Officials seeking creative solutions to I-35 problems Traffic circles at Interstate 35 frontage road intersections: Yay or nay? Transportation groups seek your input. State, local and federal highway authorities hosted open houses along the Central Texas portion of the I-35 corridor recently, seeking feedback on various ideas to improve traffic along the interstate. Multiple agencies have been working on the project — focused on the area between San Marcos and Georgetown — for the past three years, said Gary Schatz, Austin’s assistant director for transportation management. They include the Texas Department of Transportation, the cities of Austin and Round Rock, the counties of Hays, Travis and Williamson, as well as regional and federal transportation agencies. But unlike previous “huge, turn-key solution” projects, Schatz said, this one aims to find a string of smaller, more affordable solutions that can be linked together like pearls. “Individually, each pearl has value and it solves issues at that location,” he said, “but it allows for a string of pearls that has far greater value.” Among the concepts being considered: • Roundabouts (traffic circles): Mainly considered for frontage road intersections, these would allow traffic to travel counter-clockwise in a consistent manner. • Texas Super Street: Typically these changes force people who want to turn left to instead turn right, make a U-turn and then go back the other way. This approach can lengthen green light time for the frontage road and ease congestion. • Diverging Diamond intersections: Aimed at eliminating traffic congestion caused by motorists making left turns, these criss-cross lanes at intersections separate left turners from those going straight. • Texas Turnarounds: The commonly used U-turn bridges along state highways. Like the string in a pearl necklace, two additional lanes of traffic — down the middle of I-35 — are sought for the project. But engineers look to implement each concept without the need to acquire large amounts of right-of-way — which can get costly — so the additional lanes might have to be “hammered to fit” the existing road land rights, Schatz noted. It also remains to be seen if those lanes would be tolled or free, he added. In the Pflugerville area, concepts shown at a recent open house included roundabouts at Howard Lane/I-35 and a Diverging Diamond at Parmer/I-35. Engineers acknowledged the ideas may take time to catch on, but they would move traffic through the area more efficiently. None of the concepts have been approved yet. And the team is still working to determine how much money each project might cost, said Kelli Reyna, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Transportation. Some of the standalone projects could be built for a few million dollars, while could run into the hundreds of millions, she said. Want to weigh in? Check out the ideas for improving Interstate 35 at Mobility35.org. Comments may be emailed to [email protected]. By Marcial Guajardo - Austin Community Newspapers Staff
Posted on: Mon, 08 Jul 2013 14:55:07 +0000
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