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  #5221  
Old Posted Jul 20, 2016, 9:12 PM
urbancore urbancore is online now
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Originally Posted by wwmiv View Post
Ugh... Not promoting our city would kill it. Thanks, but not thanks. I'd rather have the issues that come in tandem with the positives than not have the positives at all.
Yep
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  #5222  
Old Posted Jul 20, 2016, 10:46 PM
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It's more like we invited everyone to the party without thinking about where they'd park on the street. Now they're all here, and we're having a good time, but people keep showing up. Now we're trying to be good hosts and help them with their cars, while at the same time trying to host the huge party inside.

It'll be messy, but nobody wants the party to stop.

How's that for an analogy?
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  #5223  
Old Posted Jul 21, 2016, 3:24 AM
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Originally Posted by lzppjb View Post
It's more like we invited everyone to the party without thinking about where they'd park on the street. Now they're all here, and we're having a good time, but people keep showing up. Now we're trying to be good hosts and help them with their cars, while at the same time trying to host the huge party inside.

It'll be messy, but nobody wants the party to stop.

How's that for an analogy?
Perfect. We need to hire a valet service, but we already ditched the options we had at the last party we threw (Uber and Lyft).
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  #5224  
Old Posted Jul 21, 2016, 9:53 PM
Tech House Tech House is offline
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So you think Austin needs more businesses to move here than are already planning to move here? This is boosterism on steroids. Is this a Chamber of Commerce forum? We have to solve the problems growth is already causing, not go running around the world trying to score more growth. Y'all are like heroin addicts!

Now I'm going to argue against myself. Me, you're wrong, we need to keep the momentum going in order to make the city work. If we stagnate, we're fucked. This city's oxygen comes from growing, from a constant influx of new blood and new business. Why don't you move to Idaho if you don't want to be in a thriving metropolis? Fucking hippie. I'm surprised you're still around, I expected you to kill yourself when Bernie lost the nomination.
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  #5225  
Old Posted Jul 21, 2016, 10:37 PM
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That escalated quickly.
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  #5226  
Old Posted Jul 21, 2016, 11:53 PM
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You're wrong, we need to keep the momentum going in order to make the city work. If we stagnate, we're fucked. This city's oxygen comes from growing, from a constant influx of new blood and new business. Why don't you move to Idaho if you don't want to be in a thriving metropolis? Fucking hippie. I'm surprised you're still around, I expected you to kill yourself when Bernie lost the nomination.
^this^
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  #5227  
Old Posted Jul 22, 2016, 5:22 AM
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^this^
The whole thing, including the suicide?
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  #5228  
Old Posted Jul 22, 2016, 3:59 PM
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The whole thing, including the suicide?
lol no... I was being sarcastic.
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  #5229  
Old Posted Jul 22, 2016, 7:36 PM
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Y'all....

wwmiv was being sarcastic. This is an exceptional - historic, even - moment for this forum.
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  #5230  
Old Posted Jul 22, 2016, 11:56 PM
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Y'all....

wwmiv was being sarcastic. This is an exceptional - historic, even - moment for this forum.


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  #5231  
Old Posted Jul 25, 2016, 3:28 AM
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Please take a moment and tell TxDOT not to build I-35 above ground through downtown Austin--that would be a disaster!


http://www.mobility35openhouse.com/S...2016-June.aspx

Above is the link to the virtual open house that is going on through July 26. Encourage folks to use the link at the bottom of the page "Send us your comments." Comments can be sent to info@mobility35.org at any time, including Central 7-mile Project in the subject line would be helpful to make sure those comments get to the right project team timely. The formal public hearing is scheduled for Sept 20. That will be the beginning of the 10 day official comment period.

After spending the weekend in Houston, I am horrified by how bad above ground interstates are to the surrounding community. Please help us fend this off for Austin.
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  #5232  
Old Posted Jul 25, 2016, 8:39 PM
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Done. Thanks for posting the link.
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  #5233  
Old Posted Jul 26, 2016, 1:23 AM
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Please, please, please comment. TXDOT ALWAYS goes for the cheaper option unless there is a large outpouring of public setament against the cheaper option.

I added my opinion (for a cut and cap plan) and I don't even live in austin full time. The division between east and west Austin needs to come down.
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  #5234  
Old Posted Jul 26, 2016, 2:05 AM
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I let them know I want the upper deck through the entirety of downtown. I told them we should even have a 3rd deck. More the merrier.




















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  #5235  
Old Posted Jul 26, 2016, 3:56 PM
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I say even add a fourth deck, like a highway skyscraper, would be be so pretty. All cities would be envious.
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  #5236  
Old Posted Jul 26, 2016, 4:07 PM
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Originally Posted by clubtokyo View Post
I say even add a fourth deck, like a highway skyscraper, would be be so pretty. All cities would be envious.
Screw it, we're doing 5 decks

http://www.theonion.com/blogpost/fuc...e-blades-11056
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  #5237  
Old Posted Jul 26, 2016, 5:24 PM
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How about 6 decks...underground. Could call it the supertunnel and one of the decks could be 4 high speed rail tracks.
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  #5238  
Old Posted Jul 27, 2016, 12:45 AM
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A poster on shaggy has pointed out two articles that state capping the depressed lanes is not part of TXDOT's plan. They say Austin would have to come up with funds for them to do that, as it requires more ROW and moving utilities.
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  #5239  
Old Posted Jul 27, 2016, 2:51 AM
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I usually don't post comments on this thread and after this one I may be forbidden to post here again.
There is nothing that can be done to significantly solve the traffic issues on I35 through downtown. You can bury and cap it so you hide it and end the east / west divide, but that won't put a dent in the stop and go traffic, and the latter is a moot point since new development is driving away the lower income people that the discussion of east / west divide was aimed at in the first place. So the only reason to bury I 35 is not to unify but to beautify.
If something could be done, it would have already been done, or maybe not given the track record of the decision makers. Nope, nothing can or ever will be done. People I know that live up north by me and work downtown leave for work extra early, find a place dt to have breakfast, and deal with the evening commute home. Its like anything you hate but can't do anything about, you deal with it. You adjust to it. And if you are the person who is in charge, you spend millions of dollars in studies over decades in hopes that just by doing those studies and feeding the public a few proposals, that that would be enough to show the public that progress is being made on the traffic issues, even though its all false hope, but buys whoever is in charge, time.
Any construction would compound the issue on a magnitude of gargantuan proportion for years and by then, factoring in more newcomers would show no gain, but would be the argument for adding at least some extra capacity now. It would be huge cost for little to no gain. It would be like adding 8 or so additional gates at ABIA.
You can argue that doing nothing is worse, but sometimes its better to leave the bullet in and live with it.
At least some people are finding alternatives. I'm sure the city is hoping more commuters do the same.
Like I said, there's no fixing this one, and no one back in the day saw this coming. Traffic on I35 will always be a part of living here.

Last edited by the Genral; Jul 27, 2016 at 3:12 AM.
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  #5240  
Old Posted Jul 27, 2016, 5:51 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lzppjb View Post
A poster on shaggy has pointed out two articles that state capping the depressed lanes is not part of TXDOT's plan. They say Austin would have to come up with funds for them to do that, as it requires more ROW and moving utilities.
To clarify what I think is somewhat of a misinterpretation here...

Depressing the lanes likely requires more ROW and certainly more utility relocation, which is why the cost/mile of that option is an order of magnitude higher than rebuilding largely as-is. But if that is the locally preferred option, the physical depression of the roadway would be TxDOT-funded (among other sources, for sure).

The funding programming dilemma, then, is whether the cost difference between the roadway reconstruction configurations (again, neither of which consider the cost of cap) is worth the prolonging gap in another locally needed project. For example, if the cost difference is, say, equal to a partial rebuild of 183/71 interchange (a random example of a local, but relatively complex, high-dollar project), does Austin need a sunken I-35 and wait for funds to rebuild 183/71 OR should it accept an I-35 rebuilt as-is and get another complex project built sooner?

What has been reported and seems true is that the cap, i.e. beams, deck, and a lot of landscaping, would itself likely not be funded from a transportation pot of money. But the cap itself is a fraction of the cost of the larger rebuild and requires no additional ROW or utility relocation (since that would all be required - and funded - to depress the lanes). Practically speaking, on a cost/sq foot basis of cap construction cost, it would likely be in the City's interest to contribute funds for the cap's construction where it could be included with the larger rebuild project for many of the same reasons as adding upgrades to a new house versus adding on later. It's a tough choice, though, since the City certainly has its options as to whether to build a cap versus, say, reconstruct a main arterial in town.

In summary, from what I've come to understand, we could just as well rebuild I-35 downtown in either configuration and have it be funded from a variety of Federal, State, and local transportation sources. It simply would not be capped until or unless the locals pony up for that portion, which is precisely what happened in Dallas. But the bottom line is that if you desire to have it capped someday, you need to express your support for the lowered alignment now.
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