Staff of the Capital Metropolitan Planning Organization receive feedback from western Travis County and Hays County residents regarding amendments to its long- and short-range plans. Staff members of the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization receive feedback from western Travis County and Hays County residents regarding amendments to its long- and short-range plans.[/caption]

Longtime Lakeway resident Tom Delaney and Santos Alba, Dripping Springs City council member and Hays County resident, shared their transportation concerns about western Travis County’s two-lane roads with the staff of the region’s Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, a six-county transportation planning agency.

CAMPO hosted a public open house March 21 at the Dripping Springs Park Ranch and Event Center, off RM 12, offering residents the opportunity to provide feedback on amendments to the agency’s long-range plan, or the CAMPO 2040 Plan, as well as the 2017-2020 Transportation Improvement Program, its short-range planning document for projects that will be implemented during the aforementioned four-year window. The event was the second of seven planned Central Texas open house events that began March 2o in Hutto and will conclude April 4 in Jonestown.

“We need a lot of work done on RM 12,” Alba said. “Widening it would take the congestion off a little.”

Boards at the March 21 Capital Metropolitan Planning Organization open house inform residents about changes to future transportation projects. Poster boards at the March 21 CAMPO open house inform residents about changes to future transportation projects.[/caption]

For Delaney, Hamilton Pool Road presents future congestion issues stemming from neighborhoods that are built or proposed just off the roadway, he said.

“We have all these new developments [where residents] have to get out of their developments and there’s just going to be more [developments] down Hamilton Pool Road now,” Delaney said.

However, these amendments—including changes in funding source, project length or description—are submitted by local entities and do not include any new projects, Community Outreach Manager Doise Miers said. The amendments are limited to changes to projects already designated in the CAMPO 2040 Plan and the 2017-2020 TIP, she said.

CAMPO 2040 documents show two Travis County-sponsored projects set for Hamilton Pool Road, including adding a center turn lane to the narrow, shoulderless roadway from the east side of the Pedernales River to RM 12 at a cost of $23.1 million and a let, or bid, date of 2018. A second project is listed on the plan for Hamilton Pool Road that runs from RM 12 to West Hwy. 71, with a $40 million price tag and a let date of 2025.

The CAMPO 2040 Plan was adopted in May 2015.

Plan amendments, maps and comments will be available online until 5 p.m. April 14 at www.campotexas.org/get-involved.