l-35 Austin Proposed Expansion (house, subdivisions, bus)

[hindsight2020]

Originally Posted by DCtoTejas

then cash out and get far away if you don't want to live in a construction zone the rest of your life.

Yup. In this household we call it the "what has posterity done for me lately?" dilemma. That's exactly our sentiments about living in New Braunfels for the remainder of my tenure with the military. Certainly not something we intend to entertain a minute longer than we economically have to. Hell, I don't even care about the cashing out part (my property is low end for national median values, though my neighbor just sold his identically priced home as mine, for +100K over what we both paid for each in 2018). My financial solvency won't depend on removing the roof over my head in order to fund my life in retirement, like the american so-called common wisdom is pitifully married to. I just absolutely despise living and paying taxes in a jurisdiction where the amenities and infrastructure are not sized for the growth allowed. It's overtourism in daily life by another name, and it has galvanized our desire to leave and strike out areas impacted by the infrastructure lag you cite. We can always drive to competitive medical access in older age as we need to. Again, living is for the now, not the tomorrow.

So your comment is spot on to me in the context of this change. I'm not opposed to growth, I'm just opposed to living in an area attempting to "catch up" their stark infrastructure shortcomings as it relates to the growth they cheerlead. That is exactly the kind of "what has posterity done for me lately?" false economy that makes growth an unappealing proposition by proxy. Fix the lead-lag gap in those two and I'm your huckleberry. Otherwise, I swipe left. Austin is not alone in this regard.

[whereiend]

Originally Posted by rynetwo

All the new glass buildings keep coming with podium garages because of the cost of digging into limestone, why should tax payers eat the cost for a tunnel?

https://www.google.com/maps/@30.2679...7i16384!8i8192

Most have below and above ground parking. It's helpful to it that way because there is less driving in circles to get all the way to the top or bottom.

I don't think it's accurate that digging into Austin's limestone at this scale is particularly expensive. Digging is expensive in any city. In fact I believe the limestone is actually nice for tunneling as it remains structurally strong.

[ipaper]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csoPwDhXsE8

[Need4Camaro]

Saw this this morning -

https://www.kut.org/transportation/2...dots-new-plans

Personally I wish they would just do away with the access roads altogether and use the space for GP lanes and more efficient exit / entrance designs … but I would still take this over what’s currently in place.

Oh and it looks like they are going to turn Riverside into a SPUI… which would be fantastic for that interchange. It will give Access Road traffic not intending to turn on Riverside a way to bypass it without stopping, and more efficient traffic signaling for traffic intending to exit onto Riverside. This will probably be one of a handful of SPUI’s in the entire state of Texas (I think Texas has like at the most 2 or 3 of them in the whole state as it stands.)

Will suck for anyone trying to walk across it though. Not sure if many people do that but I do know a few people that will go as far as scootering between Riverside / Oltorf area to Rainey and as far as 6th…

[Roadking2003]

Originally Posted by ipaper

I'm not from Austin, but wanted to share this with the Austin folks to see what they think. But seems like the more lanes they add, the more traffic it attracts. It never seems to be a long-term solution.

That's like saying "the more food we produce, the more people eat".

People want to eat food so we should produce all they want.

People want to drive to places without waiting forever in traffic so we should build the road to take them where THEY want to live, work, and play. NOT where POLITICIANS want them to work, live, and play.

[ashbeeigh]

Originally Posted by Need4Camaro

Saw this this morning -

https://www.kut.org/transportation/2...dots-new-plans

Personally I wish they would just do away with the access roads altogether and use the space for GP lanes and more efficient exit / entrance designs … but I would still take this over what’s currently in place.

Oh and it looks like they are going to turn Riverside into a SPUI… which would be fantastic for that interchange. It will give Access Road traffic not intending to turn on Riverside a way to bypass it without stopping, and more efficient traffic signaling for traffic intending to exit onto Riverside. This will probably be one of a handful of SPUI’s in the entire state of Texas (I think Texas has like at the most 2 or 3 of them in the whole state as it stands.)

Will suck for anyone trying to walk across it though. Not sure if many people do that but I do know a few people that will go as far as scootering between Riverside / Oltorf area to Rainey and as far as 6th…

They didn't go into any detail about the areas north of 15th. I'm interested to see those changes because folks I know in Cherrywood are livid because in the older plans TXFOT was going to have to take some of the land near the access road.

I'll share that many of the people I run with stay away from crossing Riverside near 35 and will choose to run on the trail instead of cross the street because it seems like there is little time for a safe cross. As far as people going all the way down Oltorf, I mean...you do you. I know you're a strong proponent for no access roads, but that's like asking for us not to eat tacos for breakfast. I\

[Need4Camaro]

>_> But I don’t eat tacos for breakfast


Kidding aside..

I think the access roads are okay in some places but are overly redundant and cause more problems than they help. Too many mixtures of speeds, the traffic signal coordination along them is terrible, and the extra real estate could be used for more general purpose capacity and more efficient on/off-ramps like collector/distributor & ramp braiding configurations … I just think … local & business traffic doesn’t mix very well with freeway thru traffic. TXDOT seems to actually agree with this and wanted to steer away from the access road system but the state forces them to include them in the design.

If it were up to me and I had an unlimited pot of money I would probably rebuild I-35 throughout the entire Austin MSA to include short spans of land bridges in areas where there are no exits. I-35 would basically very briefly dip below surface level and the land bridges would be at-grade for sections not much longer than maybe 4x the size of an average overpass… The bridges would serve for neighborhood connectivity, reconnect interrupted streets at land bridges as well as building walking/biking trails across said bridges so pedestrian traffic does not have to mitigate across busy interchanges to cross the freeway. Remove the access roads and businesses along them and replace with forested park / trail corridors that connect said land bridges as well as neighborhoods adjacent to the highway and also serve to connect other trails throughout the metro… kind of like a backbone transportation corridor… I would even be able to squeeze an extra 2 - 3 lanes out of I-35 in areas and in doing so would make local / thru traffic lanes to separate traffic that is not bound for the local vicinity as most congestion is caused by merging, not capacity.

See ashbeeigh? Aren’t you glad I got into tech and didn’t stay a civil engineer?

[ashbeeigh]

Honestly I stoped reading after you said you didn’t have tacos for breakfast.

[ScoPro]

Originally Posted by ashbeeigh

Honestly I stoped reading after you said you didn’t have tacos for breakfast.

Yeah, that was shocking to hear.

Love me some Ken’s breakfast tacos on Dessau Road....

[ScoPro]

Originally Posted by Need4Camaro

See ashbeeigh? Aren’t you glad I got into tech and didn’t stay a civil engineer?

My brother’s grandson earned his CE degree from UT and landed a well-paying job with a large Dallas engineering firm. He lasted three years before quitting, as he couldn’t stand being cooped up in an office. He wanted field work.
His younger brother (an Austin firefighter) persuaded him to change careers, so he went to a firefighter school and wound up at a fire department in Williamson County.
Next he earned a Master’s degree in fire suppression systems from the U.of Maryland, then worked his way up in his fire delpartment to become a fire marshall.
Plus as a side gig, he started a very lucrative business designing fire suppression systems for commercial businesses.
So he got his wish, a good field job that utilizes his engineering degree and is still doing design work.
He’s a happy camper.