Mayor Castro seeks funds for non-toll interchange

Many have asked what we think about the Mayor's proposal. First, we applaud ANY effort to get our roads fixed without tolls. The downside of this proposal however, is that it means taxpayers also have to buy into the rest of the Mayor's nearly $600 million bond program. There's no line item veto -- it's all or nothing. As a savvy politician, he knows he needs northside votes to get the package passed and having something in it for everyone is likely the goal. However, with the growing aversion to more debt, and the feeling we already pay taxes to have our state highways fixed and those funds are NOT getting back to San Antonio (they're being diverted to non-road uses as well as being spent in other regions of the state), it's a tough pill to swallow to ask local taxpayers to continue to pay for unfunded mandates, like building STATE highways. We shall see...

Additional ramps eyed at 281/1604
Mayor is seeking to avoid having the lanes be tolled.

By Josh Baugh and Vianna Davila
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Updated 01:42 a.m., Thursday, September 15, 2011

Mayor Julián Castro said Wednesday he will seek $30 million in the 2012 bond program to help build connector ramps on the north side of the Loop 1604/U.S. 281 interchange, a measure that could help relieve congestion in the area and, at the same time, ensure the ramps are not tolled.

Castro said he wants to leverage bond money to help build the ramps, which would cost about $60 million, said Terry Brechtel, head of the Alamo Regional Mobility Authority, which is currently building ramps on the south side of the interchange.

The authority is using $130 million in federal stimulus money for the southern connectors. The northern connectors would merge with much of the current project, lowering the cost of the northbound ramps.


Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/Additional-ramps-eyedat-281-1604-2170574.php#ixzz1YeL9EtkQ

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