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Originally Posted by Jdawgboy
There is something to be said about protecting what little that there is left along Barton Creek. Texas has a less than mediocre track record of taking care of the environment. We are already seeing Barton Creek dry for most of the year. Back in the 80s and 90s, you could go down to the Greenbelt in mid summer and water would be flowing. The more impervious cover the more rapid water runoff goes into the creek scraping it clear of its capabilities in holding water year around.
The issue is how little TxDot does to protect the environment. They don't spend the money or go that extra step to help reduce water runoff. In all honesty, this could be a great opportunity for them to work with the Ladybird Johnson National Wildflower Center which is right there in creating ways to move and store water runoff where it can be filtered slowly into the ground by native species rain garden ponds, but of course they won't. TxDot doesn't even care.
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Do you believe these proposed projects will make the situation worse? There are certain realities that you have to find a solution for. The congestion in the area is rising and steps have to be taken in order to limit what will continue to transit problems for the area. We have to find ways in order to prevent cars from getting stuck and allowing people to be able to access parts of the city that we spend money on serving.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jdawgboy
Reality is they could just as easily build MoPac overpasses at Slaughter and the other intersection which would negate the need to dig under and paving over the ground but they won't because they can't take the effort to spend just a little extra money to do it. I would even say that it would actually be cheaper than to dig under.
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This is not the issue. Both an overpass and underpass requires the construction of mainlanes where you now find greenspace. Also, they are not saving money doing an underpass. It's a serous engineering undertaking and there is no way it's cheaper than just building a highway overpass over slaughter. It's not about doing it the cheapest way possible. It's about doing it that best prepares for future congestion.
The push in southwest Austin is to connect 45 from I-35 south of Slaughter to west Austin. You'll be removing cars from the south Austin cross streets, I-35, 71 and South Mopac by building that avenue so people coming from south of Austin can go west before getting to the city. Loops work and there has to be a way to build these projects in a way that can satisfy environmental concerns.
The current project will connect south mopac to just west of I-35. It's unfortunate that it won't connect perfectly to the existing southeast 45 segment but there are other environmental concerns that couldn't be addressed with this segment.
The goal is to continue 45 though B-Cave to connect it to its northwest section.
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