Plans to build two tolled lanes in each direction on MoPac in South Austin are accelerating as transportation officials release the latest proposal and gather feedback until Dec. 29.
The effort to kickstart the project known as MoPac South has dragged on for more than a decade amid community pushback.
An unsuccessful federal lawsuit in 2016 tried to stop the highway expansion over environmental concerns. Then the pandemic put everything on hold.
In 2021, MoPac South was brought back to life.
The Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority (CTRMA) — the region’s toll road agency — has tweaked the proposal over the years, like scrapping a widely loathed plan to build flyover ramps across Lady Bird Lake.
The plan before the public now — officially known as “Build Alternative 2C” — was first introduced in November 2015 and altered based on community feedback.
“Big projects take time,” the CTRMA’s Mike Sexton told KUT News “We wanted to make sure we get a lot of that public input that we believe is important to get the right results. And I think we got it.”
Others aren’t so sure. A wide range of concerns are headed into the suggestion box during the 48-day public feedback period that kicked off Nov. 12. Submitted comments — along with the CTRMA’s response to each one — will be included in an official, public record of the project.
What’s in the proposal?
The MoPac South project would add up to six lanes along an 8-mile stretch from Cesar Chavez Street to Slaughter Lane.
Two tolled lanes in each direction would run from Barton Skyway and Convict Hill. North and south of that segment, there would be one tolled lane in each direction. Some non-tolled lanes would be installed as well.
The price of the tolls would go up or down based on traffic congestion, just like the MoPac Express lanes north of Lady Bird Lake.
Those variable-priced tolls presently range from 57 cents per segment to $15 or more during rush hour.
Besides the increased highway capacity, the biggest visual changes to MoPac would include new elevated lanes around Barton Skyway. The lanes would allow drivers on the toll lanes in the middle of MoPac to exit downtown without having to weave across general purpose lanes.
The bridge over Lady Bird Lake would be widened to accommodate five non-tolled lanes in both directions. Right now, there are four.
The CTRMA says the entire project would be confined to the existing highway footprint, meaning no real estate would be permanently seized. Construction crews, however, would require temporary access to some properties.
Other changes would include:
- a Sixth Street and Cesar Chavez Street entrance ramp to southbound MoPac
- a southbound to northbound U-turn lane at Barton Skyway
- shifting the southbound exit ramp to Bee Cave Road farther north to allow drivers more time to cross the frontage road and turn westbound on Bee Cave
- new flyover ramp providing direct connection between MoPac and U.S. 290
- a third southbound non-tolled lane south of William Cannon Drive
- wider non-tolled lanes in some areas
- more than 6 miles of wide sidewalks for pedestrians and cyclists (but gaps would still exist along the highway)
- more pedestrian crossings
- entrance and exit ramp reconfigurations
A schematic detailing the preliminary design — a large PDF file that requires a lot of zooming in — gives the most detailed representation of the plan. Opening the file can be overwhelming at first, but it doesn’t take long to figure out.
Community concerns
Environmentalists have been fighting the project for years, worried about highway construction over the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone, where water sinks into the porous underground limestone and flows into Barton Springs.
“Any excavation you’re doing in this segment of the recharge zone is going to result in … small bits of dirt getting into Barton Springs, contaminating the pool, getting into the habitat for the [endangered] Barton Springs salamander and Austin blind salamander,” Bobby Levinski, an attorney with Save Our Springs Alliance (SOS), said.
“It’s just a really bad location for a really large highway,” he said.
Barton Springs Edwards Aquifer Conservation District
The CTRMA says it wants to protect environmentally sensitive areas and plans to exceed state standards for the treatment of stormwater that runs off the highway.
But SOS remains skeptical, calling for more aggressive water-quality standards to safeguard Barton Springs.
Because of those ecological concerns and others — like impacts to air quality and the effects of building over Lady Bird Lake — Travis County commissioners have demanded a more intensive environmental analysis.
In a July letter to the CTRMA, commissioners called for a full environmental impact statement (EIS), which is a detailed study of projects with significant environmental risks. The CTRMA is planning to do a less rigorous environmental assessment (EA).
An EIS is a costly and comprehensive study of a project’s harms to the environment, community or economy. The process requires the government explain how it will repair some of the damage done.
An EA is a faster and less detailed analysis to see whether a project would cause major harms. If yes, the more detailed EIS could be required. If no, the government agency gets a “finding of no significant impact” (FONSI, pronounced like the character played by Henry Winkler on Happy Days) and can start digging.
“CTRMA has devoted substantial resources to justifying why no EIS will be necessary, even before preparing an EA to analyze the significance of the project’s effects,” attorneys for the Travis County commissioners wrote to CTRMA’s top brass in their July letter.
Ultimately, TxDOT will decide if an EIS is needed. The Federal Highway Administration has granted the state agency authority to oversee compliance with federal environmental regulations. That authority is now up for renewal with a public comment period ending Dec. 9.
“Right now, we’re going to maintain this EA process,” the CTRMA’s Sexton said. “We’ll have the draft EA late spring, early summer next year, and TxDOT will make that determination if an EIS is gonna be necessary by the end of next year.”
Opponents also challenge the project’s alignment with the City of Austin’s stated goal of reducing car dependency. Miriam Schoenfield of Rethink35, a group opposed to highway expansions, argues the MoPac South project would incentivize more low-density, sprawling development.
“When you expand a highway, you encourage more people to drive,” she said. “The more highway lanes you have in a city, the more difficult it is to implement an effective transit system.”
The CTRMA counters that tolled lanes will encourage carpooling and support transit by letting Capital Metro buses skip traffic. CapMetro has five commuter bus routes that use the existing MoPac Express Lanes north of Lady Bird Lake. At least two transit routes travel south down MoPac now, the 111 and the 171.
Nathan Bernier
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KUT News
Others are concerned about the effect of dumping more cars on local streets, especially on Cesar Chavez when Austin High School lets out during rush hour.
“We need to know how much extra traffic people expect on that ramp that leaves MoPac and goes directly to Austin High, adding traffic in a place that is already under a lot of pressure,” said Austin Independent School District (AISD) Trustee Lynn Boswell, who made clear she wasn’t speaking on behalf of the board.
Boswell wants CTRMA to do a new study examining the effects of the MoPac South project on east-west streets. The last investigation was commissioned in 2015.
AISD is reaching out to families about the potential impact of the project and informing parents with kids in middle and elementary schools that feed into Austin High, given the long timeline for the project.
“Students at Austin High the last time this was discussed are now out of college,” she said.
CTRMA can’t say exactly how long construction would take, but Sexton said his “gut feeling” is that it would be about four years of building.
“It really depends on what ultimately gets approved, if it does get approved at all,” he said.
If TxDOT gives MoPac South the green light, which isn’t expected until late 2025 at the earliest, Sexton says it would take another four or five years of design before crews could break ground.
That means MoPac South — if it happens — might not be completed till a child born today blows out 10 candles on a birthday cake.
