Delays expected to impact students for years

MoPac rush hour, a slow crawl the Bowie community is all too familiar with. Recently, this journey has been interrupted with a new obstacle; construction.

On Sept. 3, 2015, the Texas Department of Transportation and the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority conducted a traffic noise workshop concerning the barriers on MoPac at the intersections of Slaughter Lane and La Crosse Avenue. Major construction for this $53.5 million project is currently ongoing and will be finished in early 2021.

“The continued growth in this area in south Austin, increasing delays, and our commitment to safety prompted the need to examine the two intersections for changes and improvements,” public information officer Christopher Bishop said.

MoPac construction to continue for three years

The project consists of constructing a diverging diamond intersection at MoPac and La Crosse Avenue, extending the MoPac main lanes, making intersection improvements, and improving pedestrian and bicycle accommodations.

“When completed, the projects will help drivers cross Loop 1 faster and more safely, and allow better traffic flow along the main lanes of Loop 1 by eliminating two signalized intersections,” Bishop said.

This project will allow for future expansion in the Loop 1 area and improve cross traffic flow in the future.

“If Austin wants to fix it’s traffic problem, it is long past due on improving our urban mass transportation,” junior Wolfgang Burst said.

TxDot claims that this project will improve safety for all travel, lower wait times at intersections, improve left-turn movements, and decrease travel time in general.

“People will exit to Slaughter and La Crosse which will greatly ease traffic on and off MoPac,” principal Mark Robinson said. “In my mind, it is long overdue and can’t happen soon enough.”

However, some students have felt that the construction going on has been a nuisance to them. All of the cones, closed lanes, and trucks have allowed for more traffic.

“Everyone’s already going slower, the lanes are tiny, and the entirety of the process is extremely time consuming,” senior Emily Lawson said. “It’s taking our semi-quiet community and growing it closer to the city and making it busier.”

In addition, people have concerns over the environmental degradation that this project is causing. Several trees in the MoPac area have been chopped.

“It does make me really sad to see so many trees being cut down,” economics and government teacher Ruth Narvaiz said. “The trees in the middle of the MoPac lanes are all gone and it looks bad.”

Although some have found the project to be a nuisance, others believe it’ll ultimately improve driving conditions in the Southwest Austin area.

“When no one lived Southwest it made sense for MoPac to end at a stoplight; at Slaughter,” Robinson said. “Now, because of growth in the region there needs to a way for traffic to flow past.”

Therefore, many look on the positive side about this project, since they realize it will ultimately reduce traffic congestion and make the roads safer.

“Hopefully, the end product will alleviate traffic frustrations in the future and the frustration that we are experiencing now will all be worth it,” physics teacher Rey Torres said.

Art by: Victoria Newell