South MoPac toll expansion set as priority for next fiscal year by transit authorities

The Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority, the agency responsible for building and managing toll fares on many of the express lanes in the Austin area, has approved a list of priority projects—including the MoPac South toll extension—during their approval of a five year capital improvement plan and budget for fiscal year 2025-26.

The action taken

Mobility Authority board members approved a list of priority projects June 25 included in the agency’s next fiscal budget, as well as a slew of additional roadway improvements included in the agency's five year capital improvement plan.

Outlined in the general fund allocations, the Mobility Authority included design and engineering funding for:

• MoPac South express lanes at $3,686,000
• Ronald Reagan managed lanes at $1,000,000
• 183A added capacity at $1,268,000
• 290E extension at $7,500,000

Some context

The Mobility Authority revived the decade-old project intended to bring a solution to increasing traffic on south MoPac, bringing the project forward to the public in 2024.

After receiving the initial green light in 2013 to evaluate an 8-mile stretch of MoPac South from Cesar Chavez Street to Slaughter Lane, transportation officials again presented several proposed solutions for public review last Fall after a lawsuit stalled progress on the project from 2016 to 2021.

The agency dialed in on plans for up to two new toll lanes in either direction with an elevated overpass, referred to as Alternative 2C. Project construction is estimated to cost around $1 billion with work slated to begin in 2027.

"The express lanes perform the best," Charlotte Gilpin, a Mobility Authority consultant working on the project, told Travis County Commissioners during an update on the project last year.

Things to consider

The toll agency has faced criticism in the past for its claims about the amount of time commuters save by the construction of an express lane.

Regional traffic studies indicate that there is only a roughly five-minute difference in travel time should nothing be done to the current structure of the highway, called the no-build option.