MoPac Expansion Challenged by Residents, City Leaders

Austin residents and city leaders are organizing to stop or at least delay a plan to expand MoPac between Enfield Road and Slaughter Lane, saying it would pollute the water and air and kill endangered species living near the highway.

The plan by the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority – a local entity overseeing toll roads in Travis and Williamson counties – has been under consideration for over a decade. It would add two toll lanes in each direction to about an 8-mile stretch of MoPac. This part of the highway passes over some of the most environmentally sensitive land in the region, as well as the heart of Austin’s park system, including Lady Bird Lake, the Butler Hike-and-Bike Trail, Zilker Park, the Barton Creek Greenbelt, and the recharge zone of the Edwards Aquifer, which supplies water to Barton Springs. 

CTRMA released a draft environmental assessment in February that concluded the project “would not result in significant impacts on the human or natural environment.” That conclusion has not been convincing to city leaders. On April 21, the Travis County Commissioners Court called for CTRMA to conduct a more thorough Environmental Impact Statement, the kind required for most state and federal highway projects. The next day, the court’s Brigid Shea joined over 200 residents in a rally against the project at Austin High School. 

Some of those rallygoers spoke at City Council the following morning to support a resolution presented by Council Member Paige Ellis and co-sponsored by CMs Zo Qadri, Chito Vela, José Velásquez, Ryan Alter, Krista Laine, and Marc Duchen. The resolution, which was approved unanimously, echoed the request that CTRMA conduct a full environmental impact assessment. It noted that the MoPac expansion would almost certainly increase the vehicle miles traveled over the highway, placing it at odds with the city’s mobility and climate goals. It also called out by name the endangered species living near the highway. 

“This area provides critical habitat for several endangered and threatened species, including the Austin blind salamander, Barton Springs salamander, Bee Creek cave harvestman, tooth cave spider, golden-cheeked warbler, monarch butterfly, tricolored bat, and bracted twistflower,” the resolution states, “all of which are listed in the [CTRMA environmental assessment] as species that may be adversely affected by the project.”

During public comment on the resolution, Bobby Levinski of the Save Our Springs Alliance described how the MoPac expansion could kill salamanders, saying that the drilling of cavernous limestone muddies their environment. “That results in a bunch of sediment that gets kicked up and it goes into the salamander habitats,” Levinski said. “It clogs their gills, it destroys their shelter, and it destroys their food supplies.” 

UT professor Miriam Schoenfield pointed out that because the MoPac expansion is a proposal of CTRMA, and not the Texas Department of Transportation, Austin residents have much more control over the outcome. The deadline for the public to comment on CTRMA’s assessment of the project’s environmental effects is May 3.

“CTRMA has so much flexibility in how they use their funds, unlike TxDOT,” Schoenfield said. “The billion dollars for this project could be spent building the transportation system of your dreams. This could be spent on regional rail, this could be spent on improving transit infrastructure, on trails, and so much else. … This is a fight the city can win.”

On Tuesday, April 28, the Save Our Springs Alliance sued CTRMA, saying it is violating the Texas Public Information Act by withholding comments filed by concerned citizens on the project during the agency’s official public comment period. On Wednesday, SOS’s Bill Bunch attended a meeting of CTRMA’s board of directors to directly ask for the release of the public comments, which he suspects are overwhelmingly negative. “I think that’s part of the reason they want to hide them,” he told the Chronicle.

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