens in CAMPO’s six-county region with the opportunity to voice their opinions or provide online feedback to the transportation projects, CAMPO Public Information Officer Doise Meirs said.
“We’ve gotten questions about [RR] 620 and the improvements that potentially will occur later on [RR] 620 and the study that’s currently being done by the Texas Department of Transportation [to aid with future plans on the roadway],” she said. “We are a regional agency, and we do try to disperse our open houses throughout the six-county CAMPO region. We are trying to get to other areas of the county and not go to the same area twice if possible.”
Meirs said Lakeway Mayor Joe Bain, who serves on the CAMPO Transportation Policy Board, requested an open house be conducted in the Lakeway area.
TxDOT Project Manager Bruce Byron said “everyone is anxious to see anything done” to ease the congestion along RR 620.
TxDOT is planning two projects for western Travis County—expanding RR 620 from four lanes with a turn lane in the middle to six lanes with a divided raised median from just north of Lakeway to West Hwy. 71 as well as from Quinlan Park Road to Hwy. 183, he said. TxDOT does not have the funds to construct the projects but is able to fund their development, he said.
A third project—adding a bypass off RR 620 to RR 2222 that will allow traffic to avoid the intersection of RR 2222 and RR 620—is included in an upcoming city of Austin bond.
“The bypass should be ready to go to construction in the fall of 2019,” Byron said. “That’s moving along through the process, and it’s about two-thirds of the way through environmental clearance. The city of Austin has generously put $7 million-plus in their bond proposal—the mobility bond—and [TxDOT] is working and hopes to have funding in hand, one way or another, by the time we’re ready for construction.
“There’s a light at the end of the tunnel. [TxDOT] is heavily committed to getting that [bypass] project done.”
He said TxDOT does not know the cost to purchase any right of way needed to construct the RR 620 expansion but estimates the total project cost “should be in the $20 million range.”
“[The Lakeway open house] is an opportunity to get out and talk with everybody,” Byron said. “CAMPO is trying to make an earnest effort in getting out in the entire region and getting more varied feedback than just what we get at the meetings downtown.”
The comment period for the CAMPO plans closed Sept. 26, and staff compiled the comments into a public involvement report detailing the open houses, Meirs said. The public comments were included in a report submitted to the agency’s policy board, she said, and action on the amendments to the plan is scheduled for Oct. 17.
