Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization policy board officials are at odds over how to proceed with mobility studies in the western part of the agency’s jurisdiction.
CAMPO Policy Board Chairman Will Conley directed board members—Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt; Burnet County Judge James Oakley; Travis County Commissioner Gerald Daugherty; and Terry McCoy, Austin district engineer for the Texas Department of Transportation on June 6 to discuss whether to move forward with a draft Midwest Subregional Study in eastern Burnet, western Travis and southwestern Williamson counties before the next agency meeting on July 11, after this edition was published.
Oakley said he added the item to the board’s agenda to determine the status of the study for which CAMPO allocated $750,000 in 2015. The study was to encompass the western part of CAMPO’s jurisdiction from Dripping Springs to Leander—areas in which he said development is occurring. However, movement on the study has stalled, he said.
“We have corridors [in the subregion] that are being highly utilized,” he said. “Most of the sections do not have center turn lanes where we have rear-end fatalities, and we have nothing but traffic counts going up. So this is a safety concern.”
Eckhardt said she was concerned the subregional study would duplicate other studies being performed by TxDOT in the area on RR 620 and Loop 360 as well as Travis County’s Land, Water and Transportation Plan. She said the agency would be better off waiting until the TxDOT studies are complete before prioritizing funding for the CAMPO study proposal.
McCoy said the recommendations for RR 620 are being finalized, and the recommendations for Loop 360 are nearly complete.
“If you look at the scoping document [for the CAMPO subregional study], it is duplicative to what TxDOT already has in the field in large measure,” Eckhardt said. “And to the extent it’s not duplicative, it’s duplicative to [Travis County’s] Land, Water [and] Transportation Plan.”
She suggested creating a comprehensive document to study all CAMPO subregions—not just the Midwest Subregional area—and advocated using the subregional study financing to instead study other arterial roads that have not received focus from TxDOT.
Lakeway Mayor Joe Bain, a CAMPO policy board member, said he will continue to push for the study “because we need help in the Western part of the CAMPO region.”
“What we’ve got is a deal that was made, and we’re at the point now that there is one or two people who are holding out against doing what the deal was,” he said. “What the CAMPO chairman said is ‘if the county doesn’t go along with it, there’s no reason to do the study.’”
Proposed bypass at RR 620 and RR 2222 not included in main body of transportation plan
Omitted from CAMPO’s approved 2017-20 Transportation Improvement Program main list of projects is a bypass that would allow RR 620 traffic to avoid the intersection at RR 2222.
CAMPO must submit a new TIP every four years that lists projects that may receive federal funding or are considered regionally significant. Projects must be listed in the TIP before moving forward with construction, CAMPO Executive Director Ashby Johnson said. The draft 2017-20 TIP was approved by CAMPO July 6.
The news of the bypass surprised Travis County Commissioner Brigid Shea at the June 6 meeting. Shea’s Precinct 2 includes the project’s area.
“I was told that [bypass] project was proceeding,” she said. “If we are looking at prioritizing projects that relieve congestion, that should be near the top of the list, can you imagine a project that would be more helpful in relieving congestion at an intersection than that?”
CAMPO Public Information Officer Doise Miers said the bypass project is listed in the TIP appendix—Appendix G—reserved for projects that lack funding and/or have not completed all needed studies or requirements.
Charlie Watts, a Travis County Transportation and Natural Resources planner, said his department is working with the Texas Department of Transportation on the bypass, but the project is not to design level yet and its alignment remains to be determined.
TxDOT engineer Terry McCoy said the fact that the bypass project is not in the 2017-20 TIP at this time does not mean it cannot be added later.
“We have not specifically identified the source of construction funds at this time, but we are working with our local transportation partners to accomplish this,” he said. “Our job right now is to get this project ready for construction. We have to environmentally clear the project, acquire right of way, move utilities and we are actively working on these items.”
Four Points-area leaders—from Steiner Ranch, the West Austin Chamber of Commerce, Comanche Trail, Glenlake, River Place and Westminster Glen Estates—met June 15 to strategize on how to prioritize and fund the project.
Raymond Freer, chairman of the West Austin Chamber of Commerce, said the bypass was needed to take pressure off RR 620 traffic at RR 2222.
“We are so many residents out here, but we don’t have city of Austin addresses,” Freer said. “How can we be neglected by the volume of traffic out here? That’s the bigger problem [western Travis County] residents have—getting Austin and Travis County to support us.”
The representatives agreed to form a coalition to voice their traffic and safety concerns, including the bypass. They decided to request help from state, county and city leaders through emails, meetings and possibly a petition to fund the proposed project.
