AUSTIN, Texas \u2014\u00a0A proposed construction project from the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority to expand Austin\u2019s MoPac highway is receiving some backlash due to concerns about potential impacts to the Edwards Aquifer and endangered species.<\/p>\n
For more than 10 years, CTRMA has been developing an expansion project for MoPac that would stretch roughly nine miles from Cesar Chavez Street to Slaughter Lane. The current proposal would add up to two tolled express lanes in each direction to address congestion.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don’t expect people to be in the express lane each and every day, but there would be significant time savings because of that,\u201d said James Bass, executive director of CTRMA.<\/p>\n
Those who oppose the expansion say adding lanes won\u2019t help with the traffic issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cMore lanes means more cars,\u201d said Kate Csillagi with the Save Our Springs Alliance (SOS).<\/p>\n
Of the hundreds who are opposed to the potential project, many are concerned about further development over one of Austin\u2019s most prime destinations, the Colorado River.<\/p>\n
\u201cGrowth should never come at the cost of the reasons why people move to a place in the first place,\u201d Csillagi said.<\/p>\n
SOS, an environmental nonprofit, worries that the project threatens the Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone and could impact endangered species like the Barton Springs and Austin blind salamanders.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s going to impact water quality,\u201d Csillagi said. \u201cIt’s going to impact air quality. There are endemic species that only live here.\u201d<\/p>\n
CTRMA completed an initial draft of their Environmental Assessment (EA), which concluded the project would not result in significant impacts to the surrounding environment.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’ve taken a very dedicated, some would say a long path to make sure that we’re studying all of the potential impacts and then also including mitigation factors into the project that would address a lot of those concerns,\u201d Bass said.<\/p>\n
As they respond to public comments, project developers will have to submit the final EA and wait on the Texas Department of Transportation\u2019s decision in the fall.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will either go perform an Environmental Impact Statement, or if we received a finding of no significant impact, we would then go to our board to see if this is something they wanted us to pursue,\u201d Bass said.<\/p>\n
Still, those opposing the expansion are not convinced with the findings of the draft EA.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople come here for Austin’s natural beauty, for the water, for the parks, for the trails, and this project threatens all of that,\u201d Csillagi said.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a long road ahead. If the project gets the green light, between designing and construction, it won\u2019t be complete for about another 10 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Texas \u2014\u00a0A proposed construction project from the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority to expand Austin\u2019s MoPac highway…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349219,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[2160,132,134,133,6364,66,223,27,1569,2053,29499,835],"class_list":["post-349218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-app-top-stories","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-geraldine-torrellas","tag-local","tag-news","tag-texas","tag-texas-what-you-need-to-know","tag-top-stories","tag-traffic-and-transit","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}