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Want to fix I-35 congestion? Make SH 130 tollway a free road and trucks will divert over that bypass and unclog I-35 traffic through Austin. Taxpayers spent over $1 billion to build SH 130 and were told it would be the silver bullet to fix I-35 congestion. Here we are years later, and SH 130 is nearly empty, trucks still clog I-35, and nothing's changed except they're spending MORE taxpayer money to study and find cheap fixes to I-35 (and that's just an interim fix until they add managed toll lanes to I-35). Meanwhile, an ordinary Texas citizen, David Smith who lives in DFW, told the Sunset Commission, many transportation officials, and legislators back in 2008 that this weave effect of on-ramps and exits is a huge cause of congestion and suggested ways to fix it. It shouldn't take $2.25 million dollars on yet another study to conclude the same thing!
A better drive on 35? City, consultant seeking public input to relieve famously gridlocked corridor
By Patrick Beach
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Updated: 11:09 p.m. Thursday, March 15, 2012
Published: 9:53 p.m. Thursday, March 15, 2012
Imagine the slow-moving used car lot that is Interstate 35 with enhancements such as express lanes from William Cannon Drive to Cesar Chavez Street, spiffed-up interchanges at Riverside Drive and safer crossings for cyclists and pedestrians in the area.
Those are some of the ideas the city's transportation department and consultant Parsons Brinckerhoff are mulling as the I-35 Corridor Development Program continues to harvest community input in a process that began in August and will continue until year's end. The multimillion-dollar budget for the program, approved by Austin voters in 2010's Proposition 1 ballot question, got a boost of $1.25 million more from the Texas Legislature.
Having $2.25 million, City of Austin Transportation Department spokeswoman Karla Villalon said, has allowed the city to expand the analysis beyond Travis County to Williamson and Hays counties. The original 10-mile scope of the project is now 27 miles.
Most of the ideas are comparatively short- and medium-term, and could be done "without requiring significant additional right of way," according to presentation materials prepared for the program. And most of those solutions would not call for billions of dollars to widen the interstate, Villalon said.
The documents say what anyone who drives I-35 well knows: It's no fun.
In fact, it's the state's fourth most-congested corridor. Taking I-35 from U.S. 183 to Ben White Boulevard takes an average of 22 minutes during the afternoon peak, making it the 17th worst highway traffic jam in the United States.
As of January, planners had held two public meetings and 23 other forums, generating some 300 ideas.
Any good ones?
"There's been many," said Chuck Fuhs, Parsons Brinckerhoff's project manager. "And I've been doing this kind of thing for almost 40 years now in every other state."
One problem noted by some commuters, Fuhs said, is fellow motorists who use on- and offramps to "whipsaw around additional travelers."
That's right. Some of the interstate's design "actually encourages bad driver behavior," Fuhs said.
Eliminating some of the exits through the middle of town would make this harder to pull off, the consultant said.
The Federal Highway Administration offered the idea of re-striping the upper deck of 35 to gain an additional lane, a notion Fuhs likes. He said the Texas Department of Transportation is looking into whether its bridges could structurally accommodate that.
Whatever the final plan ends up looking like, what it won't be is something that gets Austin drivers down the road easier for the next 30 years. The fixes would last more like 10 years, Fuhs said. And before any modifications can begin, engineering and construction have to be funded.
"None of this is going to sound earthshaking, but little things make a great deal of difference," Fuhs said. "Intersection approach lanes make the intersection perform better. Reorienting some of the off- and on-ramps to remove some of the traffic weaves. We're also looking at widening intersections for better and safer pedestrian and bike traffic.
"If I walk the corridor, there's a whole series of little improvements that, taken together, neighborhoods and constituents would like to see," he said. "When you add it all up, you have a lot of mixing and matching to do."