Hays County ramps up major road projects

Hays County and the Texas Department of Transportation broke ground on the first segment of FM 110 in November to connect McCarty Road with Hwy. 123 on the southeast side of San Marcos. The county plans to eventually extend the loop to Yarrington Road on the north side of town.

"This road has been talked about for so long—well over 30 years," Ingalsbe said. "We all know how much traffic we have on I-35, and we have to start looking at alternatives to relieve that congestion. I think this is the first step in doing that. Not until we complete the entire eastern loop will we really be where we need to be as far as safety and mobility."

The county had also allocated funds to widen the existing stretch of McCarty Lane, from I-35 to San Marcos High School. Because the City of San Marcos ended up paying for those improvements, the county is reallocating the unused funds to improve the I-35 overpass at Yarrington Road.

The up-front costs of the FM 110 and Yarrington Road projects—in addition to the widening of FM 1626 near Buda and the realignments of FM 150 and the I-35 frontage roads in Kyle—are being funded in large part by about $100 million of a $207 million road bond approved by Hays County voters in 2008. Once the projects have been completed, TxDOT will reimburse the county about two-thirds of the total cost, at a quarterly rate of 14 cents per vehicle mile traveled on each roadway, through a funding agreement known as pass-through financing.

Kyle and Buda improvements

The Kyle road projects began in August and are estimated for completion in the fall, while the first phase of the project to widen FM 1626 began in September and is estimated to continue until spring 2014. Precinct 2 Commissioner Mark Jones said both projects remain on schedule.

"We're moving a lot of dirt," he said of the FM 1626 project. "It's amazing what a wide berth this road's taking up, but it's exciting, and we haven't had any hiccups yet."

The widening project is especially important for Buda drivers who commute to Austin via MoPac, he said. The existing two-lane country road was not designed for such heavy traffic and is not safe for drivers, according to Jones.

However, Jones added, even after FM 1626 has been widened to provide continuous freeway travel from I-35 in Kyle to Brodie Lane in southern Travis County, traffic will continue to bottleneck at Brodie Lane, a two-lane road with an uncertain future in Travis County.

Connecting FM 1626 to MoPac

For nearly three decades, local and regional transportation officials have discussed bypassing Brodie Lane with SH 45 SW, a proposed 3.6-mile roadway to connect MoPac and FM 1626. But opponents have argued the road could lead to even more traffic and would be cost-prohibitive because it must travel through the environmentally sensitive Barton Springs recharge zone. Some claim that Travis County would foot most of the bill for a road that mainly benefits Hays County.

SH 45 SW remains in CAMPO's 2035 Regional Transportation Plan, but the group is beginning its 2040 planning process this spring. On Jan. 14, Will Conley, the CAMPO chairman and Hays County Precinct 3 commissioner, created a committee to determine how the route should be built.

"Not necessarily, 'Do we build or not build improvements on Southwest 45?'" Conley said. "I personally believe we're past that issue. The question is what do we want to build, and who would build it? There's huge congestion and traffic issues there, and there's huge demand for a solution, particularly in our county."

Conley said the 2040 plan would be completed in about two years. In the meantime, he and Jones added that SH 45 SW would remain one of Hays County's top road priorities.

"If we don't get 45 done, we've just built FM 1626 to get you nowhere fast," Jones said.

Construction of SH 45 SW is one of the projects listed in a draft of Hays County's next transportation master plan made available during the Commissioners Court meeting Jan. 15. Commissioners were tentatively scheduled to vote whether to approve the plan at their Jan. 22 meeting.

Other priorities in the draft plan include the widening of I-35, FM 150, Hwy. 21, FM 2770 and FM 967, among a number of other roads and highways identified for improvements throughout the county.

The draft plan also calls for new roads in addition to the eastern loop around San Marcos, such as a loop around the western edge of Kyle and a road through much of eastern Hays County. The road would bypass Kyle and Buda, connecting FM 110 with the SH 45 SE toll road.