Rosenthal and Kuhn declined to be interviewed for this article, but said they would meet with TxDOT officials this week to try to find a path forward.Īfter a Wednesday meeting with San Antonio and Alamo Heights leaders, Texas Transportation Commission Chairman J.
“Lower Broadway is built in an existing creek bed and for many years has been the source of cars floating down the street and the inundation of existing businesses flooding,” Kuhn wrote.Ĭiting a 2019 study by economist Steve Nivin, Kuhn said reducing the floodplain could generate almost $48 million in combined tax revenues over 20 years by opening more than 29 acres to new development. TxDOT officials did not respond to an interview request in time for publication.Īnother major component of the project in Alamo Heights was reducing the floodplain along Broadway.
It’s unclear if separate traffic studies were recently performed for the Alamo Heights portion. “All bi-weekly meetings stopped after September 17th after I was notified that the project had been suspended pending additional information and another traffic study would need to be performed,” Alamo Heights City Manager Buddy Kuhn wrote in a letter to Gina Gallegos, engineer for TxDOT’s San Antonio District.ĭuring the Texas Transportation Commission meeting last week in which it voted to rescind an order ceding a 2.2-mile portion of Broadway to the City of San Antonio, Gallegos described traffic studies conducted by the department that show increased congestion on lower Broadway, San Antonio’s portion, if traffic lanes are reduced. This was an acceptable sacrifice to a significant majority of our community as the benefits of a newly designed street (which is not a highway) certainly outweighed the minimal traffic impact.”īut in October, TxDOT officials halted its meetings with Alamo Heights officials regarding the project, according to emails between city and state officials. “The commute from Burr Rd to Austin HWY at peak hours after 20 years would increase by a minute or less by TxDOT estimates. Traffic studies commissioned by the state show “minimal impact” to traffic on Broadway, Rosenthal informed TxDOT in a letter Jan. But plans for the reduction of lanes on Broadway remained on the drawing board for years after Abbott’s initiative launched. Greg Abbott, aims to reduce traffic congestion throughout the state. The department’s clear lanes initiative, a 2015 plan by Gov. In his letter, Hale cited concerns about the negative impact the project would have on capacity and congestion for the state transportation system.Ī lane reduction “will not meet the needs” of that system, he wrote. Other funding was dedicated to the project through the City of Alamo Heights (nearly $21 million), Bexar County ($7.1 million) and the San Antonio River Authority ($1.3 million). With TxDOT’s support, the Alamo Area Metropolitan Planning Organization has committed $10 million to the Broadway project and TxDOT itself has committed $4 million. “I would point out that during this time TxDOT has been leading the major design efforts for the portion of Broadway located in Alamo Heights, all clearly noting Broadway with 4 lanes and a dedicated turn lane in lieu of 6 lanes and a dedicated turn lane,” Rosenthal wrote.
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