CTRMA’s next big thing is on hold for now

The Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority is temporarily parking its next big toll road effort. On Wednesday, the authority’s board of directors tabled a vote to begin soliciting engineering firms interested in designing and building the 183 North Mobility Project. The plan calls for two tolled express lanes in each direction on the eight miles of U.S. Highway 183 between State Highway 45 and MoPac Expressway. The authority had previously counted on partnering with the Texas Department of Transportation, which had concurrently proposed expanding the general purpose capacity of the highway in addition to the new toll lanes. However, both Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick came out strongly against using state money on toll road projects, forcing the Texas Transportation Commission to signal the need to reassess projects such as 183 North. “Given all of the feedback the department’s getting from various folks, they’d really like for us to give them a period of time to sort this out,” CTRMA Executive Director Mike Heiligenstein told his board. The TTC’s next meeting is Thursday morning.