Travis County Commissioners Court
April 12, 2005
Item 26
Number 26 is to receive presentation from the central Texas regional mobility authority's -- of the central Texas regional authority a's annual report. Authority's annual report. Good morning.
>> good morning, judge and Commissioners. It an honor to be here today. For the record, henry gilmore, one of your appointees to the central Texas regional mobility authority board. And we're here to present our annual report. I want to first start out by thanking the judge and the Commissioners for all of your support financial and otherwise. It been a heck of a year. We made it through the year without asking for more money as my colleague had promised to you last -- last year. We have probably been the most scrutinized in this agency -- agency in this region since capital metro. I think we have proven our value to you and the community. We look forward to not only completing 183 a but towards future Travis County projects and I知 going to turn it over to mike hilgenstein to give you the details of the report. We appreciate the opportunity to serve you and the region. Thank you.
>> judge and Commissioners, again, we appreciate the opportunity to present the annual report as we did last year. You should have received one. Steve [indiscernible] who I will introduce shortly has an extra copy of that and the response to the comptroller veil to you. You might -- available to you. You might note in our response to the comptroller we had a very community friendly cover. This particular cover, though, indicates instruction, movement forward and momentum. And we are about that this year. And we -- we want to make sure that while we are listening to and making sure we incorporate the ideas in the community and in everything we do, we are about momentum forward in terms of solving transportation. In this you will find our financials as of the end of the fiscal year. We will find statements regarding our movement forward. One of the things -- I think the biggest things that occurred this year of course is the closing of the bonds for 183 a. What that did that moved us away from any sort of reliance from the local governance at this point in the for seeale future. -- foreseeable future. As I mentioned last year, we really did not intend to come back to you or Williamson county for additional funding. Having said that at that time, I sweated out. I think we had about $30,000 in the balance from those funds and we really do appreciate it. That got of off and running. It was really critically important for the mobility authority to have those funds available. Now we have operations in funding available, administration funds available. Has that has done -- what that has done has allowed me to begin building staff, which is so critical for our success. As you know from building your own staffs. I have the three first staff members that i've been able to hire here today with me, I would like to take a moment to introduce them. The first -- as you like to say, the number two employee of the rma is bill chapman. Bill is our chief financial officer, bill comes to us after managing half a billion dollar budget for the city of el paso for 10 to 12 years. He was a critical and important find. He came on board in November and can address any of the financial issues that you have now or in the future. Bill is always available to this court, to Williamson county, as well as any citizens. My -- number three employee is, steve kastilnik, one. Issues that we of course dealt with was the outreach contracts. And I like many felt like we -- we had to do what we had to do to get the messages across, at that time because we didn't have funding required quite a bit of outside contracting. Significant portion will now end. Because of steve's presence. Director of communications, now managing all of those operations as well as the -- as the Austin marketing agreement. So steve comes to us from orlando, florida. Where he served many years as a director of communications with the orlando orange county expressway authority. A model by the way which we intended to emulate. Our last hire is -- there he is, Ron haguen, he also comes to us from orlando. Ron was director of operations, now our director of operations here. Chief of operations. He will handle everything from toll integration, equipment purchases to dealing with the very technical issues of -- surrounding the implementation of our program. I just finished a conference where orlando people were there, they were -- one of them the current board members said they were going to escort me to the county line for stealing the people. We are very happy to have them, bringing a wealth of background, information and experience. Let me finish by saying, one of the things that I want to provide this court as well as the community is a wealth of information and resources. So that you can go not just to campo, not just toringconnec I feel like that's one of the reasons that we are here is to present that local conduit to those projects. So we -- we anticipate being involved in the -- in the context of the design, phases of those and look forward to -- to having txdot turn those over ones they are completed then to the rma.
>> the 290 east project would be the first one, we see that starting in.
>> if txdot has [indiscernible] request to be put on the April agenda, we would expect all three of those by the end of this year, at least all four of those to be started by the end of this year or shortly thereafter. 290 east and 290 west probably on the quickest time frame.
>> 290 east, west, what are three and four?
>> 71 and 183 east to the airport. The future phases.
>> mike, mike? What -- where -- of course you are kind of prioritized the projects that you are going to kind of prioritize or move forward, what happened as far as the free road or the new one s.h. 45 southeast that is to -- supposed to interject into s.h. 130 to bypass the traffic that's congesting i-35: when is that project supposed to come online or what's the status of it as it intersects into s.h. 130, so traffic can bypass it.
>> I think that's a good question. We actually --
>> I知 sorry, repeat that, mike [multiple voices]
>> moving forward. The 45 southeast is a txdot project.
>> I understand.
>> my understanding is that's in the cda negotiation and they are trying to get their conference development agreement and the -- the zachary contract underway, I think they are negotiating a lot of details of that. When that's underway, I知 not sure. Supervision the time lines on s.h. 130, it should be -- -- should be at a seven year climax somewhere at the point where s.h. 45 southeast is supposed to intersect, that was like in a seven year time frame for s.h. 130 to get though that point. I don't know. Things may have changed since i've looked at a lot of this stuff last. But I think that it's probably still in the mix, but I知 not sure. But I need to normally need to because I think all of this stuff is interrelated.
>> the last information that I had Commissioner was that 45 southeast would be completed about the same time as 130, which is probably a third quarter of 07. [indiscernible] that you participated in 45 and loop 1 north should be March of '06. And I take that back. I believe they are going to try to get by the end of '06 I believe they will have 45 and s.h. 130 completed. Of that their time frame.
>> right. Okay. I guess as far as priorities are concerned, other projects that you mentioned, as far as priorities are concerned for Travis County, meaningful projects I think in my opinion to bypass this traffic on i-35 that would -- you know, one of the original intent of s.h. 130 to do just that. I知 hoping that time line is met because I know s.h. 130 is moving, it's moving fast. Of course hopefully those other things will interchange in a -- in a -- in a rate of -- of expediency to ensure that we do have some type of traffic relief off of i-35. So that's what -- that's what -- that's why I posed the question the way I did.
>> I noted last night, Commissioner, as the at the campo meeting there was a comment made very little programed for i-35 in terms of the single lane issue. I don't know if it ever came up but I would beg to differ that 130 is essentially 135 alternate and there are well over a billion dollar being spent on that to try to relieve i-35. I think you're right we have to get the traffic over there to 130 to help relieve the situation on 35. 130 is certainly seen as an alternate route.
>> thank you.
>> I know where we signed our interlocal, I was looking at it last night being we actually named as our preferred project 45 southeast. But unfortunately that was not to be. Txdot chose to take it for themselves, which made sense because they are doing 130, mopac and 45, these things are all interrelated. But it seems like they are on track to -- to make sure that these things open up simultaneously. A good question to ask, I don't know the answer is, is whether there will be free frontage roads associated with 45 southeast or if they will consider f.m. 1327 to be the free access which exists today, which is the road that goes into creedmore and basically is on a parallel path. And certainly there's a great deal of sensitivity about the eastern bypass being in place before any western bypass and unfortunately what's happening on 45 southwest, that's going to be a no brainer. Yes, the eastern bypass will be in place. My question was one that came up in conjunction with -- with campo discussion last night and it was kind of based off of some comments that were in the newspaper. Contact sensitive design. I know we are going to get there on 290 east because it's a green fill project, starting from scratch. But we've had some conversation already about you all inheriting work that is already begun, by txdot, which I will tell them they have ugly concrete down. They are really good and ugly. I think there are going to be some expectations by people that it is not going to be just another txdot project that we slap toll lanes in the middle of it and we include the neighborhoods and the folks down in oak hill are already raising comments about being able to jump in to the process this far in because my sensitivity is this: it may have started out as texdot, but it's going to have y'all's name on it at the end. I want to make sure that we get the context sensitive designs issues and work with the folk down in the y, oak hill area, those neighborhoods there to ensure that it will make sense and it will not be the ugly monstrosity that of thely too many txdot projects are -- that unfortunately too many texdot projects are noted for. What can we tell the folks down in oak hill and the y area about how you all will insert yourselves in the process and make sure that this has the rma stamp on it and not just the texdot stamp.
>>
>> [one moment please for change in captioners]
>>
>> ...as an example, we have a subcommittee made up of jim mills, who is a landscape architect, board member, and david singleton, who is an architect, who are on that committee and have spent many hours with a specific aesthetics design team to incorporate features into that facility that will distinguish it from every other facility in central Texas. As an example, in some cases we'll put longhorns on retaining walls as an indication that that was once a trail. That was a major area for the chiz hom and -- chis hom and double file trails. So we will have lighting, fencing on top of overpasses. There will be no plain, smooth concrete walls in that project. There will be -- in fact, we're working at various types of designs right now on sound walls. We actually are going to let the community vote on them. And say here's a couple different theme or treatments that we can use. In addition to that, I proposed to our team that we -- that we have renewable energy as one of our goals. That everything along that facility be solar and renewable, that bike and ped be incorporated. And that in every way, shape or form we involve the community. Commissioner, that's a great question. I think you can look to our footprints now and see that we're doing exactly what you want us to do.
>> and that's a message that needs to get out to the community because i've fielded a lot of e-mails from folks who feel like it's too far down the road, no pun intended, and they want to get involved. It's not just about the aesthetics, but to ensure, as we have said in the campo amendments, there will be free access relate to that segment down there in the oak hill area. And some of them are feeling a bit nervous that somehow they will be forced on to a toll road, and i've tried to assure them that will not be the case, but any more public outreach areas to those areas, they really need some quality attention in terms of what is going to happen down there, how they can be part of the process. My final question is, we have some unfinished business related to appointments, and we've now gotten assurances in blood that folks are interested in reappointments. And I知 just wondering how best we can move that forward in terms of the reappointment process are the rma.
>> we need to visit with you about the members of the board. Some expire soon.
>> they're already expiring, but there's a holdover, so there's not an issue.
>> questions, comments?
>> i've got a couple. Mike, quite often what Karen was talking about with regards to oak hill, I guess I continue to be a little confused about what is it that you all really -- when is it that you all get the ball handed to you all, the rma, it's hard to separate txdot and rma. I don't really know whether to call bob day or whether to call you. Now, there is a lot of concern about oak hill, and I think, after having had a couple or three weeks ago when we had some of the people in there with a couple of the shopping center owners there at the intersection at 71 and 290. I think the thing that the district engineer was a little concerned over was that there were indications that there were huge -- there could be huge changes insofar as how people wanted that thing to look and to function. And this is a very difficult part of this whole process because as the district engineer says, if you want me to pull back and you all want to as a community come in and tell us some of the things that you want, that I fear, could basically make us shelf these plans, then we can go backwards five or eight years at that intersection. Now, there was some push back from at least the neighborhood people that we don't want that, but I didn't hear much about will we have free access. I think people have finally understood, at least in the phase 2 tolls. I think that you could probably go out and find 183 southeast or 45 southeast in some parts of sh 130 that may not have continuous free outside lanes, but the toll -- the second phase of the tolls I am confident that we are going to have the free access roads. The way you get off, the way you get on and get into oak hill proper into the business section is what those folks are so concerned about. So at some point in time we need to understand or I need to understand when do you all really make the recommendations at the meetings because that is an rma -- that's going to be an rma project. And I guess you all still -- this ht and b, are they the ones that helped design or is this still txdot that's doing all the design? Give me a snapshot of exactly who does what from this point forward?
>> Commissioner, my understanding is that even though it's part of our plan, the rma plan, it's not ours until txdot agrees and hands it to us. And we're in the process of working out I think it's called the program agreement or a partnership agreement, I think it was, with txdot. And I haven't yet seen a draft of it, but I know our lawyers are working on it. Until it actually gets handed over to us, our input is somewhat limited, unless we can work hand in hand with txdot during this handoff process. That's my understanding.
>> cometion Commissioner, I second that. The minute order is critical because we don't have any authority or any ability to get in the middle of their ballgame until that minute order is finally passed. Actually, if we have any issues or concerns at that point, the npo or statement and resolution from the npo would be taking conservatively. It's a very serious statement in terms of moving forward with that transfer. We would do the contact sensitive design. If this minute order was done in April or may, we would continue on with the -- they are moving forward with design, at least portions of it is my understanding. And then once that's completed and as we work through the design features with the community, it would go to bed and be constructed under their guidance. And then they would turn that over at the ribbon cutting to us. And then from that point on that is exactly -- that is exactly what the san antonio model is. I just spoke with tom over at the capitol, and every project in san antonio, 16034, 281, what they're doing, txdot does everything and then they cut the ribbon and it becomes the alamo's project. We're going to be more involved with that.
>> in the design phase then, we ought to contact txdot.
>> at this point, yes, absolutely. Except for 290 east. That would be us and htb or whoever our gnc is at that point.
>> when would Travis County be told what the design is? Would we have to call and ask the question?
>> I think Commissioner Daugherty has seen probably what is available to date.
>> in the 290 west. I don't know anything about east.
>> east? On the two txdots, they'll do 183 and 71 like 290 east. We would expect to have those within -- by the end of this year we would have design plans to look at. And on 290 east, we would handle that much like we didn't want any 183-a, an exact replica of 183-a in terms of its process. And we would incorporate you throughout that process like we did Williamson county on 183 a. They were apprised the preliminary plan. And then when those preliminary plans were turned over to the cea consortium, then now as we go through, they have to follow those preliminary plans with minor adjustments. So the environments have to be done -- it is a lot of work that remains to be seen. I would anticipate Travis County being involved with that.
>> my point is with the level of o.r. Opposition and -- opposition and concerns that have been expressed county wide, it seems to me that txdot and the ctrma, the minute it receives something of substance, would share it with the affected counties.
>> that's correct.
>> but the residents have questions. They pick up the phone and they call the names this they know. And when we're in the dark, if they are suspicious before they make the phone call, they will be a lot more suspicious when they hang up. That's what we've heard during the campo comments and discussions from citizens over the last six months.
>> judge, one thing I might add, we do have a planning committee. And both mr. Gillmore and ms. M.u.d. Are on that committee as well as two other members. And it's open to the public. That's another opportunity. That's posted. We will make sure that the opportunities are there, but the planning committees are open to the press and open to the community at large. And we would actually be happy to have them in the areas that the road is being built. I think that would be one way to give people an opportunity to make comment.
>> and inform the court as well. [ laughter ]
>> whether we like it or not, these are not simple transportation projects.
>> they're not.
>> all of them have just a lot of political nuances. And they matter to a whole lot of people, but a whole lot of people are not necessarily affected by them. And just because they're going different. So I think we ought to do a better job of keeping those who ought to know informed, and basically that's us.
>> I agree.
>> we will impress upon txdot the need to keep both courts informed and in the loop.
>> we don't know when they deliver y'all different documents.
>> we don't know either sometimes. [ laughter ]
>> on the day of delivery, it seems to me that somebody ought to be making sure that the affected county, county officials at least know what it is. And I知 not assuming that we would agree with everything that txdot does. It may be that we can't do anything about it except fuss, but if we ought to do that, the sooner we know the better. Most of these, if there's changes to be made, the sooner they're made it will be less costly.
>> good point. And having sat on that side for some time, I know how critical it is for you to know.
>> anything further on this item?
>> judge, I do. If you possibly could for me, maybe bob day can provide this information from txdot, but I just think that I知 -- I知 bombarded a lot with persons asking me about when the bypass relief of i-35 traffic, congestion, will be addressed. How long will it take as far as time lines are concerned? And the best help I can give a lot of folks is the completion of sh 130 and the seven-year time frame that I知 quite sure will be met. However, when you bring in the sh 45 southeast, which is now a txdot project, which we have kind of embraced early on, but we didn't get that as a Travis County project. It's kind of hard to determine factual information that I need to make sure that this is a completed bypass route with those integral parts. My question to you is can you assist me and anybody else on the court I guess as far as having that pertinent data or how do we get that pertinent data to ensure that the person that residents are asking about, this traffic congestion on i-35, when will there be some relief? I think it's very important.
>> yes, we can, and we'll have that to you. If you would like a presentation, we can bring it to your office. And also, I would suggest we flew 130 in a helicopter not long ago and I think that was a very instructive video. It showed the progress and it showed the ingress, e gres, where the toll plazas were, the whole thing. I would like to have that updated and brought back to you for a presentation. That would really show you, give you a real good view of it from georgetown to creedmore.
>> mike, I just got through with this. Here's what you ought to do because it really brought me up to speed on it. As opposed to having the rma doing it, I went out to lone star. Lone star is is the one that is doing sh 130 and has the most to do with 45 southeast. I mean, don't even get them involved in it. I can give you the phone number of the person to call. Go out there because they will -- on a wall they can show you everything and give you all the time lines with everything. And I think that's what you're looking for.
>> we're having a meeting on April 20th with lone star and about sh 130. My point is that txdot has control of the sh 45 southeast that ties into that. Now, I don't know if lone star construction has that leg to make the complete bypass available, which is a leg of sh 45 southeast. If lone star infrastructure have that piece also and the design build itself, that's another story, but if they do not, that means that I need to find out from txdot to see if they're on speed with this whole sh 130 scenario for the bypass relief of traffic.
>> I found they knew the most about it because they are the interaction that 45 southeast has with sh 130. They are trying to tie that thing in. In between txdot and lone star. What I was told is that's coming together in 2007, and early 2008. Those are the time lines that we all need to have.
>> and I guess finally, in the local agreement as far as what you're doing this morning and bringing a report to us. And by resisting and receiving and accepting this report, it doesn't necessarily mean I agree with tolls being placed on free roads, on existing roads. I've expressed that before. On new roads that's a different story, but on existing roads I just want you -- you probably know about it. But this report does not mean that.
>> thank you. We'll be chatting with you. I知 expecting a few more people on the walnut creek item.
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Last Modified:
Wednesday, April 13, 2005 10:09 AM