TxDOT still weighing highway options
Expansion project remains in distant future
BY PHIL REYNOLDS SOUTH JETTY REPORTER

Don't plan on dropping 50 cents in the basket and whizzing down the Island Road several feet above other traffic any time in the near future.

"There is absolutely nothing new on the State Hwy. 361 project," said Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) engineer Mike Walsh this week.

Walsh said he and Corpus Christi TxDOT District Engineer Craig Clark talked to the Padre Island Business Association last week, explaining to members the options for improving State Hwy. 361 between Port Aransas and Park Road 22. But he said it's much too early to say one option has been given the green light.

"We know which options have the best cost-benefit ratio," Walsh said. "But we pretty much knew that to start with."

The Austin firm of Turner, Colley and Braden is wrapping up a study of options for the Island Road that should be finished this week, Walsh said. Among the alternatives that have already gotten low marks:

+ An all-elevated freeway. "That's simply too expensive," Walsh said.

+ Building additional lanes some distance away from the original highway. Walsh said that idea carried too many environmental problems.

+ What was called an "at-grade" addition of two lanes. Because this concept didn't separate fast and slow lanes, it was thought too dangerous to put in a higher priority.

The plan that seems to have the best chance is one that would start with two toll lanes between outlying free traffic lanes. The free traffic lanes, on the outside, would be separated from the toll lanes by 25-foot ditches. Estimates figure that plan would cost around $206 million to build.

Eventually, planners say the highway could increase to four toll lanes in the center - two in each direction - and four free traffic lanes on the outside. The toll lanes would be several feet higher than the free lanes and toll lanes would be separated from free lanes by median walls. Building out to this plan would add another $78 million or so to the initial plan.

Both plans include hike and bike trails flanking the vehicle lanes and separated from traffic by wide ditches.

Toll roads have drawn the most attention because TxDOT simply doesn't have the funding to improve State Hwy. 361 on its own.

However, Walsh said a decision on which plan to accept could still be a long way off.

"We need to fully understand what the environmental impacts are," he said.

Exactly how long a way off isn't clear, though.

"It depends on how quickly TxDOT and the (Corpus Christi) Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) move on funding," he said. "Right now, it's an unfunded MPO project. Nothing will happen until it gets funded."

Options for improving the highway could include creating a local transportation authority, which would be able to levy taxes to construct the improvements, and agreements among cities and Nueces County to contribute part of the money. None of those has been discussed yet by the agencies that could be involved.

Former State Rep. Gene Seaman called for the study in 2005, citing the need for highway construction to stay ahead of proposed developments on Mustang and Padre islands. TxDOT and planners have held at least two open houses since then to get public input and show tentative plans for the project. More public input will be needed before a decision is made, Walsh said.

Whatever is decided about the State Hwy. 361 corridor won't affect a separate project to widen the highway between Avenue G and Beach Access Road 1A in Port Aransas. That project has already been funded and is largely designed. It will connect with whatever improvements engineers decide to make farther south on the road.

The Port Aransas project calls for widening the highway, including a median and providing curb and gutters for as long as the $8 million in funding will last. That could be as far south as Beach Access Road 1.

That project is still in the design stage, and - while it has been funded - no date has been set for starting construction.

Among Seaman's concerns in calling for the study was the danger of increasing traffic on State Hwy. 361. Over the Spring Break period this year, two separate accidents killed three people on the highway, both between Avenue G and Beach Access Road 1A.