Travis County Commissioners Court

May 1, 2012 - Item 1
Agenda

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Item number 1 is a public hearing to receive comments regarding a request to close Old Highway 20 between Joyce Turner Drive and Parmer Lane for bridge replacement beginning June 1, 2012 through August 31, 2012, or until construction is completed in Precinct 1.

>> move the public hearing be open.

>> second.

>> all in favor?
that carries by unanimous vote.

>> good morning, judge and Commissioners, steve manila, t.n.r.
this request is to close a section of old highway 20, as stated in the backup material, so that we can demolish and rebuild a new bridge on that roadway.
the existing bridge was built in the 190's.
structurally it's sound but it is -- does not meet the current design criteria and the most critical element being the width of the deck.
it is essentially functions as a one-way bridge.
it is a roadway that is used pretty heavily by the i.s.d., the manor i.s.d.
when a bus comes from one approach and has to wait for a car coming from the opposite direction to clear and they do that back and forth all day.
it is adding a sense of urgency and why we want to pursue a road closure is work going on up on 290 east, the work txdot is doing with the ctrma.
we don't want this road closed at the same time they are doing work on the piece of 290 that runs parallel to this piece of old highway 20.
in allowing us to close the road, we can get out there, the contractor can work much quicker, more efficiently and minimize the disruption to the traffic flow out there.
we don't think we're going to have everything completed by the time school starts later in this year, but by allowing us to close the bridge, it will minimize how much time we go into the school season.
hopefully no more than a month or two.
so we would request the court's approval to close the road for that purpose and recommend it.

>> to close the road as of June 1 or about that time?

>> from June 1 to August 31.
if you would like I could have our project manager walk us through the detour.

>> if you would have a seat we'll get to you in a minute.

>> that's been part of the concern on this is the detour.

>> this is mel mortazabe from t.n.r.

>> if you would grab that microphone, please.

>> okay.
the location of the bridge is right here.
we are using joyce turner or manor middle school, several different names, but anyway, joyce turner is going to be our detour for the duration of the construction.
and we are going to, of course, have signs on 290 here, here at these locations and over here and also in these locations and also advance signs here.
this is manor here.
this is downtown manor.
and we basically have signs everywhere telling folks that the road ahead is closed just west of joyce turner.
blue bluff will be open.
and, of course, they have a connection, if you go down blue bluff, you can go all the way to decker lake and come back up to 290.
if there are any specific questions, I'll be happy to answer.

>> okay, just hold it right there then.
yes, sir, if we could get your name, we would be happy to get your comments.

>> jim dillon.
it occurs to me that closing roads and bridges for three months from June 1st through August 31st is an excessive amount of time, would place an undue burden on the traveling public.
and I saw a documentary recently about the oakland bay bridge after the earthquake.
they were required to replace a half-mile section of a 15-lane, two-level bridge across the san francisco bay.
and they accomplished that in two days.
over open water, hundreds of feet in the air.
they accomplished that in two days.
and the gentleman said that this current bridge is structurally sound, which would be one good reason for leaving it alone and possibly devoting resources toward bridge that's aren't structurally sound and actually need rebuilt.
and secondly, to facilitate the toll road on highway290 by closing even more lanes to even more traffic so that you can aid and abet the foreign companies and the toll road process and getting their traffic flow accommodated is wrong.
Austin doesn't need to be adding more roads and more bridges unless they are going to continue the insanity of the explosive growth, the unsustainable soliciting of new companies and new people moving here.
Austin is very high on every index, every survey of quality of life, of affordability and attractiveness to employers and businesses to relocate here.
and when our elected officials who are supposed to represent the public's interest grovel to companies like apple and

>> [inaudible] which is under the disguise of tax money stolen from the people.

>> tie it to the bridge.
connect it to the bridge.

>> the best of my knowledge which is the topic of -- the bridge which is the topic at hand.

>> do you live in this area?

>> yes, sir.

>> so you will be impacted.

>> traffic in Austin is horrible.

>> how will you be affect?

>> I will have to go out of my way?

>> how far?

>> miles and miles.

>> why is this bridge necessary.
that's a good question.

>> why is the project necessary?

>> yes, sir.

>> today the bridge is a narrow -- it's too narrow for two-way traffic.
although it is a bridge that is available for two-way traffic.
when a large vehicle such as a school bus comes head to head with a smaller vehicle, somebody has to stop and let them pass.
they've got the inefficiency of moving traffic across that water course which adds to traffic congestion, people are backing up and waiting to get across, and then the safety.
if you have adverse or inclimate climate, fog, rain, you can't see all the way across the bridge, that creates a problem for some drivers.
the bridge itself is built in the '30s and structurally it's fine, but it is getting to the end of its service life.
if it was wide enough, we probably wouldn't touch it.
we have our bridges as he was alluding to we could better spend our money on.
this is high priority for us and partially because we anticipate the traffic that's going to be dealing with the widening up on 290 is going to divert to this road to avoid some of that congestion.
so we're trying to coordinate with them to make sure we don't have this closed at the same time they are diverting traffic in the area because we just anticipate more and more traffic are going to want to use this one-lane bridge.

>> and why is it taking us months to do this work instead of two days?

>> you know, three or four months is not an extraordinary amount of time.
if we had a large amount of money to pay a premium, which is probably what was paid for to get that work done quickly, we could do it.
but keep in mind that we need lead time just to acquire some of the materials.
the i-beams, the concrete I'm beams. That's eight weeks of lead team.
once the contractor goods notice to proceed he needs time to order and he needs lead time to get the supplies to the site.
we have no desire to be out there any longer than necessary.

>> my final question is, so the detour adds how many miles to the trip.

>> judge, it depends on which way the traffic is going.
the lane coming down here south, they can go this way and down here.
it's barely going to be depending on which way the traffic is going, maybe less than a mile.
as far as the detour goes.
if someone has to go this way it would

>> [inaudible].

>> what route do you take, sir?

>> well, I work all over Austin.

>> what route do you take, though, in this particular --

>> I look for the route that appears the most accessible.

>> could you go to the map and point out where --

>> well, I can tell you that I won't be taking the toll road.

>> okay, well, as far as the detour is concerned in this particular -- let me ask this question.
judge, were you threw?

>> yes, sir.

>> okay.
thank you.
how is this particular bridge going to be funded, this replacement bridge, bridge number 155?

>> it's getting funds from two sources.
to get the design completed earlier we took funds remaining from your 1984 bond project.
and that was about $200,000 to complete the engineering and the permitting and the pre-construction types of work.
and then in 2011, last November, voters approved construction funding for this project to the tune of about 1.5 million.
so you have about one and three quarter million dollars invested in this project.

>> what we've been getting complaints about, sir, just the criticism, the people that live in that area have been complaining for a while about this particular bridge, especially with the isds out there where buses have to line up to cross this bridge and one could only go across the bridge one at a time.
and, of course, so folks using this particular bridge, you know, complain about it.
this is the way a lot of things get on our bond package is just from things of this particular nature in this regard.
and, of course, even if it was structurally sound, the problem is that it needs to be widened so traffic could go both ways, so those school buses do not have to wait and the traffic that's on the other side of the bridge do not have to wait.
you know, one vehicle being able to cross the bridge at a time.
hold on.
so that was the point of this particular initiative and, of course, it is an initiative that we have looked at and, of course, the funding has come from the approval of the voters in the 2011 bond package, this last bond package initiative.
so this is the reason why we're proceeding with this because it is a project that we deem necessary and we've had complaints about this particular bridge for a while.
so thank you.

>> I would expect a lot more complaints from the people --

>> what's your name, sir?

>> jim dillon.

>> jim dillon.
and you live in the general area, that's what you are saying?

>> no.

>> you do not live in the general area?

>> no.

>> well, anyway, that's --

>> Commissioner Huber.

>> I just want to be sure that we -- in this discussion that we -- steve pointed out that in comparison with something else that it -- there's a function of premium costs to get it.
and I just also wanted to say that you need to be careful when you are looking at bridges that you are comparing apples to apples because oakland bay bridge was a suspension bridge and it was the upper section that collapsed and only a section.
according -- the public website it was closed for a month.
that's a different construction mechanism and different construction mechanisms take different amounts of time to construct.
I just wanted to point out it's not necessarily apples to apples to compare a bridge like this.

>> any closing remarks, mr. Dillon?

>> well, I would say that you may receive a lot more complaints from the people if you throw good money after bad and inconvenience the traveling public in their traffic routes for three months or more.
this project could actually last longer than the three months that it's estimated especially when he's going to wait eight weeks for the delivery of the steel while the bridge is closed.
that steel could be welded up and the bridge could be closed and everything could be done in a condensed time frame probably with the engineering expertise we have in this area maybe in a week.

>> you are asking to us expedite construction as much as we can.

>> yes, sir.

>> we'll try to today that.

>> thank you very much for your comments.

>> anybody else to give comments on item number 1.

>> move the public hearing be closed.

>> second.

>> all in favor?
that passes by unanimous vote.
that will be action item number 13 on today's agenda.

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