Apparently a billion dollars isn't what it used to be.
San Antonio City officials told City Council that an $882 million dollar scheme to use toll lanes to expand the number of lanes on Loop 1640 from Bandera Rd. to I-35 won't be enough to eliminate highway congestion, just reduce it.
"If you do nothing, you're going to have twenty hours of congestion," said Mike Frisbie, Director of Transportation and Capital Improvemeents and City Engineern told a City Council committee. "If you do a project, you're going to have six or seven hours of congestion."
City Council signed off on the mammoth toll road project, despite several questions about the project, which will build two new lanes each way in the current median strip of Loop 1604. Those lanes, called 'managed lanes,' would be free to buses and 'government approved carpools,' and motorists who commute to work in their cars, without the necessary government approval, would be soaked for nearly $500 million in tolls, according to the financial analysis.
"So we're going to spend $900 million and still have gridlock," asked Councilwoman Shirley Gonzalez.
The key factor of the project is the use of 'High Occupancy Vehicle' lanes, which would not require tolls from carpools. The idea of the planners is that will convince people to get out of their cars and climb onto the bus, something researchers say has never happened in any other American city where it has been tried.
Councilman Joe Krier is skeptical that it will work here, either.
"If we discovered that HOV lanes are not as efficient or as effective as people think they are, would we have the capability to 'un-HOV them,' Krier asked.
There were also questions about whether the massive project might actually increase gridlock by convincing more people to move to the city's far north side, adding to traffic woes, instead of filling out other parts of the city.
There was also concern about the fact that, unlike HOV lanes in California, for example, simply having more than one person in the car won't be enough under the Loop 1604 scheme.
Chris Trevino of the Bexar County Regional Mobility Authority says they would have to be 'government approved' carpools, and you would have to register in advance to qualify.
"You have your TexTag (which automatically records your presence on the toll lanes for billing purposes), and there's an extra step where you submit an application with the names of all of the people you'll be commuting with on the way to work," Trevino said.
And then...this whole thing might end up being illegal.
A north Texas State Representative has introduced a bill that would outlaw the adding of any new toll lanes to existing state highways. Since Loop 1604 is technically 'State Highway Loop 1604,' it would be covered by the ban, if it should pass the Legislature.