While many public entities have already voiced their concerns about State Highway 45 Southwest’s possible environmental consequences, a consultant with the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority said the anxiety might be misplaced. At Wednesday’s regular meeting, Michael Barrett presented CTRMA’s board members with an overview of 20 years’ worth of highway stormwater runoff data in Austin. Barrett […]
Transportation
Posted inTransportation
City transit heads and private innovators share MobilityATX stage
A bunch of men, and one woman, gathered Tuesday night in the new Google Fiber building downtown to discuss Austin’s transportation future. With Mayor Steve Adler, Capital Metro President and CEO Linda Watson and transportation app RideScout CEO Joseph Kopser fielding most of the questions from audience members and the moderator, the night’s conversation circled […]
Posted inTransit
CapMetro committee reviews split contracts
Capital Metro’s Operations, Planning and Safety Committee reviewed two major, multimillion-dollar contracts Monday for area rail lines that could increase revenue for the transportation entity. Melvin Clark, vice president of rail operations, said his staff reconfigured contractors’ responsibilities this year and sliced one contract into two. Instead of a single contractor overseeing operations and maintenance for […]
Posted inTransportation
Adler pulls MoPac South express lane amendment
Without assurance that his proposed language change wouldn’t put the brakes on the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization’s 2040 Regional Transportation Plan, Mayor Steve Adler withdrew an amendment at Monday’s Transportation Policy Board meeting intended to clarify the description of the MoPac South express lane expansion. Currently, the plan describes the MoPac South expansion as […]
Posted inTransportation
Airport car rental audit shows minor problem
The city of Austin collected about $10 million in 2012 and $12 million in 2013 in airport car rental fees, according to a city audit. Assistant City Auditor Walt Persons told the Council Audit and Finance Committee on Wednesday that one rental car company owed the city $15,000 in concession fees in 2013 and another […]
Posted inTransit
CapMetro awards $256 million contract
The Capital Metro board of trustees decided at its regular meeting to swap service contractors for a portion of its bus routes Wednesday, despite employee concerns. Board members unanimously approved a $256 million contract with Dallas-based MV Transportation that could potentially stretch to nine years. Starting Sept. 31, the new company will oversee the operation […]
Posted inRoads, Transportation
Website hack shines light on Project Connect
Project Connect, the grand vision for high-capacity transit in Central Texas, has spent a good chunk of 2015 completely out of sight. However, a top Capital Metropolitan Transit Authority official assured the Austin Monitor on Thursday that it’s just temporarily lying fallow after its roads-and-rail bond referendum went off the tracks in November. Todd Hemingson, Capital Metro’s […]
Posted inRoads, Transportation
CAMPO adopts 2040 Regional Transportation Plan
Austin’s history of doubling its population every 25 years or so presents a huge challenge to regional elected officials trying to predict the area’s future transportation needs. Despite this issue, the Transportation Policy Board of the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization threw its chips on the table Monday when it adopted its 2040 Regional Transportation […]
Posted inRoads, Transportation
Council formally weighs in on MoPac South plan
After weeks of mounting tension over what many call a “double-decking” of MoPac Expressway over Lady Bird Lake, City Council has formally asked the regional transportation planning body to modify a proposal to add four express lanes to a section of the highway in its upcoming plan. Council passed a resolution Thursday requesting that the […]
Posted inRoads, Transportation
Council debates MoPac express lane resolution
Amid mounting opposition to a proposal to add four tolled express lanes to a section of South MoPac Expressway, City Council is considering a resolution that would ask the region’s planning organization to cut the project from its 2040 Regional Transportation Plan. Council went into detail at a Tuesday work session, in preparation for a […]
Posted inRoads, Transportation
Opposition to MoPac lanes grows stronger
Opposition to the 2040 Regional Transportation Plan is escalating as members of the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization Transportation Policy Board prepare to take a final vote on the long-range plan next week. City of Austin and Travis County officials held a rally Saturday urging the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority to downsize the proposed […]
Posted inTransportation
Redbud, Barton Springs bridge fixes move ahead
As Public Works Department Director Howard Lazarus said at Wednesday’s City Council Mobility Committee meeting in regard to improving the Barton Springs Road and Redbud Trail bridges, “If you never get started, you’ll never get finished.” Those projects, it appears, are one step closer to getting started. The committee recommended at that meeting that Council […]