Although a column on this page by Mayor Dave Claunch offers hope that the Bee Cave Road improvements through West Lake Hills will be under way at some time in the not too distant future, no reasonable person should count on it.

It’s been almost 14 years since the Westlake Chamber of Commerce spearheaded an effort that succeeded in getting approval of a center turn lane along a 3.5-mile segment of Bee Cave Road between MoPac and Loop 360, and less than a mile has been completed.

The wheels of bureaucracy turn slowly when it comes to the Texas Department of Transportation. TxDOT’s main problem with implementing projects after funding has been approved stems from the fact that it demands that cities benefiting from the its funding finance and acquire the necessary right of way, which has been the stumbling block for this particular project. Therefore, past leaders in Rollingwood and West Lake Hills should accept part of the blame for the ongoing problem plaguing this critically important project.

West Lake Hills and Rollingwood residents and officials have in the past expressed concerns about being saddled with paying for the expansion project that essentially benefits motorists passing through their cities. The residents themselves have found other alternatives to using Bee Cave Road during rush hours.

Another inherent problem with the process stems from the fact that the $15 million approved for the project 14 years ago wouldn’t go as far today, even if any still remained. As the column points out, TxDOT simply has none of that funding remaining – thanks to some mysterious accounting issue.

Rollingwood and West Lake Hills should have acquired the necessary right of way long ago. Consequently, to say that there is reason to be dubious about completion of a center turn lane along the remaining three miles remaining would be an understatement.

By West Lake Hills Mayor Dave Claunch

Contributing Writer

How many times have I used this space to update Picayune readers about the plans to improve safety and increase traffic flow along Bee Cave Road? Not even I can recall. I’ll confess that when I was first elected over two years ago, I didn’t expect it to take this long to get the Texas Department of Transportation to install a center turn lane along our little two-mile stretch of the road. For a while there, it looked like we were making great progress. We commissioned a preliminary design study to show what could be built, and we got the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization to allocate $6.3 million to make it happen.

And then TxDOT “miscounted” about a $1 billion in their biennial budget and all that funding disappeared. Instead of having the usual $20 to $25 million available annually for roadway projects in Central Texas, CAMPO has announced that they’ll have only $1.8 million available to spend in FY2011, which begins in October. Available funding ramps up to $13.8 in FY2013 after which the funding is expected to return to normal levels.

That’s not good news for a roadway project like ours, which is estimated to cost over $6 million for the two miles that run through our city. So for the past few months, we’ve been working with TxDOT to trim the project down to smaller, less expensive segments that will have a better chance of getting funding in this highly competitive, fiscally constrained environment.

The first such project segment is on track to compete for some of the FY2011 funding. This project would widen Bee Cave Road to allow for a center turn lane at the Red Bud Trail intersection. It would extend the eastbound right-hand lane to become a dedicated right turn lane into St. John Neumann Catholic Church. And it would add curb-and-gutter drainage systems on both sides of the road.

Even these modest enhancements don’t come cheap: the latest cost estimate for this project comes in at just over $1.3 million. We’ve worked closely with TxDOT to try to minimize the project footprint in order to keep the cost down and position it more favorably for funding, but it’s doubtful that it will drop below $1 million at best.

So the good news is that our project is on the preliminary list of projects that will be eligible for funding during FY2011. The bad news is that there is expected to be a few dozen other projects on that list all competing for just $1.8 million. Those aren’t good odds.

But I’m not giving up and neither should you. Next month CAMPO’s Technical Advisory Committee will take the first step toward prioritizing the projects on the FY2011 list. The men and women on the TAC are professional transportation specialists from the larger area cities and regional agencies. If you know any of these individuals, now would be a good time to let them know how critical our project is to improving this dangerous intersection. A list of the TAC members can be found on the CAMPO website: :www.campotexas.org/comm_tac.php.

The CAMPO board will meet in September to consider the TAC’s recommendation and finalize the list of projects that will receive funding. The board is made up of elected and appointed officials from Bastrop, Caldwell, Hays, Travis and Williamson Counties. A list of CAMPO Board members is also online at www.campotexas.org/comm_tpb.php.

I have already begun reaching out to CAMPO Board members to advocate on behalf of our project but I need your help. People often ask me what they can do to help get traffic moving on Bee Cave Road. Well, here’s your chance: go online, look over the list of TAC and CAMPO Board members and make some calls or send some emails. This kind of individual outreach really does make a big difference.