The corridor to nowhere

The City Council approved Tuesday night a resolution recommending the development of a corridor — not a road, mind you, but a very wide swath of land somewhere in which a road might be constructed — between Arroyo Ranch Road, located off Ranch Road 150 2½ miles northwest of where 150 meets 2770. and the intersection Yarrington and I-35.

The plan is that sometime in the next five, ten, 25, 50, 100 years or thereabouts, Ranch Road 150 would be diverted at Arroyo and placed somewhere within that corridor? Why? Because the transportation "experts" around these parts believe transportation only has to do with infrastructure and has nothing to do with mobility and as a result they want to convert 150 into, at least, a four-lane expressway to accommodate all those thousands and thousands of folks who want a faster way to get from Dripping Springs to San Marcos and points south. Right now, 150 runs right through the center of downtown Kyle and a four-lane highway could not be accommodated there without knocking down some historic buildings (and probably city hall itself) and building a bridge over the railroad tracks, which is also impractical for too many reasons to list here.

But, the council was told Tuesday night, a form of 150 will still run down Center Street. Only that stretch will be called Business 150 after the new highway is complete.

Council members asked a lot of questions about the proposed corridor including relevant ones such as how it will impact Jim Miller’s certified organic farm located in that area (council members were assured that road will be constructed nowhere near Miller’s farm) and a lot of irrelevant ones. They also seemed concerned about the long lines of traffic that develop at certain times on Center Street in downtown Kyle — especially when a train blocks the crossing at the eastern edge of downtown — and how this new alignment might alleviate that traffic. (The answer is probably that it won’t alleviate that because much of that traffic is generated by the schools in the downtown area or the parents of children in places like Hometown Kyle taking their children to Lehman High School.)

I had some questions I thought were obvious ones to ask, but never were. The main question was what percentage of the traffic traveling east through downtown on RR 150 wants to go north on I-35? I have a sneaking suspicion that percentage is fairly significant and those motorists are not going to want to be diverted way to the south in order to go north, so they will continue to follow the Business 150 or whatever it will be called through downtown.

Second, the corridor, as outlined Tuesday night to the council, stops at Yarrington and I-35. But RR 150 doesn’t stop at I-35. It connects with State Highway 21 and offers many Kyle residents, especially those living near 150, arguably the best route between Kyle and Bastrop and then on to Houston and points east. Is Business RR 150 going to reconnect with regular RR 150 somewhere that doesn’t take the motorists using this route to get to Bastrop too far out of their way?. Or is 150 really going to stop at I-35? If so, what happens to what is now RR 150 between I-35 and State Highway 21? (I have heard nasty, unsubstantiated rumors, that highway officials eventually want to extend super-highway 150 to Interstate 10 west of Flatonia and have that serve as the principle truck route between Austin and Houston, which, then, becomes the rationale for locating that Godzilla truck stop at I-35 and Yarrington.)

I also can’t conceive of RR150 ever being seriously considered by any conscientious motorist to be a logical alternative connector between Dripping Springs and Houston. That’s ridiculous. That’s why I am calling ths the corridor to nowhere. (OK, I’ll grant you, it may provide a faster access between Dripping Springs and San Marcos and then points south, but is that really a major need that has to be addressed at this time?)

In all the talk about this road, I would have liked to have had someone on the council address these issues. But, as I’ve said so many times before, the fix was in.