With the Thursday midnight deadline for bills to pass on second reading in the House, I figured this would be a good time to take a look at the status of some major legislation and legislative priorities. There are two weeks left in the regular session, and the specter of overtime is hazy but present. [...]
Posts Tagged ‘TxDOT’
Perry works against his own stated interests
I don’t understand this at all. A bill that would have increased vehicle registration fees to raise money for transportation projects met its demise in the Texas House on Thursday. House Bill 3664 by state Rep. Drew Darby, R-San Angelo, was designed to generate money to pay down the state’s transportation-related debt and fund improvements [...]
Senate officially taps the Rainy Day Fund
Well done. Texas senators hammered out a sweeping deal to increase state funding for water and transportation projects and schools on Tuesday, tackling some of the thorniest issues of the legislative session all at once. The senators voted 31-0 for Senate Joint Resolution 1, which would ask Texas voters to approve taking $5.7 billion out [...]
More on that underutilized high speed toll road
More toll road travails. Traffic counts on the new section of Texas 130, released Friday by the Texas Department of Transportation based on newspaper open records requests, show that the tollway southeast of Austin in its first couple of months was seeing fewer than 3,000 vehicles a day. About 5 percent of those were big [...]
Still arguing about road funding
I still don’t quite get why the obvious solution is so blithely dismissed. With most of the work of developing a state budget behind them, lawmakers can now drill deeper into the state’s spending plan to find a way to fund billions of dollars in road maintenance, highway upgrades and other projects under the umbrella [...]
Senate to tap that Rainy Day Fund
It is just sitting there, not doing any good if it’s unused. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, laid out an ambitious plan to spend $6 billion from the state’s Rainy Day Fund on Thursday morning while also setting the stage for a serious debate in the remaining weeks of the session on [...]
Get ready to hear more about Texas high speed rail
I for one can’t wait. Texas Central High-Speed Railway has spent the last few years privately — very privately — looking at how to connect Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston with a bullet train moving upwards of 200 miles per hour. But soon, they say, those private plans will become quite public when they issue a notice of intent. [...]
There’s no such thing as a free road
I have an issue with this. Texas’ boom of toll roads has made the “free” part of freeway mean something different lately. As toll lanes become the preferred choice for adding capacity to Texas roads, a growing number of state lawmakers and toll critics are looking for assurances that state-built freeways will stay open to [...]
Maybe there are fewer people who want to drive 85 than we thought
Oops. The privately operated section of the Texas 130 tollway south of Mustang Ridge is attracting about half the predicted traffic, according to Moody’s Investor Service, prompting it to investigate downgrading credit ratings for more than $1.1 billion in debt attached to the toll road. [...] TxDOT’s contract with the concession company lays out complex [...]
Driverless car bill filed
Glad to see it. Two weeks after Google showcased its self-driving car to local officials in Austin, a Texas lawmaker has filed a bill attempting to regulate the use of the futuristic technology. State Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, R-Southlake, filed HB 2932 on Thursday to define “autonomous motor vehicle” and “autonomous technology” in the state’s transportation [...]
We’re not going to solve our transportation issues without new revenue
The choice isn’t whether or not to pay, it’s how do you want to pay. Despite broad agreement that repairing and improving Texas highways will cost more money than it has in the past, legislators split Monday on whether now is the time to impose new transportation taxes or fees. House members attending the annual [...]
And maybe we won’t need as much road capacity as we think, either
Felix Salmon writes about the possible implications of driverless cars. While I’ve generally been a fan of just about any alternative to the automobile, now I’m not so sure: I think that smart car technology is improving impressively, to the point at which it could be the most promising solution, especially in developed parts of [...]
Time for another report on how much traffic sucks
We love this sort of thing, don’t we? Houston commuters continue to endure some of the worst traffic delays in the country, according to the 2012 Urban Mobility Report released Tuesday by the Texas A&M Transportation Commission. Area drivers wasted more than two days a year, on average, in traffic congestion, costing them each $1,090 [...]
The 288-to-the-Medical-Center connector takes a step forward
I still have a bad feeling about this. In a first step toward providing relief, transportation officials will spend the year winnowing six possible locations for reversible toll lanes that would provide a direct connection between the sprawling medical campus and Texas 288. They hope to start construction in 2014. Texas 288 between U.S. 59 [...]
Compost that Christmas tree
Let your Christmas tree do some good after you get rid of it. When that Christmas tree comes down this year, take a moment to imagine its next incarnation: Chipped up and mixed into soil, it might soon secure new grasses along some South Texas highway or sustain vegetable starts in someone’s garden. Adding weathered [...]
Fee for all
Fees are part of the answer for Texas’ pressing infrastructure needs, but they aren’t and cannot be the whole solution. To help keep the Texas business climate robust, lawmakers should double state fees on motor vehicle registrations and impose a new fee on every water meter in the state, the state’s largest business lobbying group [...]
Tomorrow is the last day to submit comments to TxDOT on I-45
From the inbox: Dear Neighbors – TxDOT has plans for I-45, which will impact you! If you ever drive on I-45; if you live or work near the I-45 Corridor; if you live or work in the Heights, Old Sixth Ward, First Ward, Near North Side, Montrose, Midtown or Downtown – you will be impacted! [...]
New passenger rail study
We’ll see if this goes anywhere. The Texas Department of Transportation is launching a two-year, $14 million study of passenger rail service between South Texas and Oklahoma City. That could mean bringing high-speed rail or, at the least, finding ways to connect the state’s major cities with some type of rail service. The study also [...]
The 85 MPH toll road is now open
So far, it seems like the only people on the newly-opened 85 MPH Texas 130 toll road are reporters writing about what it’s like to legally drive that fast. About an hour after road workers removed the hundreds of bright orange cones blocking the entrances and exits to the new State Highway 130 toll road, [...]
I-45 public forum tomorrow
From the inbox: I-45 Public Forum ~ October 24th! Many people who attended the TxDOT public meeting last week (October 9th or 11th ) left with more questions than answers! Why? It appears that TxDOT is listening & trying to come up with several alternatives to help the traffic on I-45 … in fact, they came up with 33 [...]
But was it worth it?
No doubt that traffic on the Katy Freeway moves a lot more smoothly now than it used to. But there’s a lot more to the question of whether the $2.8 billion that was spent to widen it was a good investment or not. Four years after the project was completed, a comparative analysis of drive-time [...]
Yale Street Bridge load limit reduced again
From the inbox, via CitizensNet: Yale Street Bridge Load Limit Further Reduced by TxDOT City of Houston Takes Proactive Steps to Monitor Bridge Usage The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) has reduced the load limit on the Yale Street Bridge just south of Interstate 10 from 8,000 lbs. per single axle to 3,000 lbs. per [...]
TxDOT finally publishes comments from last year’s public forum on I-45
From the Inbox: Hello I-45 Coalition folks – There are finally some updates regarding I-45! As you may recall, back in mid-November 2011, TxDOT held 2 public meetings to get the public’s input on their thoughts on what should be done regarding the expansion of I-45. Comments were encouraged via email, website, comment forms, etc. [...]
One form of federal funding Texas has not rejected
Funding for bike trails is still welcome in the state. As you may know, under the new federal transportation bill, MAP-21, bicycle and pedestrian projects now have more competition for less money than was available under previous transportation laws. The new bill also gives state officials more latitude in designating funds, and– most importantly– in [...]
Houston-Austin rail update
Houston Tomorrow: The Texas Department of Transportation is planning to fund environmental and financial feasibility studies for a passenger rail line connecting Houston to Austin, according to the Texas Tribune and KUT Austin. The planned line would be a 110mph train connecting Houston, Hempstead, Brenham, Giddings, and Austin, for about $1.2 billion, although TXDOT is [...]
85 MPH speed limit officially approved
Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines. The Texas Department of Transportation has approved an 85 mph speed limit for an upcoming 40-mile stretch of Texas 130 from Austin to Seguin. Currently, no road in the country has a posted speed limit faster than 80 mph. An 85 mph designation would give the new toll road [...]
Roundabouts in the sky
I have three things to say about this. Imagine driving into downtown Houston on interstates 10 or 45, or U.S. 59, and having to merge with all other incoming traffic onto an elevated, one-way traffic circle around the cluster of skyscrapers. If downtown isn’t your final destination, you would stay on the circle until you [...]
Funding to rebuild Yale Street Bridge acquired
Good news. Calling the Yale Street bridge “functionally obsolete” after a recent engineering study, the Texas Department of Transportation has secured “out of cycle funding” to replace the bridge, Councilwoman Ellen Cohen announced late Monday. Cohen said that means the project won’t have to go through federal bureaucracy and that a new bridge could be [...]
Yale Street Bridge to get makeover
You may recall that last November the load limit on the Yale Street Bridge was reduced by TxDOT to 8,000 lbs per single axle and 10,000 lbs per tandem axle, which has resulted in truck traffic being forbidden on the bridge. That hasn’t stopped trucks from actually using it, of course, but they’re not supposed [...]
Buffalo Bayou begins its makeover
This is going to be great. The jogging and biking trails that wind through Buffalo Bayou Park west of downtown are about to get a bit more circuitous as a $55 million effort to transform the area into an iconic green space for Houston begins in earnest this month. [...] The Harris County Flood Control [...]
I can drive 85
And so can you, on the right road. State transportation officials are testing a new 41-mile segment of an Austin area toll road to see whether it would be safe to post the state’s first 85 mph maximum speed limit. The Texas Department of Transportation is considering the move on a portion of state Highway [...]
Tomorrow’s traffic jams are being planned today
I have two things to say about this. Projects to widen U.S. 290 and Texas 288 with a mix of free and toll lanes in an attempt to ease congestion in the traffic-choked corridors would get a jump-start under a proposed agreement between Harris County and the Texas Department of Transportation. The deal, scheduled for [...]
About that “solution” for bike trail obstruction
Me, last month: Meanwhile, two weeks ago there was a story about TxDOT closing the White Oak Bayou Hike and Bike Trail between Ella and 34th streets while there is construction on the service road for 610 North at East TC Jester. The closure was scheduled for two years, without an alternate route that bicyclists thought was [...]
You can drive 75
Pedal to the metal, y’all. The Texas Transportation Commission approved 75 mph speed limits for nearly 1,500 miles of interstate in 60 counties. The action follows a state law approved last year providing for the Texas Department of Transportation to see whether 70 mph speed limits safely can be raised to 75 mph, and to [...]