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Originally Posted by hereinaustin
The tunnels are a big part of why this project is super delayed.
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Yea. The bid they went with thought this would somehow save money. It's a great idea and works well. I'm glad to see Austin moving forward with road tunnels but they ended up having a lot of problems digging it. I think they found limestone, some spider nest and maybe utilities? I can't remember.
I love the final design of this project and I think it's going to be great. I think about all of the people on mopac everyday that don't drive it on a regular basis that would use the toll lane since it's a 1 time thing. I think about the people who might start using buses because it's faster.
This has just been a giant lesson for CAMPO about going with the lowest bidder and it brings to mind if Austin has the contractor support for massive projects like this. The company that was working on finishing the direct connectors on southmopac and 71 went bankrupt.
I can't see the southbound lane opening up until the end of the year. They have barley started work on some sections between where the train tracks move to the highway medium to a little past camp Mabry. There are sound walls that haven't been built and utility polls still standing where the wall will be.
It's a huge contrast with how quickly they are moving on 183 in east austin but that might be because they have so much open land to work with.
It's great to see all the money coming in for various projects in Austin. I think the work on fixing up 360 will renew faith from the people in west austin in the area's ability to focus on transportation outside of the city core. I think a lot of people will be happy when the finish fixing up the 35 N to 183 N ramp.
Moving the 35 work north up to Riverside is great to see particularly the new bridge for Riverside which is necessary for future rail if Austin chooses to go down that path again.
Overall, the city is moving in the right direction. Just some road bumps along the way.