By Andy Sevilla.
Almost three decades in the making, the wheels are turning for the southwest portion of SH45 as Hays County commissioners unanimously approved funding for the controversial road project.
Hays County commissioners on March 25 approved $5 million for the SH45 southwest construction, while Travis County will pony up $15 million for the road project. Travis County commissioners approved that funding allocation at a March 18 meeting.
SH45SW Route Under Construction |
“This road has been in the planning stages since 1985,” said Pct. 2 Commissioner Mark Jones. “Since then, dramatic residential and commercial development has occurred throughout Southwestern Travis County and Northern Hays County, clogging traffic in neighborhoods… (and) vehicular pollution on roads not designed to carry such large volumes of traffic or with environmental safeguards is contributing to contamination of the Edwards Aquifer.”
The four-lane tolled extension would connect FM1626 at Bliss Spillar Road to the existing SH45 extension south of Loop 1 (MoPac) in Travis County. The road could alleviate congestion and travel times for Hays County residents commuting into Austin via Brodie Lane and the Shady Hollow neighborhood.
Opponents of the project say the roadway, which would be built on top of the Barton Springs area of the Edwards Aquifer – the groundwater source for much of Hays and Travis counties – will contaminate and compromise sensitive features the project would traverse.
At full build out, the roadway is expected to cost $100 million; in large part due to its design, which accounts for heightened consideration for the environment, said Pct. 3 Commissioner Will Conley.
“It will be an expensive roadway, and what has led to a lot of the expenses is the purposely-placed attention on very strict environmental requirements in our interest in designing and building a road that is as environmentally sensitive as we know how to build, and there’s cost associated with that,” he said.
With Hays and Travis counties offering $20 million in combined funding, the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority (CTRMA) will issue about $80 million in bonds to make up the rest of the project’s funding, and those bonds will be paid back with toll fees.
“This has been a long, long intensive process,” Conley said during deliberation. “…Citizens of Hays County contribute a large portion of traffic and commerce in that area, which creates safety hazards for citizens in Travis County, and safety hazards for our citizens trying to get to work and back everyday.”
The Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO), which oversees transportation planning in Hays and Travis counties, has had SH45 SW in its regional transportation plan since 1994, and readopted it in 2000, 2005 and most recently in 2010.
Earlier this year, the planning group stripped all federal funding from the project, thereby removing federal environmental requirements, with intention to accelerate its construction.
CAMPO board members transferred $8.62 million in federal funds from SH45 SW to the US 183 South tollway project in February. The board then transferred $8.2 million in state dollars from US 183 to SH45.
The funding swap would allow the state to conduct an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the project, as opposed to subjecting the roadway to federal environmental requirements, which opponents argue are more stringent.
The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) will conduct an EIS, which fully evaluates and discloses the potential impacts of the project, much like a federal EIS would, TxDOT spokesperson Kelli Reyna said in an email.
“The state and federal EIS analyses, processes, and documents are virtually identical,” Reyna said. “The laws and regulations governing the preparation of a state or federal EIS are also similar, with the state laws and regulations being modeled on their federal counterparts.”
Under the agreement, Hays County will provide a $500,000 payment in June to help fund pre-construction and design costs. The remaining $4.5 million will be offered up when contracts for construction are let.
