Hays County Commissioners are calling on the Austin City Council to support the planned construction of State Highway 45 Southwest, which would connect MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1) to FM 1626 and greatly ease congestion for Buda-area residents commuting to Austin.
HAYS COUNTY NEWS RELEASE
The Hays County Commissioners Court on Tuesday unanimously renewed its dedication to seeing State Highway 45 Southwest from Loop 1 to FM 1626 built, passing a resolution calling on the Austin City Council to support the roadway in the Imagine Austin Comprehensive Plan and the Austin Metropolitan Area Transportation Plan. The Austin Planning Commission and Imagine Austin have recommended that the Austin City Council delete SH 45 SW from its plans during a public hearing set for June 14.
The roadway has been adopted in the Austin and CAMPO plans for many years and Hays County relied on that adoption in its decision to join with TxDOT in funding the expansion of FM 1626 from FM 2770 to the Hays/Travis County line. Last year, frustrated by the lack of progress on building SH 45 SW, the Hays County Commissioners Court had offered to spend up to $5 million to help fund a smaller version of the roadway in conjunction with Travis County – an offer that is still on the table awaiting additional studies requested by Travis County officials.
“SH 45 SW, which has been planned since the 1980s, is necessary to help traffic flow between Hays and Travis Counties and to relieve congestion on local roads through neighborhoods that were not designed to carry such large amounts of traffic,” said Precinct 2 Commissioner Mark Jones, whose precinct borders Travis County along FM 1626. “The population has grown dramatically since SH 45 SW was first deemed necessary.
“Today’s technology allows roads to be built with less environmental impact, and a large portion of the area along the proposed roadway is designated as the City of Austin’s Water Quality Protection Land and, therefore; not available for development, stemming concerns about the new road contributing to environmental degradation and future growth along that corridor,” Jones said. “Currently, vehicles creep along inadequate neighborhood roads adding to air pollution issues in Central Texas that drive us all closer to federal non-attainment designations for air quality.”
Jones noted that some 40 percent of residents in Hays County actually work in Austin, while 20 percent of Texas State University students live in Austin and commute. Jones told the Court he will attend the June 14 meeting on behalf of the Court and encourage Austin to keep SH 45 SW in its plans.
