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| 1/30/2008 12:31:00 PM | Email this article • Print this article | INTO THE HEART OF IT
Plan could tie toll road to Brushy Creek
KATHRYN EAKENS
Leader Staff
Under a proposal being considered by Williamson County and Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority officials, Brushy Creek residents could soon see the dead end of O'Connor Drive extend to serve as a connector to the state Highway 45 tollway - and possibly collect a toll of its own.
The proposed 1.3-mile extension of O'Connor Drive, which currently dead-ends at RM 620, has been in the works since 1998 - Williamson County Precinct 1 Commissioner Lisa Birkman said - and is anticipated to provide a heightened level of mobility for residents.
"It was identified that there needed to be a way for people to get from RM 620 to the future state Highway 45 without taking RM 620 because RM 620 is already overcrowded," Birkman said, "and this was viewed as a way to relieve the overcrowding on RM 620."
However, with heightened mobility, the residents of Brushy Creek could also face increased traffic into the municipal utility district.
"Although this will shorten the commute for our citizens who work in Austin, it will also significantly increase traffic through the Brushy Creek community, which is a concern for many," Brushy Creek MUD General Manager Tom Clark said.
While Clark agrees it will provide residents alternatives to taking RM 620 to Interstate 35 in order to reach the tollway - or even swinging west until finally reaching Highway 45 - he said the extension will also "provide a straight shot into and through the Brushy Creek neighborhood for commuters looking for a short cut to Avery Ranch and communities located in western portions of Round Rock."
"Although a benefit for this area, it will also significantly increase traffic through two school zones on Great Oaks Drive that already have traffic issues during peak periods of the day," he said.
MUD President Paul Tisch said while the MUD board of directors has not issued a statement regarding the connector, they have known for some time the O'Connor extension was a possibility.
"As a citizen of Brushy Creek, I am very excited about the increased mobility from Brushy Creek to the Texas 45 corridor," Tisch said. "I, like most citizens, will always be concerned about the potential increase in traffic through the district from residents living west of the district. However, I feel that most folks in that area will use Parmer Lane to gain access to Texas 45."
Clark said commissioners Birkman and Valerie Covey have been working with the district and are aware of the concerns the additional traffic will cause.
Birkman said many different route studies went into deciding which would be the most feasible way to give residents better access to the tollway and that county and mobility officials are still working on all the details - one of which is whether or not it makes sense to toll the extension.
"What we're hoping to do is - if we do toll it - there would be some sort of arrangement where the county would get paid back over time," she said.
According to Birkman, the mobility authority has begun a preliminary review of the project and the next step is to conduct a formal feasibility study, which will then go back to the commissioners court for review.
"Then at that point, I would like to have some public meetings and get some input and see what the public things about the idea," Birkman said. "So it's far from being a given. We're just trying to find options to relieve the traffic in that area."
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