oakhillgazette.com
May 30, 2013 Volume 18, No. 11 Southwest Austin’s Community Newspaper Since 1995
Public gets a look at Oak Hill Parkway options by Bobbie Jean Sawyer
Gazette: Will Atkins
Joseph Carrizales of TxDOT talks Oak Hill Parkway options with Leigh Ziegler at last week’s Open House.
OAK HILL - The Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority and TxDOT rolled out nine transportation concepts for the ongoing Oak Hill Parkway project to attendees at an open house last Thursday at Clint Small Middle School. Mobility Authority staff was on hand to explain concepts, address questions and gather feedback from attendees. Wade Strong, a project manager with Rodriguez Transportation, said the concepts, which were developed by a team of about 15 engineers, were largely influenced by public comments. Much of the feedback was focused on protecting historic oak trees and Williamson creek and keeping a low elevation at the ‘Y’ interchange. “Those kind of comments we really took to heart and we had our engineers come up with a concept that will do these things,” Strong said.
Strong said the concepts would be narrowed and refined as the process continues. “We’ve heard a lot of comments in the past from some fairly vocal folks that they want a parkway, not a freeway. We’re trying to make it somewhere in between. Parts of it can be a parkway and for parts of it we’ll need to have some bridges and overpasses because there’s just too much traffic to run through traffic signals,” Strong said. “Our goal is to have a completely transparent open process and let the public have some input over how we are going to judge one alternative versus another.” Concept A: Depressed U.S. 290 Mainlanes Preliminary features: U.S. 290 below ground level east of the Y • Non-stop controlled access mainlanes with frontage road inSee PUBLIC on page 26
A day to remember... Commander Hank Irwin, far left, and members of VFW Post 4443 in Oak Hill honor fallen comrades at a Memorial Day Ceremony at Oak Hill Cemetery.
Photo: Benny Ellis