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Follow TURFSuperstreet fixes proposed for Austin highways
There's already a "superstreet" re-work of intersections under construction on US 281 in San Antonio with another one planned for parts of 1604 West. We'll let you know how well it works when it's completed later this month.
Light changes aim to ease jams on Texas 71
TxDOT also adding eastbound lane to portion east of Austin airport.
By Ben Wear
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Published: 11:04 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2010
The Texas Department of Transportation, lacking the sort of big cash it takes to eliminate stoplights on Texas 71 by building overpasses, will turn the thoroughfare into a "superstreet" just east of the Austin airport.
The counterintuitive changes — drivers wishing to turn left from FM 973 onto Texas 71 would instead turn right and then make a U-turn about 300 yards down the road — will actually allow many more cars to pass through the area, officials said Tuesday. The work is scheduled to be completed by 2012 .
And in the short term, TxDOT crews wielding paint and new signs will add a third eastbound lane on Texas 71 where it currently narrows to two lanes at FM 973. Currently, that third, outside lane allows only right turns onto southbound FM 973. That work is expected to be completed by October.
"If you can't do what you know to be the ultimate fix, then don't stop looking for other fixes," said state Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, at a news conference announcing the changes.
"Superstreets" is a catchall term for a variety of lower-cost fixes that are intended to increase traffic flow through clogged intersections. In the case of Texas 71 and its two intersections with FM 973 (which doglegs as it hits Texas 71 east of Austin-Bergstrom International Airport), TxDOT plans to restrict left turns.
Two new signal lights on Texas 71 would allow those making U-turns to easily complete their turns. But officials say that when the $1.6 million project is completed, drivers on Texas 71 in both directions would encounter a green light a greater percentage of the time and that at least 45 percent more cars would pass through those intersections.
Given that 60,000 cars a day pass that spot on Texas 71, according to a 2010 count by TxDOT consultant Pape-Dawson Engineers , that would make a huge difference for commuters, particularly during the morning and evening rushes.
Kent O'Brien , a senior vice president with Pape-Dawson, said the changes will also substantially improve, if not eliminate, long backups that occur each afternoon on southbound FM 973 at Texas 71.
About 11,500 vehicles a day pass Texas 71 on FM 973, O'Brien said.
Watson and Carlos Lopez , the Austin district engineer for TxDOT, said the agency is looking at other busy Central Texas highways, such as Loop 360 and U.S. 290 in Oak Hill, to see what "superstreet" changes might decrease congestion.