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Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2012

U.S. 290 tollway’s first piece opening in December

By Ben Wear
Austin American Statesman

The first section of what will be the area’s sixth tollway should open in December, officials with the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority say, and the entire, 6.2-mile length of what the agency is calling the “Manor Expressway” should be done by spring 2014.

That initial phase of the reconstructed U.S. 290 East will include four flyover bridges connecting the toll lanes on that road to U.S. 183’s northbound and southbound lanes, as well as 1.4 miles of tollway that would allow drivers to avoid stoplights at Tuscany Way and Springdale Road by paying a toll. The flyovers, which will carry a 50-cent toll initially, and the eastbound lanes of that 1.4 miles will open in early December, mobility authority spokesman Steve Pustelnyk said, and the westbound lanes in that section would be complete in late December or early January.

That section of tollway will also carry a 50-cent toll, Pustelnyk said, but the agency will not begin charging on either the flyovers or the first section until both the eastbound and westbound lanes of this first part of the tollway are open.

“We were trying to get a piece of that thing opened quickly, rather than waiting for it all to be done,” said Mike Heiligenstein, executive director of the mobility authority. “People will be able to bypass a couple of intersections.”

Construction began on the $426 million project in March 2010 after the mobility authority and the Texas Department of Transportation received a $59.5 million federal stimulus grant for the flyovers. TxDOT also put $63.7 million of its money into the project, and then the mobility authority borrowed most of the rest on the bond market.

The six-lane tollway, along with six free frontage road lanes, will lie on top of what previously was a four-lane highway with no tolls. Initially, the frontage roads will have no more traffic lights than existed on U.S. 290 East before construction, but that could change over time as development increases alongside the highway . The tollway, when complete, will run from U.S. 183 to just east of where Parmer Lane meets U.S. 290.

Driving the entire 6.2 miles, including a flyover, will cost $2.12 for cars and two-axle trucks with an electronic toll tag — 34.2 cents a mile — and $2.83 for drivers who pay by mail, or about 45.6 cents a mile. Larger trucks will pay multiples of those figures based on the number of axles. Those tolls likely would increase yearly based on an inflation measure tied to the state’s economic growth.

The tolls on four other area toll roads, which belong to TxDOT, are 15 cents a mile or lower. Unlike TxDOT, which can subsidize tollways running in the red with gas tax money, the mobility authority has no power to levy taxes and must cover its operating costs and debt service out of toll revenue or face possible default.

The mobility authority operates one other tollway here, 183-A in Cedar Park and Leander — tolls are 29 cents a mile on that road — and likely will break ground next summer on tolled express lanes on North MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1).