Earlier this year, the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority invited engineering and architecture firms to try their hands at designing the environmentally sensitive projects.
CTRMA and the Texas Department of Transportation hosted the Green Mobility Challenge as a way to promote sustainability—designs that use fewer resources and exist more in-tune with nature.
Six finalists competed for two $15,000 prizes and the chance for their designs to be considered when the roadways are eventually built.
Team 1120—comprised of LJA Engineering, Coleman and Associates, Blanton and Associates and Construction Eco Services—won first place for its “Oak Hillway” design. The team imagined a united Oak Hill with a new highway, neighborhoods connected by underpass “gateways” and a relocated Williamson Creek.
Team 1175’s “Manchaca Greenway” won top honors for its elevated roundabout and integrated parklands.
CTRMA Communications Director Steve Pustelnyk said the mobility authority was excited about the ideas it received.
“Some, especially in Oak Hill, may not be reasonable or feasible, but there were some great ideas for roadway alignment, green space and parkway alignment. It’s really interesting,” he said.
The contest
CTRMA and TxDOT set out to raise awareness about how roadway designs can be more ecologically friendly, offer an opportunity for various professions to work together on mobility projects and encourage new problem solving.
Registration began during the summer, and eight teams submitted designs before the Oct. 13 deadline, said Mario Espinoza, CTRMA deputy executive director. Judges cut the list to six finalists in October.
The two agencies suggested that contestants focus on mobility, multimodal options, air and water quality and innovative hydrological designs, among other criteria.
Oak Hill
In the early 1990s, TxDOT planned to extend Hwy. 290 through Oak Hill. The project stopped because of public opposition, concerns about damage to the Edwards Aquifer and Williamson Creek, and eventually, a loss of funding.
Since then, several designs—tolled or not, six or eight lanes, raised or ground level—have been suggested.
CTRMA defined The Oak Hill Expressway as a controlled-access six- to eight-lane tolled highway with two- to three-lane frontage roads without tolls—the same definition the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization expects to be built in the future.
In its presentation, Team 1120 representatives Ricardo Zamarripa and LJA Engineering owner Aan Coleman said Hwy. 290 divided Oak Hill’s neighborhoods in the 1990s.
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