CC71 - Citizens for Change on 71

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CC71 met with TxDot, a County Engineer and Gerald Daugherty
Monday March 3rd 2008

Notes from February 28th TXDot Meeting

On Thursday, February 28th representatives of CC71 met with Bob Daigh of TXDot along with Commissioner Gerald Daugherty and a Travis County Engineer. Mr. Daigh presented an update on the actions TXDot plans on taking with respect to Highway 71 as set forth in the attached handout provided by Mr. Daigh.

The following are some key points of the discussions:
The Traffic Study has begun and should be ready within the next three weeks.
Resurfacing work is underway and the surface is being roughed currently. The bid for repaving must go through a higher level of TXDot and it is currently estimated that the repaving bids will be completed in April.
Some of the funding is coming from TXDot;s maintenance budget.
Additional funding for the road improvements comes through funding released by CAMPO. CAMPO controls the highway funds for three counties: Travis, Hays and Williamson.
Funding from Blanco and Burnet counties are controlled by CARTPO. These counties are within Bob Daigh’s region but cannot be used for Highway 71 unless CARTPO agrees and makes this a priority.
Requests will be made for federal funds and require a cost benefit analysis and are ranked with other projects submitted within the state. TXDot is gathering statistics for the period from 2004 to 2007. This will be made available so that those who know of specific accidents make check it for accuracy.
TXDot informed the group that the data revealed that were one-third more accidents where drivers crossed over the center line during dry weather than during rainy weather.
Compliance with existing laws and enforcement of existing laws is something that TXDot has encouraged, particularly in light or the data it has received to date. CC71 has contacted the Sheriff’s department to address this and informed TXDot of this.
The accidents around Bee Creek were more often weather related and TXDot believes the resurfacing with non-porous pavement will alleviate this problem.
It was noted that many of the proposed improvements were not within the two mile where the most well known accidents occurred. TXDot was asked to consider additional improvements to this portion of the road in addition to the work proposed.
TXDot is undertaking a study and preliminary design analysis to address weather some form of center divider is an appropriate solution to this problem. The preliminary findings should be available for discussion within the next three weeks.
TXDot was asked to prepare any additional environmental analysis that may be necessary to complete all work to the extent it has not already been prepared. Bob Daigh told the group he would determine if any additional studies would be required prior to additional work.
TXDot was asked to review proposals for safety improvements submitted by third parties. Plans are underway between Travis County and TXDot to provide a method to allow Travis County to bid some of these projects. Details are being worked out.
The group will reconvene in about 3 weeks to get an update when additional data on the studies is available.