AUSTIN | Transportation Updates

[freerover]

PC is looking to shed hundreds of millions in costs by axing a lot of the pedestrian tunnels for the subway system and reducing the number of underground entrances/exits. Kind of a bummer but what are you going to do? I would post screenshots but it's too much of a pain in the ass. Is there a skyscraper/transit Slack channel?

[ATXboom]

Originally Posted by freerover

PC is looking to shed hundreds of millions in costs by axing a lot of the pedestrian tunnels for the subway system and reducing the number of underground entrances/exits. Kind of a bummer but what are you going to do? I would post screenshots but it's too much of a pain in the ass. Is there a skyscraper/transit Slack channel?

Is this a case of saving some $ up front but cutting ridership? I would think more access tunnels = more access and ridership. So save on upfront costs but short yourself operating revenue.

[freerover]

Originally Posted by ATXboom

Is this a case of saving some $ up front but cutting ridership? I would think more access tunnels = more access and ridership. So save on upfront costs but short yourself operating revenue.

I don't think ridership will be affected. I think it seems like a bigger deal than it is bc ppl don't think 4th dimensionally but every redevelopment is going to be a big improvement in pedestrian ground level infrastructure. It just means crossing more streets. Kind of a bummer though. Paris has LOTS of entrances to their stations in every direction.






The pedestrian tunnels in red outlines are being considered for removal. The one on Barton Springs would save more than 100 million from the budget.

[Novacek]

Originally Posted by freerover

I don't think ridership will be affected. I think it seems like a bigger deal than it is bc ppl don't think 4th dimensionally but every redevelopment is going to be a big improvement in pedestrian ground level infrastructure. It just means crossing more streets. Kind of a bummer though. Paris has LOTS of entrances to their stations in every direction.






The pedestrian tunnels in red outlines are being considered for removal. The one on Barton Springs would save more than 100 million from the budget.

Is this something that could be added back in the future, or permanently precluded by ongoing operations?

[drummer]

I know in China they often had stations built with the possibility of future gates for new metro lines. They simply closed off that access point at the station level but it was relatively easy to add on without a redesign of the station itself. Hopefully they do the same here if they're indeed cutting all of these.

[freerover]

Originally Posted by Novacek

Is this something that could be added back in the future, or permanently precluded by ongoing operations?

Not sure. It's also worth looking into if Musk's baby tunnels could be used but it would be a little claustrophobic. Looks like people would have walking pavement about 7 wide (3.5' in each direction). I'm not sure what kind of federal standards there might be that we have to fall into.

[ATXboom]

Originally Posted by Novacek

Is this something that could be added back in the future, or permanently precluded by ongoing operations?

This... at least future proof it so that those tunnels could be added in the future. But no development in Ausitn has ever considered future growth lol.

[freerover]

Originally Posted by ATXboom

This... at least future proof it so that those tunnels could be added in the future. But no development in Ausitn has ever considered future growth lol.

The subway is how we are looking to the future. We don't need the added capacity from the longer boarding platforms in 2030 but we will in 2050 and we'll have an affordable way to expand service. This wouldn't be possible on the surface level.

[paul78701]

Originally Posted by freerover

I don't think ridership will be affected. I think it seems like a bigger deal than it is bc ppl don't think 4th dimensionally but every redevelopment is going to be a big improvement in pedestrian ground level infrastructure. It just means crossing more streets. Kind of a bummer though. Paris has LOTS of entrances to their stations in every direction.






The pedestrian tunnels in red outlines are being considered for removal. The one on Barton Springs would save more than 100 million from the budget.

For the downtown removals, it's hard to see how removing these would save all that much. I mean, they will mostly be dug out already for the train line itself.

[kingkirbythe....]

CapMetro will let riders get off between stops at night and allow open strollers on buses

https://www.kut.org/transportation/2...llers-on-buses

After experimenting for weeks with letting people off between stops and allowing open strollers on buses, Capital Metro is making the pilot projects permanent.

Both policies come with a set of restrictions.

Riders can ask a driver to let them off between stops after 9 p.m. The driver will pull over for a so-called "courtesy stop" only if the weather is not severe and there's a safe, well-lit space to stop. The speed limit has to be under 50 miles an hour.

Before the pilot project launched in April, only people with mobility impairments could be let off between bus stops.

Adults can keep a child in a stroller only if a wheelchair spot is available. If someone boards in a wheelchair and needs the space, the parent must remove the child from the stroller and fold it up.

Bus drivers are not supposed to help with strollers, but they can lower the ramp for people to board more easily.

"We're a little bit ahead of the curve ... in trying this," CapMetro's operations chief Andy Skabowski told KUT. "We tried it, and it was very well received."

Both policies are in effect now, but Capital Metro won't start promoting them for a couple months. The agency wants to make sure all bus drivers and trainees understand the rules first.

[sjk]

Not directly related to Austin, but here it is anyway:

Texas Supreme Court Rules This Train Is a Train

Group opposing bullet train from Houston to Dallas sued under the grounds it's not really a train and therefore can’t use the state’s eminent domain laws.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/93aw...6nzfFG8C74lHyo

[freerover]

Originally Posted by sjk

Not directly related to Austin, but here it is anyway:

Texas Supreme Court Rules This Train Is a Train

Group opposing bullet train from Houston to Dallas sued under the grounds it's not really a train and therefore can’t use the state’s eminent domain laws.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/93aw...6nzfFG8C74lHyo

Isn't this company almost dead? Maybe legal clearance will attract new investors.

[kingkirbythe....]

TxDOT 'clearly violating the law' with I-35 expansion in Austin, lawsuit alleges

https://www.mysanantonio.com/lifesty...P-CP-Spotlight

The Texas Department of Transportation is being sued over the I-35 expansion project in Austin. The lawsuit was filed Sunday, June 26, at a federal court in Travis County by Rethink35, Texas Public Interest Research Group (TexPIRG), and Environment Texas. The suit names both TxDOT and its Executive Director Marc Williams as defendants.

"By splitting its I-35 project into separate parts, TxDOT is clearly violating the law," TexPIRG Environment Campaigns Director Matt Casale said in a press release on Monday, June 27.

The groups allege in the lawsuit that TxDOT has "improperly divided" the I-35 expansion project into three segments and that TxDOT is avoiding "more rigorous, legally required environmental review and public engagement of a single larger project" by dividing it up into "independent utilities."

"These three projects are so intertwined and completely rely on each of the other projects to be built. Thus, each project — North, Central, and South — does not have independent utility," the lawsuit reads.

The expansion spans 28 miles between State Highway 45 N and State Highway 45 SE. The North project runs from State Highway 45 North to Highway 290 E; the South project spans Ben White Boulevard to State Highway 45 SE; and the Central project from Highway 290 E to Ben White Boulevard. The project includes plans to expand some of the roadways from 12 to 14 lanes up to 19 lanes. Other project aspects include bridge reconstruction, adding a diverging diamond interchange, and adding bicycle and pedestrian paths in addition to other mobility changes.

"Countless examples, including the notorious Katy Freeway expansion in Houston, have shown that widening highways worsens congestion by encouraging more driving," Rethink35 Executive Director Adam Greenfield said in the press release. "The public has a right to consider options for I-35 that will actually work, including alternatives to driving, not just expansion. This is also a major equity issue: Widening freeways worsens serious and fatal traffic crashes, air pollution, noise, and carbon emissions, all of which disproportionately impact low-income communities and communities of color."

TxDOT unveiled the project in August and was met with reservations by city officials, according to Austin's NPR station KUT. Analysis by the state's transportation district said the project would displace up to 147 commercial and resident properties.

I-35 in Travis County is one of the top ranked most congested roadway in Texas, according to the Texas Transportation Institute in 2020. The report also says the highway incurs the highest annual congestion cost at $200 million.



17 page lawsuit is also available to read in article.

[kingkirbythe....]

Three Austin-based advocacy groups sue TxDOT over I-35 expansion through Central Texas

https://www.statesman.com/story/news...on/7757674001/

Three Austin-based advocacy groups are suing the Texas Department of Transportation over plans to expand 28 miles of Interstate 35 through Central Texas, claiming that the agency improperly split the project into three parts and has failed to properly study its overall impact.

Rethink35, Texas Public Interest Research Group and Environment Texas filed the lawsuit, which asks the court to require TxDOT to reassess the entire project, consider its environmental impact and present meaningful alternatives to the current proposal.

TxDOT’s current plan — which calls for expanding 28 miles of I-35 from the south end of Round Rock to just north of Buda — has been in the works for years, with funding approved for parts of the project in 2019.

[kingkirbythe....]

Why does the city 'repair' streets by covering them in gravel?

https://www.kut.org/transportation/2...n-austin-roads

You're drenched in sweat, city pools are closed for lack of lifeguards and the stench of asphalt is in the air. Welcome to summer in America's coolest city.

Austin's hot, dry summer creates ideal conditions for hardening fresh asphalt. So the city's Public Works Department toils through the sweltering heat to resurface as many miles of roads as possible from May through September.

That left a KUT listener wondering.

"I wanted to know why it is that we seem to repave roads by throwing out what looks like a lot of gravel or tar balls on to the road," Abigail Norman asked our ATXplained project. "I noticed that it often seems to happen in the summertime. So I wondered: Is this a Texas thing where it's so hot here that we just throw out little balls of tar and then it melts into the road?"

She's not the only one curious. The city gets a lot of complaints about gravel on the road.

Across town on a blazing hot day, a crew of city workers was applying something called a seal coat on Hancock Drive in North Austin. Seal coat extends the life of a street, so the surface doesn't have to be completely milled out and repaved.

First, a street sweeper brushed away leaves and pebbles. Workers lined the street, spaced about 75 feet apart and holding giant rakes.

"We start at 6 in the morning. We get out on the street as early as possible," said Kenneth Picou, one of the workers holding a rake. "The last thing you want is heatstroke, man. Some people don't recover from that."

After the street was swept, a truck drove slowly spraying a hot, black oil that smelled like asphalt. The liquid was a combination of asphalt cement globules, water and a chemical to help them combine. Workers call it an asphalt emulsion.

"It's an adhesive that the rock sticks to," Picou explained.

[kingkirbythe....]

What is eminent domain?

https://www.kut.org/transportation/2...port-expansion

Transportation mega-projects in Austin include plans to carve new light-rail routes through the city's streets, widen I-35 to as many as 20 lanes in some areas and double the capacity of Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.

While the public projects differ wildly in their focus, they all involve seizing private property through something called eminent domain.

Eminent domain is nothing new in Austin, but you'll be hearing a lot more about it in the coming years. So KUT's Jennifer Stayton spoke to KUT transportation reporter Nathan Bernier about what eminent domain is and how it's being used.

The conversation took place at Dirty Martin's, an almost century-old hamburger joint in UT's West Campus neighborhood that could be forced out by construction of a light-rail line and reconfiguration of city streets.

[JoninATX]

Originally Posted by Myomi

This article is the first time I have heard of this option. Did I just miss it previously? The picure almost makes it seen like a good compromise from TXDoT. Are they going to move shift all of I-35 to accomplish this goal? I am very interested to see what this could potentially look like through downtown.

While I do like the idea of sinking IH- 35, I strongly prefer a park over it connecting downtown to the eastside. Something like the Klyde Warren Park in Dallas would be super beneficial for the 2 area's I just mentioned.

[Riverranchdrone]

I do love that park. It has everything. You dont even know there is a freeway under you. Would love something like that in Austin.

[kingkirbythe....]

Here's what Austin's subway stations could look like

https://www.kut.org/transportation/2...transportation

The most ambitious of Austin's light-rail plans would burrow four miles of tunnel beneath downtown and South Austin to connect six subterranean stations and create the city's first subway system.

The subway would make up the centralized portion of the light-rail network. The other 20 stations would be above-ground.

Project Connect's growing price tag — the cost of the transit tunnel alone has doubled to more than $4 billion — could force transit planners to scale back their underground aspirations.

But the vision presented by the Austin Transit Partnership (ATP) and their consultants previews a future where Austin would join the ranks of American cities with their own iconic subways like New York, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia and San Francisco.

[freerover]

Originally Posted by kingkirbythe....

Here's what Austin's subway stations could look like

https://www.kut.org/transportation/2...transportation

The most ambitious of Austin's light-rail plans would burrow four miles of tunnel beneath downtown and South Austin to connect six subterranean stations and create the city's first subway system.

The subway would make up the centralized portion of the light-rail network. The other 20 stations would be above-ground.

Project Connect's growing price tag — the cost of the transit tunnel alone has doubled to more than $4 billion — could force transit planners to scale back their underground aspirations.

But the vision presented by the Austin Transit Partnership (ATP) and their consultants previews a future where Austin would join the ranks of American cities with their own iconic subways like New York, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia and San Francisco.

Very little of the grade separated part of the system can be scaled back. As we pointed out last week when this presentation happened, they can shave off a few hundred million by eliminating pedestrian tunnels and additional entrances/exits but that doesn't move the needle that much. There is not a lot of other changes that can be made that won't violate state CVC laws. The way the system is going to manage cost is phasing which should have been what the press picked up on and focused on. My guess is they can also save money by doing cut and cover along 4th St and Trinity instead of tunneling but it would be years of very annoying road closures.

So just a reminder that PC wasn't a bond. It's a permanent construction fund so the simplest thing to do is to delay construction of segments by X tax years and let that fund build up more. One thing I have not heard is if ATP could use that tax to borrow money against. That would mean less delays but we would be paying more for what we are getting because there would be interest in a loan.


My Guess:
Phase 1: Airport to Congress Station (Blue Line)
Phase 2: Campus to Stassney (Orange Line)
Phase 3: Campus to Tech Ridge, (Orange Line) Stassney to Slaughter (Orange Line)



Factors:
-Maintenance Facility is by airport so Airport is in Phase 1.
-Tunnelling Machine to launch from Auditorium Shores station footprint
-Orange Line Tunnel would be more expensive if it were split in separate phases.