San Antonio Area Freeway System
US 281 North Tollway Project
This page last updated
September 09, 2011
This
project is currently undergoing a new environmental review and study.
The proposed
configuration discussed and shown below was from the previous proposal
and may or may not be recommended at the completion of the current
study. Therefore, the proposal below should only be considered a
possible scenario of how US 281 could be upgraded. This page will
be updated soon to discuss the options currently being studied.
See the "Project status" section at the bottom for additional
information.
Since 2000, TxDOT has had
plans to upgrade US 281 north of Loop 1604 to an expressway. In 2004,
the state updated their plans to include tolling of the new expressway
lanes. Below is complete information about the previously proposed project, including
its tumultuous history, proposed design and renderings, and the latest
status.
Just looking for more information on the US 281
"superstreet"?
See the superstreets page.
Project history
Prior to 1987, US 281 north
of Bitters existed as a four-lane surface divided highway with traffic
signals at major intersections. In 1990, TxDOT completed
work to upgrade 281 to a six-lane expressway from
Bitters to Loop 1604. North of 1604, the road remained as a
four-lane surface divided highway with signals at
Encino Rio. Since that time, tremendous
development has taken place along the 281 corridor north of Loop 1604 to
the SH 46 area north of Bulverde. Meanwhile, US 281 in that area
has remained a four- and six-lane surface divided highway with
several more signals added at major intersections over the years due to safety and traffic demands.
In 2000 and 2001, TxDOT
announced plans to upgrade 281 to a six- and eight-lane expressway from
Loop 1604 to Stone Oak Parkway and to build a standalone overpass at Borgfeld, with eventual
(long-term) plans to upgrade 281 to a full expressway in phases all the
way to FM 306 at the Comal/Blanco County line. At that time, the
section from 1604 to Stone Oak was listed by the Metropolitan Planning
Organization (MPO) to be funded ca. 2003.
However, due to a number of domestic and international factors, highway construction costs
in early 2003 began a sudden and dramatic increase. As a result,
the price tag for the for the project escalated rapidly and it quickly
became impossible to fund the project with the tax funds available at
that time.
In December 2003, while TxDOT
was regrouping to find additional funding for the project,
the Texas Transportation Commission (TTC), at the behest of the governor and
using tools previously granted by the Legislature and voters, ordered
that "controlled-access mobility projects in any phase of development
or construction must be evaluated for tolling. This includes new
location facilities and increased capacity projects such as adding
additional main lanes or constructing new main lanes." The 281 project
obviously fit that description and TxDOT, therefore, was compelled to
evaluate it for possible tolling. The evaluation showed that it
met the requirements for tolling, so per the TTC's order, the project
was reclassified as a toll facility.
Shortly thereafter, a
consortium consisting of local construction giant Zachary and the
Spanish infrastructure company Cintra, who were working together on a
bid to build and operate one of the Trans Texas Corridor projects, submitted an
unsolicited bid to TxDOT to build the 281 tollway project, as well as
the Loop 1604 project, in
return for a 50-year lease to operate the tollways. Because the
bid had merit, TxDOT was required under state law to fully evaluate the
Cintra-Zachary bid and accept any other bids for the projects. The
Cintra-Zachary bid not only paid for construction and subsequent
maintenance and operation of both roadways
(which freed state funding for other projects), it also paid a large
concession fee to the state that could also be used to fund other
projects. Based on those merits, the Cintra-Zachary bid was accepted
in early 2005. Since the project was to be built entirely with
private funds, the tax funding that had been budgeted for it was
reallocated to other highway projects in the area
Consequently, construction
began on the Sonterra to Stone Oak section in December 2005.
Shortly thereafter, workers clearing land for the project accidentally
broke a sewer line at Evans and 281. In January 2006, work was
suspended indefinitely when environmentalists and toll opponents filed a lawsuit
arguing that the project required a full (and costly) environmental
impact statement (EIS) instead of the numerous environmental assessments (EA) that had
been performed up to that time. Federal law only requires an EIS to be performed
if an EA finds significant impacts, which the EAs for 281 did not.
However, TxDOT and the Federal Highway Administration
(FHWA), who
were both named in the suit, jointly agreed in January 2006 to suspend work on
the 281 tollway project as well as the planned Borgfeld overpass so
that a comprehensive and definitive EA for the
entire corridor could be
done and a subsequent determination made of whether a full impact statement would need to
be performed. Consequently, the contract with Cintra-Zachary was canceled. In early 2007, TxDOT
released the new assessment, which showed no significant impacts.
The FHWA approved the new assessment on August 14th, 2007, which authorized TxDOT
to
build the entire 281 tollway in Bexar County from 1604 to Borgfeld
without the need for an EIS.
In the meantime, the
Legislature had passed a moratorium on nearly all new privately built
and/or operated toll roads and passed legislation requiring that local
Regional Mobility Authorities be given the right of first refusal on
toll projects in their jurisdiction. The Alamo Regional Mobility
Authority (ARMA), which was established by Bexar County in 2003, subsequently opted to take control of both the 281 and 1604
toll projects and began planning to build the 281 tollway from 1604 to Borgfeld as
a two-phased project starting in 2008. The MPO approved toll rates for the
project in December 2007.
In February 2008, toll
opponents and environmentalists once again filed a lawsuit challenging the
comprehensive 281 environmental assessment. After initial arguments, the judge ruled that the
plaintiffs' case had sufficient standing to move forward
with discovery. During the discovery process, TxDOT announced that
they found a document that was omitted from the administrative record for the
federal environmental approval and asked for a 60 day stay to allow time
to submit the document to the FHWA for review to determine if it would
change the overall findings of the study. In early October 2008, TxDOT
then reported that they had uncovered a conflict of interest with the
contractor who performed the endangered species study.
Specifically, it was discovered that a TxDOT staff biologist was married
to an employee of the company hired to do the a portion of
the study. It was further discovered that the TxDOT employee's supervisor was aware of the
situation and allowed it but that controls put in place to mitigate the
conflict were not enforced. Although it was determined that this
likely had no impact on the results of the study, TxDOT asked the FHWA to
revoke their environmental approval for the project to short-circuit the
inevitable legal battle. Subsequently, all
parties involved (TxDOT, ARMA, and the FHWA) agreed to do a more
comprehensive environmental impact statement (EIS) for the corridor and
the lawsuit was dismissed as moot in November 2008. In April 2009, ARMA hired the consultant to
develop the new EIS and it is expected to be completed by 2012.
Meanwhile, legal challenges notwithstanding, ARMA hired Cibolo Creek Infrastructure
Joint Venture in May 2008 to design and build the 281 project. The consortium
was
headed by Fluor Enterprises of Irving, Texas, and Balfour Beatty
Infrastructure Inc. of Atlanta, and included several San Antonio
subcontractors. (Contrary to public perception, the consortium
included no foreign companies.) Design work was 30% completed when it was stopped
in late 2008
due to the aforementioned litigation and subsequent decision to do a full EIS. ARMA had planned to start
construction in late 2008 or early 2009 on the first segment, from Loop
1604 to Marshall Rd., with estimated completion in late 2010.
However, those plans were scrapped and a new project will be
recommended at the conclusion of the
environmental impact statement process. (Editorial: It is
likely, although by no means certain or assumed, that some variation of
the 2005 expressway plan will be recommended. The sticking point--
as before-- will be how to fund it. Unless the political landscape
changes dramatically between now and then, expect tolling to be the most
likely funding option.)
After the toll project was scrapped, ARMA and TxDOT proposed several
short-term fixes that do not typically require environmental studies.
These improvements predominately consisted of additional turning lanes
and auxiliary lanes. Then in February 2009, a new proposal was made public that would
convert
281 to a "superstreet" from Encino Rio to Marshall. That plan
was vetted, approved, and funded in mid-2009 and subsequently built in
2010. For more information
on the US 281 superstreet, click here.
Also in February 2009, Congress approved a national economic
"stimulus" plan that would pour additional federal money into road
construction projects. The MPO
approved allocating San Antonio's share of transportation stimulus
funding to be used as matching funds to leverage state funding for the first
half of a 281/1604 interchange. This project would build all four
of the ramps connecting to 281 south of 1604, i.e. northbound 281 to
both directions of 1604, and both directions of 1604 to southbound 281.
The use of these funds will allow the ramps to be toll-free.
It was determined that ramps connecting to 281 north of 1604 could not
be built until lingering issues stemming from the lawsuits and
associated environmental studies for 281 north of 1604 are resolved as
building those ramps would inherently prejudice the possible options.
The TTC approved the funding request
on March 5th, 2009, and construction began in February 2011.
For more information on the 281/1604 interchange, click here.
Long-range plans are still on
the books to upgrade US 281 to a full freeway all the way to FM 306 at
the Comal/Blanco County line, possibly also as a tollway depending on
the future funding and political climate. The first phase of that
eventual plan would upgrade 281 from a two-lane road to a four-lane
divided highway from the Guadalupe River to FM 306, although no
funding or timeline has been identified for that project as of yet.
(Sidebar: A common public misconception is that simply synchronizing
the signals in the corridor would resolve or at least ease congestion.
However, due to traffic patterns and volumes in that area,
synchronization is not the panacea that many people believe it to
be. A future article on this site or my blog will explain why.)
Proposed design
This
project is currently undergoing a new environmental review and study.
The proposed
configuration discussed and shown below was from the previous proposal
and may or may not be recommended at the completion of the current
study. Therefore, the proposal below should only be considered a
possible scenario of how US 281 could be upgraded. This page will
be updated soon to discuss the options currently being studied.
See the "Project status" section at the bottom for additional
information.
The new tollway
would look and
function just like a regular toll-free expressway. In other words,
the current expressway inside 1604, consisting of mainlanes with
overpasses, access roads on each side, and entrance and exit ramps,
would be extended northward. There would be no toll booths and,
other than a few overhead gantries for reading electronic toll tags, the
road would have no other special features that will differentiate it
from any other expressway.
How the toll
lanes would be
added To build the new tolled lanes, the two existing
surface-level, signalized roadways would be shifted outward where they
would function as toll-free access roads for the tolled expressway lanes
that would then be built down the middle. Additionally, several
improvements would be made to the new toll-free lanes including an
average of one additional lane in each direction throughout the project,
turnarounds and additional turning lanes at intersections, and a
toll-free overpass at Redland Rd. Including the tolled lanes, the
project would provide an average of three times the number of lanes as there are
today.
It is
important to note that the design of this project is virtually identical
to the previously proposed toll-free project. The only difference is that
drivers who opt to use the new expressway lanes would pay a toll.
Animated graphic
showing how toll lanes could be added to the existing US 281.
Simulation and still shots of proposed improvements
This
project is currently undergoing a new environmental review and study.
The proposed
configuration shown below was from the previous proposal and may or may
not be recommended at the completion of the current study.
Therefore, the proposal below should only be considered a possible
scenario of how US 281 could be upgraded. This page will be
updated soon to discuss the options currently being studied. See
the "Project status" section at the bottom for additional information.
Below is
computer simulation of the planned upgrade to US 281 from Loop 1604 to Borgfeld
showing the proposed configuration of the project. All animations
are courtesy of TxDOT.
Obviously, these are proposed designs are almost certainly subject to
change.
Below that you
will find a link to a page with annotated still shots from the
simulation of key intersections showing the location of the tolled and
non-tolled lanes and other important features.
At present, the project is on hold pending a new full environmental
impact statement (EIS). It is expected that the EIS will not be
completed and approved until 2012 at the earliest. It is an important footnote that
until the EIS is completed and approved, no major improvements, tolled or not,
can be made to the 281 corridor. This is because the
settlements to the lawsuits filed by toll opponents voided all previous
environmental clearances for the corridor. Note that the EIS could
produce a different recommended project than that shown above. (Editorial: It is
likely, although by no means certain or assumed, that some variation of
the 2005 expressway plan will be recommended. The sticking point--
as before-- will be how to fund it. Unless the political landscape
changes dramatically between now and then, expect tolling to be the most
likely funding option.)
NOTICE
The information provided on this website is provided on an "as-is" basis without
warranties of any kind either express or implied. The author and his agents
make no warranties or representations of any kind concerning any information
contained in this website. This website is provided only as general
information. The author expressly disclaims all liability with respect to
actions taken or not taken based upon the information contained herein or with
respect to any errors or omissions in such information. All opinions expressed
are strictly those of the author. This site is not affiliated in any way with
any official agency.
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