Austin Transportation & Roadways

[clapclapclap 9,000]

On 7/31/2018 at 8:18 PM, Longhorn Al said:

William Cannon bridge is completely gone. 

Replaced by a signature bridge?

[Guest Lobo]

No, you're thinking of Hoa Don Phao Cau 

[Longhorn Al 440]

 

 

 

Edited August 2, 2018 by Longhorn Al

[Pasken 1,309]

Tx 45 SW should open ahead of schedule but 183 East is on the verge of a delayed opening. They are pretty much working 24/7 but they still can’t hire enough skilled workers and drivers because unemployment is so low in the area. The north section from around MLK up is suppose to open next summer and the southern section in 2020. They still need to demo and rebuild the NB frontage over the river and rebuild 71 in that area. They’ve still done a hell of a lot in a couple years.

Edited August 3, 2018 by Pasken

[Longhorn Al 440]

Open house Aug 22 for Slaughter Lane plan:  https://communityimpact.com/austin/southwest-austin/transportation/2018/08/09/transportation-update-open-house-scheduled-for-slaughter-lane-corridor-mobility-program/

[Longhorn Al 440]

 

[utee94 15,812]

On 8/3/2018 at 3:36 PM, Pasken said:

Tx 45 SW should open ahead of schedule but 183 East is on the verge of a delayed opening. They are pretty much working 24/7 but they still can’t hire enough skilled workers and drivers because unemployment is so low in the area. The north section from around MLK up is suppose to open next summer and the southern section in 2020. They still need to demo and rebuild the NB frontage over the river and rebuild 71 in that area. They’ve still done a hell of a lot in a couple years.

Agree, the work in this area is so much better than... say... the MOPAC toll lanes.

[Longhorn Al 440]

Mopac & Slaughter - traffic diverting to the newly built bridge so they can build the other side.

 

[Pasken 1,309]

So the new Cap Metro CEO hit project connect with a dose of reality and that Elevated Light Rail across the city isn't feasible with the state and federal atmosphere. If you just build a "starter line" then only people inside 183, 71 and mopac will vote for it.

 

The new plan is autonomous buses that can be strung together based on need at any given time and stress the fast that we are making public transit only lanes. 

 

 

 

 

[Guest Lobo]

So they'll basically act like a train then?  So why do we need dedicated rail space then?  

[gsoda3 3,254]

That won't with without smaller buses, 16 people or less, that circulate within neighborhoods taking people to these hubs.

[Pasken 1,309]

1 hour ago, Lobo said:

So they'll basically act like a train then?  So why do we need dedicated rail space then?  

So they aren't stuck in car traffic

[Texas Jeff 1,945]

18 hours ago, Pasken said:

 

I have seen that blue line somewhere before ... where was that?  Oh yeah, it's the failed rail proposal from a few years ago.

And that orange line seems familiar ... sure looks a lot like the Metro Rapid 801 route from the "All Systems Go" plan that was supposed to solve our problems a few years back.  But maybe the yellow line is new?  No, that's the Metro Rapid 803 route...

Hey but what about that green commuter rail line .... to Manor?  Cap Metro spends $25 per rider today to put someone on the red line and it goes to a place where lots of people actually live.  What will be the cost per person to put someone on the green line to a much less populated area?  Cap Metro spends $6 per person to put someone on a bus.

And that purple line ... do we expect people to drive to the Expo Center, park, and then wait for a bus to take them to downtown?

Rail has show to be really, really expensive per passenger and while Metro Rapid ridership is up, it's still about 12% of all Cap Metro trips.

Most people want a point to point experience to get to and from work at the lowest total economic cost to them, a sum of factors like trip cost, an air conditioned vehicle that is in good condition, safety, total trip time, ability to handle schedule exceptions and others.  Right now for most people that means taking a trip alone in a car from their house to their job.  Take away car lanes and you will make their life more miserable and more will take the bus because you change their economic cost, but that does not mean they are happier people.

We do have a great untapped resource for transportation, and you can see it everyday when you drive around town.  It's inside your own car.  You probably have a four seater car with one butt in one seat most of the time.  In that scenario, we are only using 25% of the transportation system everyday.  We have a ton of capacity to move people.

We just need some way of changing the total economic cost so that people start to use that extra capacity. Uber and Lyft are a start but there is much more than could be done with apps to support carpooling and perhaps paying Uber and Lyft drivers a Cap Metro subsidy to pick up people that might normally ride a bus.  Self driving cars will lower the cost of shared transporation and increase the capacity of today's roads.

The best future system might not be rail and bus but instead a better utilization of the cars we have today and the automated cars to come tomorrow.

[Pasken 1,309]

Stay off 183 East for a couple months if you can. They are taking down the 51st and Techni center lights but all 183 traffic has to go through the MLK light and it's a nightmare. The new bypass lanes will be done in a couple months. Until then, avoid.

[Orange&White 5,522]

On 5/19/2018 at 9:46 AM, Godzillatron said:

 Thread sounds like the usual Austin bitching. MoPAC construction was horribly mismanaged by CH2M. CTRMA probably should have defaulted them but didn’t. Lane was brought on to finish the job, and has been largely responsible for getting the road open and fixing the stuff CH2M screwed up. The sound walls were designed incorrectly to handle structural load and are being replaced (pretty quickly in my opinion).
 

Yeah? They worked on it for several months before you posted this and it has now been four more months since you posted it and the fucking wall across from Mabry doesn't even look like it's had an hour of progress on it.

The fucking project started in 2013, they finished all of the fucking lanes in basically four years. Yet here we fucking sit with the god damned walls still not being done and having road construction slowing down mopac every mother fucking night of the week.

Jesus fucksticks is this project a massive clusterfuck.

[Updawg 2,266]

Yeah? They worked on it for several months before you posted this and it has now been four more months since you posted it and the fucking wall across from Mabry doesn't even look like it's had an hour of progress on it.
The fucking project started in 2013, they finished all of the fucking lanes in basically four years. Yet here we fucking sit with the god damned walls still not being done and having road construction slowing down mopac every mother fucking night of the week.
Jesus fucksticks is this project a massive clusterfuck.

No shit. That section by 45th is like a PTSD flashback now. They have closed the entrance/exit lane and are moving at a snail's pace. Would love to know when they plan to be finished. I assume 2023 or so.

This has been the most incompetent project I've ever seen

[Deej 76,759]

10 minutes ago, Updawg said:

This has been the most incompetent project I've ever seen

City of Austin: "You ain't seen nothing, yet."

[atomheartbevo 89,650]

We just need to elevate all of the roadways and put green space everywher.  That will be $2 million for a consultation fee. 

And here is what it will look like in 75 years. 

[Chet Steadman 940]

Completion of this relatively simple urban construction project has taken approximately 2.5x longer than anticipated.  And it’s still not done.  

That’s criminal.  

[gmr548 16,576]

No shit. That section by 45th is like a PTSD flashback now. They have closed the entrance/exit lane and are moving at a snail's pace. Would love to know when they plan to be finished. I assume 2023 or so.

This has been the most incompetent project I've ever seen

It's not incompetence. It's the plan. Construction firms are just vehicles to take government kickbacks.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

[SquishMitten 10,403]

Can’t find it in any of the stories above, but there’s at least two random pillars built around the Mopac/Slaughter project. They look kind of like overpass-pillars, but their placement doesn’t make any sense. One is on the southbound exit ramp to Slaughter, and the other is in front of Backspin. Anybody know?

[Orange&White 5,522]

They’ll probably hold the board/signs that display the toll rates.

 

But it is also not uncommon to build the infrastructure for future ramp connections.

Edited January 13, 2019 by Orange&White

[Biff Tannen 45,675]

We just need to elevate all of the roadways and put green space everywher.  That will be $2 million for a consultation fee. 
And here is what it will look like in 75 years. 

Looks pretty sweet to me. Don’t see any gondolas though.

[atomheartbevo 89,650]

1 hour ago, Biff Tannen said:

 

Looks pretty sweet to me. Don’t see any gondolas though.

 

That’s the key to making all of this work: The gondolas are underground!

[Pasken 1,309]

Looks like the 183 North project is back on track and has its funding.  I know everyone is expecting a giant shit of a project but as someone who lives on the east side, I can say that CTRMA has done a really good job with the 183 East project which is a pretty big undertaking. 

 

 

Tolls suck but the project adds a free lane for traffic, an express lane for buses and emergency vehicles and a way to beat traffic if you're late or if you aren't a daily commuter and don't mind paying the toll for 1 day. It also adds direct connectors from Mopac so people don't have to exit that express lane and Nascar across mopac to get to the 183 exit lane.

[Orange&White 5,522]

Is it still true that every person on the CTRMA board has a criminal history? Or did they get some new members? Fucking criminals.

Why is it that rates on a CTRMA roadway are double+ a TxTag roadway? Especially when the ROW they build on is already owned by the people of Texas?

 

Edited February 25, 2019 by Orange&White

[Biff Tannen 45,675]

Is there any visual of the final widening project on 35 south of the river?  Oltorf, etc.  I drive it every day and am curious what it will look like in the end.

[tucker 238]

On 1/13/2019 at 9:40 AM, gmr548 said:

It's not incompetence. It's the plan. Construction firms are just vehicles to take government kickbacks.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk
 

Many construction firms have lost significant money working on Texas road projects. While the projects are a disaster, the are even worse financially for the construction firms. Ironically, Texas residents have been receiving unbid projects and the losses have been born by the construction firms not its tax payers.  

[relapse98 634]

1 hour ago, tucker said:

Many construction firms have lost significant money working on Texas road projects. While the projects are a disaster, the are even worse financially for the construction firms.

Must not be losing that much - otherwise they would stop doing the projects, no?

[Pasken 1,309]

1 hour ago, Biff Tannen said:

Is there any visual of the final widening project on 35 south of the river?  Oltorf, etc.  I drive it every day and am curious what it will look like in the end.

They aren't currently widening 35 south of the river. The bulk of the work is rebuilding overpasses to add free U-Turns, general capacity, adding room for future mainlanes and greatly improving the on and off ramps to help traffic flow better and reduce slowdowns. Part of that adds auxiliary lanes so in that sense it's widening. The work also sets up future project to add lanes in the center of the highway but that isn't currently funded.

click to enlarge:

35 at Oltorf

 

35 at Stassney and William Cannon

 

 

The real shit show is going to be when they close the 35 north to 183 north ramp for 6 months.

Edited February 25, 2019 by Pasken

[Biff Tannen 45,675]

3 minutes ago, Pasken said:

They aren't currently widening 35 south of the river. The bulk of the work is overpass work and greatly improving the on and off ramps to help traffic flow better and reduce slowdowns. Part of that adds auxiliary lanes so in that sense it's widening. The work also sets up future project to add lanes in the center of the highway but that isn't currently funded.

click to enlarge:

35 at Oltorf

 

35 at Stassney and William Cannon

 

 

The real shit show is going to be when they close the 35 north to 183 north ramp for 6 months.

Thanks.  Also, why do we not have HOV lanes?

[Pasken 1,309]

2 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

Thanks.  Also, why do we not have HOV lanes?

 

That's in the works but it will require some major reconstruction north of the river and they aren't sure how to pay for it now that they won't be toll lanes.  They were originally talking about adding reinforcement to the upper deck, then tearing them down completely and no one knows now.

 

 

[PilotsError 2,287]

3 hours ago, tucker said:

Many construction firms have lost significant money working on Texas road projects. While the projects are a disaster, the are even worse financially for the construction firms. Ironically, Texas residents have been receiving unbid projects and the losses have been born by the construction firms not its tax payers.  

 

I don't believe a word of this.

[tucker 238]

2 hours ago, relapse98 said:

Must not be losing that much - otherwise they would stop doing the projects, no?

TXDot is having to beg major construction firms to bid on projects. 

[tucker 238]

12 minutes ago, PilotsError said:

 

I don't believe a word of this.

Listen to construction firms earning calls that have major TX projects. Some of the information is publicly available if you know where to look.

Major construction firms are already a low margin business (5% - 8%) if they are lucky. Many have had challenged projects (Texas) which has resulted in making them lose money.

Edited February 25, 2019 by tucker

[Guest Lobo]

I saw the letter from C2hM that said they couldn’t pay out the early completion bonus to a rather prominent sub that did tunnel work for them.   C level leader ship then goes and gives themselves a large bonus shortly after holding back on that bonus and others like it      MayMaybe the lower rung workers are hurting, But company leadership ain’t.  

 

Best of all their incompetence causes dozens  of needless deaths of Texas motorists every year.   Say what you want about skilling getting out of prison, His hands are pretty clean compared to most general contractors that do txdot work

[Chet Steadman 940]

Pask- what’s the latest with the proposed widening of 360 and removal of stoplights?

[Deej 76,759]

7 hours ago, tucker said:

TXDot is having to beg major construction firms to bid on projects. 

Being mostly aggys, begging for money should be second nature.

[bschoolprof 6,252]

Good.  183N seems like a good project that should have been done 10 years ago.  Hopefully it goes more like 183 E and less like N mopac toll lane bullshit.  

I am fine with tolls because I'm surly 1%.    

[tucker 238]

It is only going to get worse.

Quote

The Austin area’s population climbed by an average of 55,500 people a year, or 152 per day, from 2010 to 2017, according to a new analysis by the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce.

The Austin-area population forecast from Ryan Robinson, the City of Austin’s demographer, aligns with the Marcus & Millichap projection. Robinson predicts the area’s population will rise 2.75 percent in 2019 compared with 2018, versus Marcus & Millichap’s forecast of 2.6 percent. Robinson estimates the population of the five-county area stood at 2,215,727 on January 1, 2019.

If Robinson’s population outlook holds true, the Austin area will tack on nearly 61,000 residents in 2019. That’s a little less than the number of people who live in San Marcos (around 63,000).

“With the pace of overall job creation remaining near 3.5 percent in Austin, anyone would be hard-pressed to predict much of a slowdown,” Robinson says of the area’s population growth. “And anecdotally, the number and magnitude of recent office space leasing agreements with big national corporate names just blows me away. I would have never imagined that our current boom would be refueling at this point. [Get] ready for another couple of crazy years.”

http://austin.culturemap.com/news/city-life/02-26-19-austin-area-population-in-2019-growth-rate-reports-demographer/

[Pasken 1,309]

15 hours ago, bschoolprof said:

Good.  183N seems like a good project that should have been done 10 years ago.  Hopefully it goes more like 183 E and less like N mopac toll lane bullshit.  

I am fine with tolls because I'm surly 1%.    

I'm sure it will. They got their asses kicked during the mopac debacle and they came up with a good way to monitor how much work the contractor is spending vs what they should be spending to make sure people are actually out there working.

 

 

15 hours ago, Chet Steadman said:

Pask- what’s the latest with the proposed widening of 360 and removal of stoplights?

All 7 projects are in design/engineering/environmental review. First one should be ready for construction around 2022 and the last one around 2026. Hopefully they aren't sued by Save our Springs.  Hold onto your butts because a diverging diamond intersection is coming to 2222. I like em but I know some of you guys can't stand them. 

 

Also, the contract for the new Cap Metro Downtown train station was awarded and construction begins after SXSW. It's the same company that built the Lamar pedestrian bridge, the new 2nd st bridge, and the Seaholm development. 

 

The new train station will increase the frequency of the Red line from every 35 minutes to every 15 minutes by installing 3 parallel tracks. THE BUMMER is that the train will have to end at the Plaza Saltilo station for 5 months from June-October. Riders will have to take a shuttle to downtown. I think that's when they are going to demolish the creek over shoal creek and build a wider one to fit dual tracks and a car lane. 

 

Good news is the double tracking projects currently under construction will finish by the summer which will allow the trains to go back to their normal speed.

Edited February 26, 2019 by Pasken

[hayden_horn 11,362]

30 minutes ago, Pasken said:

I'm sure it will. They got their asses kicked during the mopac debacle and they came up with a good way to monitor how much work the contractor is spending vs what they should be spending to make sure people are actually out there working.

 

 

All 7 projects are in design/engineering/environmental review. First one should be ready for construction around 2022 and the last one around 2026. Hopefully they aren't sued by Save our Springs.  Hold onto your butts because a diverging diamond intersection is coming to 2222. I like em but I know some of you guys can't stand them. 

 

for the life of me, i cannot ascertain any benefit from the diverging diamond at slaughter and mopac. i'm willing to entertain the idea that it is because it is not finished.

[Orange&White 5,522]

Has Paksen ever revealed who he works for? I can't imagine he is still going with the "citizen interested in transportation issues" anymore, right?

[Pasken 1,309]

26 minutes ago, hayden_horn said:

for the life of me, i cannot ascertain any benefit from the diverging diamond at slaughter and mopac. i'm willing to entertain the idea that it is because it is not finished.

You reduce the amount of light cycles from 4 to 2 so it's less waiting around.

 

22 minutes ago, Orange&White said:

Has Paksen ever revealed who he works for? I can't imagine he is still going with the "citizen interested in transportation issues" anymore, right?

Believe what you want dude.  

[Orange&White 5,522]

On 2/25/2019 at 11:13 AM, Pasken said:

That's in the works but it will require some major reconstruction north of the river and they aren't sure how to pay for it now that they won't be toll lanes.  They were originally talking about adding reinforcement to the upper deck, then tearing them down completely and no one knows now.

 

1 hour ago, Pasken said:

I'm sure it will. They got their asses kicked during the mopac debacle and they came up with a good way to monitor how much work the contractor is spending vs what they should be spending to make sure people are actually out there working.

 

9 minutes ago, Pasken said:

Believe what you want dude.  

 

Where would an "interested citizen" come across those two pieces of information?

[Chet Steadman 940]

Who really cares?  He provides solid transportation and ABIA insight.

[Pasken 1,309]

1 hour ago, Orange&White said:

 

 

 

Where would an "interested citizen" come across those two pieces of information?

The internet. 

[hayden_horn 11,362]

2 hours ago, Pasken said:

You reduce the amount of light cycles from 4 to 2 so it's less waiting around.

 

i have not noticed any significant difference in the waiting time to clear that intersection.

like i said, maybe it isn't fully complete, and it will be better upon finishing.

here's a weird question: southbound on mopac, there used to be an exit only lane for 360, in the left lane. they have since made that third left lane a through lane, which would have seemed to me to make traffic flow more efficiently. they also alleviated some of the lights on 360 to ben white itself to increase efficiency. yet, every damn day, no matter the time of day, even on weekends, that left lane backs up for that exit, and there is no goddamn reason for it. i cannot figure it out. i come out the other side of the ridge, and traffic accelerates to normalish speeds. 

are people just being cautious on that exit in ways they didn't used to be, because it cuts through the rocks and you cannot see where you are going? maybe it's new transplants, who don't understand how that exit works?

i don't get it.

[Updawg 2,266]

The mopac / slaughter intersection is definitely better as a diamond. It was getting pretty bad leaving circle c before construction and seems to have improved.

That 360 exit is weird and I have noticed the same. I think it is just a result of more cars on the road these days

I've also noticed south bound mopac has a lot more traffic jams on the wkds whereas there used to never be. Probably all the hays county people.

I wonder how much the new toll road connecting to mopac will impact things. Great for hays county and Brodie lane people but is it going to push south mopac over the edge.

[Orange&White 5,522]

45 minutes ago, Pasken said:

The internet. 

Really...how about a link?