Rethinking MoPac

Graphic from the Austin-American Statesman

MoPac Boulevard, already too jammed to be useful in the most important parts of the day, faces an up or down choice -- new lanes in the sky or below ground -- as yet another page turns in the Austin book of neighborhood fights. The Texas Department of Transportation on Monday will propose studying high-occupancy vehicle lanes for MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1) and U.S. 183. The state will scrap ideas of building more regular lanes in favor of those that carry vehicles with at least two people. But widening MoPac Boulevard to add as many as four HOV lanes would mean bulldozing hundreds of homes -- too expensive politically, if not financially, to fly. So the state will explore elevating HOV lanes above MoPac or putting regular lanes below ground level to run HOV lanes where today's road stands. Scores of homes could still be lost. That prospect, plus preliminary drawings showing some ramps closed and others rebuilt, has homeowners fretting and envisioning a version of Interstate 35.

"It'll never look like I-35, ever," insists Sharon Barta, the state's project manager for MoPac Boulevard and U.S. 183. "No way. Because they are not going to have frontage roads. It would never have the commercial businesses." At least two years of intensive design and environmental studies remain, and the earliest the project could get state and federal money is 2008. The state must also study the option of doing nothing. "That's one thing I try to do is tell people: Don't get excited," said Michael Aulick, executive director of the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, which will hear the proposal Monday. "Nothing is immediate." That advice is not easily taken along the central portion of MoPac Boulevard, where residents swap tales of promises they say the Transportation Department broke, whose house is in danger and what they can do to stop it. Several neighborhoods are using a creative tactic -- trying to get themselves declared a 23-block-long national historic district to impede the work. Although U.S. 183 West would change, too, the controversy and focus figures to be on MoPac Boulevard, particularly from Town Lake to U.S. 183, where most of the potentially jeopardized homes are located.

Several neighborhoods have already drawn a line in the asphalt. "Even taking one home is unacceptable," said Bill Woods, president of the neighborhood association for Bryker Woods adjacent to the highway. "We don't believe that that is a solution to traffic problems in Austin." How many lanes get built -- if any -- will be decided in part by how many homes would be lost and how many lives affected, state officials insist. "It's not just engineering decisions," Barta said. "It's a public perception and reception decision. And we don't know that yet."

HOV proposals

The Transportation Department suggests HOV lanes on MoPac Boulevard from Texas 45 South, near the Hays County line, to Parmer Lane and on U.S. 183 from Lakeline Boulevard to MoPac Boulevard. The state could choose two lanes that would be reversible, meaning traffic flows in one direction in the mornings and the opposite direction in the evenings. Or the state could choose a four-lane HOV system where the lanes would not reverse. With both options, the Transportation Department also could change ramps and intersections, raising neighborhood ire by taking out additional homes. A third choice could be to improve only the ramps and intersections without building HOV lanes. A final option would be to add HOV lanes at street level -- but that would likely be limited to two lanes because adding four lanes would require the destruction of hundreds of homes. The Transportation Department recommends HOV lanes because they carry more people, making them more cost-efficient than building regular lanes. The state's initial report on MoPac Boulevard shows two HOV lanes add 126 percent traffic capacity, compared with 47 percent from adding two regular lanes. But Woods has another idea. "The ideal choice would be to leave it alone," he said.

Tempers ran so high among residents during last fall's briefings on MoPac Boulevard that the state tried a do-over of one meeting -- and left with even more anger ringing in their ears. "Even though TxDOT says, 'Oh, well, this is just a concept,' it's real," said Sid Covington, an Old Enfield neighborhood resident active in the debate. "And the impact is real, and the impact is there today." Realtors must let potential buyers know the house they are considering is on the state's road project maps, and homeowners say they know of real estate deals souring because of the proposals. Until engineers know which type of lanes, ramps or work to do, that situation will remain, Barta said. "That is a concern, and it happens on every project we have," she said. "Once I draw a line, or a consultant draws it, it does affect them during this period of uncertainty." That period could last for years.

CAMPO will hold a public hearing April 9 on the MoPac Boulevard and U.S. 183 options. The group, which decides how state and federal highway money is spent locally, will vote in April or May on continuing the studies. CAMPO could vote no, but traffic jams on both highways make that unlikely. MoPac Boulevard already exceeds its capacity during rush hours. More than 155,000 vehicles a day used the road near RM 2222 in 1999, while 144,000 took U.S. 183 West, statistics show. Up to 245,000 vehicles a day are expected in the next two decades, the state says. So although neighborhoods argue to leave MoPac Boulevard alone, they also consider what to accept if work proceeds. "If they depressed (MoPac) without elevating the lanes, we would agree to HOV lanes," Woods said. "But they have to depress the highway first."

Fighting with history

Though this reads like the typical Austin neighborhood fight, this is also about a new culture of interdependence. Ten neighborhood groups have formed the MoPac Neighborhood Association Coalition, agreeing to protect one another in public -- in a city where neighborhood groups often attack one another as a tool to get what they want. The neighborhoods are working to get an area from 12th Street to 35th Street declared a national historic district, hoping to stave off the state by documenting the historically significant buildings in their midst. What would be called the Old West Austin Historic District has a letter of eligibility from the national registry, and neighborhood activists installed preliminary historic signs last week. Historic buildings have helped change highway projects elsewhere, such as the proposed Texas 130 toll road, where several sites along the state's preferred western route were among the reasons the state chose a more eastern path. But historic designations only add to the hurdles the Transportation Department must cross before expanding MoPac Boulevard. "It sure gives them a run for their money," said Laurie Virkstis, an Old Enfield resident leading the designation work. "It at least gives us peace of mind that we are not going to just lay down and take it."