McCracken Charges Toll Road Cover-up

Austin City Council Member Brewster McCracken (Photo By John Anderson)

Council Member Brewster McCracken says official toll road proponents painted a picture more dire than necessary when pitching the region's $2 billion toll road plan, and concealed confidential documents that show substantial state funding already available for a number of highways.

At Monday night's meeting of the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization's Transportation Policy Board, McCracken called for an investigation into just how much money the region had received from the state for road projects, which he says differed significantly from funding estimates presented by both CAMPO and the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority during the "hard sell" on the toll road plan.

McCracken's documents, apparently generated by the Texas Department of Transportation staff and labeled "confidential," list far more funding available for highways 71 and 290, and U.S. 183, than does the information formally presented to CAMPO, McCracken said. But District Engineer Bob Daigh identified McCracken's documents as simply a "wish list" turned over to the CTRMA last summer for posting on its Web site. These projects, identified by TxDOT as "allocated" projects, are picked for construction. They aren't necessarily funded until they make it into CAMPO's three-year Transportation Improvement Plan, Daigh said. McCracken says he won't be reassured until a full investigation is completed.

"There's one thing we know for a fact," McCracken said in a news conference before the CAMPO meeting. "These documents contain contradictory information about whether these roads are fully funded. But TxDOT's own maps included in the confidential documents do reflect that the roads were funded. It is contradictory and unclear whether they were fully funded. That's one of the things we want an answer on."

The CAMPO board chairman, state Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos, D-Austin, restricted McCracken's motion to what he presented to Barrientos as an emergency item last Friday, so the action by CAMPO was simply to call a hearing on the matter next month, with the possibility of calling a full investigation if McCracken is not satisfied with answers from CAMPO staff.

CAMPO Executive Director Michael Aulick said he was unaware of any discrepancies in TxDOT funding numbers and that he would spend the next three weeks looking into the numbers and the questions from an eight-page document presented by McCracken and state Rep. Terry Keel, R-Austin. Chief of Staff Shyra Darr represented Keel at Monday night's meeting. Keel was handling legislative business at the Capitol.

Clouding the issue is the semantic difference in planner's lingo between "allocated" and "funded." Plenty of allocated projects sit on CAMPO's books for years, even decades. These are projects that are chosen by the Transportation Policy Board as priorities. Actual "hard funding," though, doesn't happen until the project makes it to the Texas Transportation Commission. CAMPO carries a 25-year road plan on the books, and projects anticipated TxDOT funding for 10 years. But actual hard funding is only guaranteed for the first three years. So Aulick must spend the next three weeks sorting out the "couldas," "wouldas," and "shouldas" for both CAMPO and TxDOT.

McCracken's surprise motion obscured CAMPO's biggest action on Monday night, which was stripping the William Cannon bridge over MoPac from the overall Central Texas toll road plan. An additional motion by Austin Mayor Will Wynn designated managed lanes north of the Colorado River to State Highway 45, limiting those lanes to the existing right-of-way, prohibiting elevated lanes, and adding sound walls. Austin Council Member Daryl Slusher added a friendly amendment to protect existing right-of-way set aside for the possibility of commuter rail, if and when the rail might happen.

The motion did not remove tolls from MoPac. By designating the new future lanes north of the Colorado River as "managed lanes," CAMPO left the option open for tolls on MoPac to help pay for the improvements. The Texas Transportation Commission has pledged an as yet undefined amount to assist in construction.

The full length of MoPac is now designated for possible future high-occupancy vehicle lanes. HOV lanes are now limited to MoPac south of the Colorado River, but that option may disappear after the CAMPO 2030 plan is approved. Adding HOV lanes through Southwest Austin, which includes significant preserve land, is considered infeasible.