SAN ANTONIO TX:Four Pike Projects Mulled

Only one of the roads is completely new – the Kelly Parkway (1 right below). It’s a $142m 17km (11mi) highway designed to support the redevelopment of the old Kelly air force base by bringing it motorway standard connections both north and south. Kelly is being redeveloped from a military base to a civilian manufacturing and logistics center. The Kelly Parkway would provide a convenient direct route in to Kelly from TX16 and I-35 in the south and off US90 to the north. In its center section the Parkway would run alongside the SP railroad lines that run from the Mexican border to Dallas and north. The old air force base will be, among many other things, an air freight facility, and with rail and road alongside has the potential to become a major intermodal center. Kelly has 20k people working at establishments around it and could end up with 35k. Like most closed military bases it is proving far more valuable to the local economy in civilian use than as a defense establishment.

The estimated cost does not include land, which TXDOT would probably acquire, but it would include all the interchanges and extensive bridging of the new road and the adjacent railroad for improved access to the Kelly industrial area. The proposed TX151 and TX16 pikes are alternative radials to the rapidly growing northwest residential part of San Antonio. They are about 7km (4mi) apart and are existing surface arterials. TX151(2 below), the so-called Stotzer Freeway, operates as Texan-style frontage roads and partial mainlanes with much of the bridging work already done toward upgrade to full motorway standard. The toll project would be a finishing job only, with major interchanges (ICs) at the TXDOT highways to be built by TXDOT. TX151 has modest traffic flows at 27k veh/day (AADT).

Elevated toll express lanes

By contrast TX16(3) , parallel to TX151 and to the north is a heavily congested, 6-lane signalized arterial, with frequent intersections and uncontrolled access. Also known as Bandera Road, TX16 carries 60k+ veh/day and in rush hours is LOS-F, according to Clay Smith of the planning division of the local TXDOT office. The toll road project is to build a 4-lane elevated express road on piers in the central median. $54m covers the estimated cost of 10km of elevated road and access and egress ramps at a central point. But again major ICs at I-410 and TX1604 at either end would be provided by the state.

Scott Ericksen of the San Antonio MPO says that TX151 and TX16 are probably alternatives as toll projects: “They are close enough to serve essentially the same corridor so we think it is likely that one or the other might be a viable toll project, but doing both might have them cannibalizing revenues.”

The fourth possible toll project is an interchange (4 on map p5) on the TX1604 outer loop with the US281 radial arterial heading north out of the city. US281 is only at motorway standard inside the loop but is likely to be extended northward. Movements between the highways are presently only possible via signalized intersections of frontage roads. The major movements are between US281-S and TX1604 east and west, but movements to US281-N are expected to grow as development extends outside the outer loop. TXDOT wants a full 4-level stack IC providing direct connections for all movements.

Clay Smith of TXDOT says this is a “long shot” as a toll project but it was considered worth suggesting for evaluation. Ericksen told us the project could make sense as part of a larger system of all-electronic tolling.

TXDOT’s Clay Smith told us that the drive for seeking toll projects came from the Texas Transp Commission, the lead agency for state policy. They have been adamant to all districts, he said, that where longrange funding via federal funds and state gas taxes are insufficient, the districts should look for toll financing as an alternative to doing nothing.

“We are expected to suggest feasible toll projects for detailed analysis,” said Smith.

The Texas Turnpike division’s Mark Cross told us that they expect to have more discussions with San Antonio authorities before deciding on feasibility studies.

BACKGROUND: The San Antonio metro area (1.4m pop) is the third largest in Texas after Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston. Like those cities it has an extensive freeway system and has mild congestion relative to the west and northeast. The recent TTI report on congestion ranked the area 44th out of 70 cities with a congestion index of 0.99. The only major cities with less congestion are Charlotte NC 0.98, Norfolk VA 0.96, Orlando FL and Oklahoma City with 0.91, and Kansas City MO-KS with 0.81.

San Antonio currently ranks 6th in the country in lane-km/population. Such relative highway largess makes it more difficult for toll roads to thrive than in, say, southern California where congestion is far more severe. On the other hand they build roads extremely economically in Texas, allowing them to pitch toll rates low.

San Antonio is growing more rapidly even than other cities in TX. 2.0m pop is expected just after 2020, according to projections of the MPO, and an extensive number of improvements to the road system are planned to provide for the growth. Highest priority in regular tax funding is being given to the I-410 inner loop highway which already carries 180k veh/day in places. It gets $390m for widening and IC rebuilds. Also funded is a radial, the $98m Wurzbach Pkwy.

Still unfunded are $385m of upgrades to the TX1604 outer loop, some 20 to 22km out from the CBD (the I-410 is 10 to 16km out), $600m of widening to I-35 that runs northeast-southwest through the area, and $360m of work on I-10, the major east-west fwy. (Contacts: Clay Smith TXDOT San Antonio 210 615 5920, Scott Ericksen San A. MPO 210 227 8651, Mark Cross TTAD/TXDOT 512 936 0984)