Do you commute into Austin every morning? Then listen up.
Do you think FM 1626 needs to connect into a better feeder road? Then your input is needed.
Do you feel like Austin gets our tax dollars through our jobs, but then tells us to not drive through their neighborhoods? Then it is time to take action.
Public input is being sought for the SH 45SW road to connect to FM 1626.
The Texas Department of Transportion (TxDOT) and the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority (CTRMA) gathered input from residents at an open house at Bailey Middle School on Tuesday.
But that doesn’t mean you can’t still give your opinions. Comments will be gathered from the online website (www.SH45SW.com/contact) and made a part of the public record.
Why is this important?
Because CTRMA and TxDOT look through comments to see if residents truly want a project. If Hays County doesn’t step up to the plate and say “yes”, then SH 45SW could remain on the drawing board, never to be funded.
And that would be wrong.
Already, a lot of people from Central Austin have commented – against the proposal. TxDOT and CTRMA need to hear from us, neighborhood residents, commuters, business owners – the people who commute into Austin and depend on good roads – about why SH 45SW must be built.
Without SH 45SW, the bottleneck at Brodie Lane and FM 1626 will not be resolved. Instead, workers commuting into Austin will continue to sit idling at the red light as they try to get to their jobs in our capital city.
There’s always that group of people in Austin who are against the extension. And they have been vocal at CTRMA meetings and online.
Quite simply, they don’t want this road built.
Why?
They say it will cause more construction over the aquifer in Hays County and cause pollution. They say residents commuting into Austin should try living in Travis County, closer to jobs. They say commuters should try alternate routes – such as Manchaca Road.
But these opposition leaders do not have to commute. They do not see the accidents, the havoc caused by stalled cars, the Hays County residents who give up time with their families to go to their jobs in Austin.
They just don’t get it.
Hays Countians have done what was asked of us. We have funded the expansion of FM 1626 through pass-through financing with TxDOT for the improvement of that dangerous, curving road. We are footing that bill.
Now, CTRMA needs to know that we want the connection into Austin completed. It is time for CTRMA and TxDOT to give the commuters a break.
SH 45SW is needed now. Workers deserve an easier route to their jobs – which provide Austin with its tax base of businesses.
In addition, the environment and the aquifer can’t stand much more of the idling cars as commuters wait at the traffic light at the intersection of FM 1626 and Brodie Lane.
It is time to build the road.
And it depends on us. Sign up, give comments (www.SH45SW.com/contact), mail in a letter.
But, do it now. The comment period closes Oct. 18. After that, we will just have to sit on the sidelines and hope that enough of us made our comments heard. If we don’t do it now, then the naysayers of Central Austin will win again.
