The region’s transportation planning board approved using federal credits as the local funding match for a study of the abandoned MoKan rail corridor in Round Rock.

At its Monday meeting the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization transportation policy board approved awarding 500,000 in transportation development credits to the city of Round Rock for the study. In January the board awarded $2 million to the city from funds awarded to the state by the Federal Highway Administration.

Transportation development credits are not actual dollars but a financing tool that may be used for some or all the requirement of local jurisdictions to supply 20 percent of funding for a project receiving federal dollars.

The credits are earned from the construction of toll facilities, CAMPO Executive Director Ashby Johnson said.

Williamson County Commissioner Cynthia Long, who sits on CAMPO’s board, said the city of Round Rock asked to use the credits as the local match because the city and county have already dedicated almost $3 million toward the MoKan study.

The 28-mile MoKan corridor stretches east of I-35 from just south of Hwy. 29 in Georgetown to east of downtown Austin.

Round Rock officials pushed to have the MoKan corridor studied because of its proximity to the planned location of the extension of Kenney Fort Boulevard segments 2 and 3, which would be a six-lane road built adjacent to MoKan from Forest Creek Drive to SH 45 N.

The city is also advancing the road project more quickly because of a Kalahari Resorts & Conventions location that will be built in the vicinity and open by May 2020.