The Capital Metropolitan Planning Organization's Transportation Policy Board approved a slightly modified version of its 2035 Plan May 24 that retains SH 45 SW, the controversial delayed road connecting MoPac to FM 1626. The 2035 Plan is CAMPO's long-term transportation plan, which is updated every five years.
With CAMPO's approval of the 2035 Plan, SH 45 SW—the road designed to divert Hays County commuters traveling to Austin off of the heavily residential Brodie Lane—remains in the books with a planned opening date of 2022.
Things looked grim for the road project in Travis County earlier in the month as commissioners voted to recommend CAMPO remove the project from the 2035 Plan. Following that meeting, Hays County Commissioners voted to keep it in. However, only the Transportation Policy Board, which is made up of members from the five-county area CAMPO represents, can vote to add or remove a project.
If the board had pulled SH 45 SW from the plan, CAMPO board chairman and Travis County Judge Sam Biscoe said the likelihood of getting the road back on the plan would have been drastically decreased.
Though the road remains for now, CAMPO's plan can be modified at any point via an amendment process, which typically takes three to four months.
The plan was modified to include a cost increase for improvements to the Y at Oak Hill, bumping the estimated cost up for combined construction of changes to Hwy. 290 W. and Hwy. 71 W. from $411 million to $764 million.
For previous coverage on SH 45 SW and the CAMPO 2035 Plan, visit more.impactnews.com/8408.
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