HAYS COUNTY, Texas (KXAN) — Hays County leaders are getting closer to presenting a proposal to close the State Highway 45 Gap to Travis County leaders, who have historically been against the roadway expansion.
At an open house in Buda Thursday night, residents got to view the findings, maps and impacts to traffic the SH 45 Gap would incur.
The SH 45 Gap refers to an actual gap in SH 45 down south. Currently SH 45 Southwest ends at FM 1626 and SH 45 Southeast ends at Interstate 35.
There is heavy congestion on FM 1626, which spills onto other smaller roads like FM 967, sometimes even through neighborhood streets.
The idea is that if the gap is complete from SH 45 Southwest to I-35 meeting up with SH 45 Southeast, it would keep a significant amount of traffic off those smaller roads.
Stacey Benningfield, project manager for the SH 45 Gap Study, works for RK&K, one of a few engineering firms involved in the study.
"We literally came to the first open house with a blank map. We'd identified a study area and identified constraints within that study area, but we gave people pins and markers and told them, give us your route suggestions," Benningfield said.
The current proposed route would not displace any residents, but it would require land acquisition.
"It's going to have to happen," said Buda resident Carl Urban, who would lose part of his land if the project moves forward. He and his family have been following this proposed project for decades.
"We've got the original plans from 1986, which showed cloverleaves at the corner of 35 and 45 where it is now. And obviously that's changed over the years, but we've been following it since ... because it affected the properties of my wife's family," Urban said.
"You were following it because you were worried about it taking your property, or you were worried about impact of traffic?" asked KXAN Traffic Anchor Erica Brennes.
"All of the above. A lot of times, what I found is that the people that actually own the property know more about it, and people drawing lines on maps, particularly back then without remote sensing and GPS and satellite imagery, had no idea what the topography was," said Urban.
Despite the fact the SH 45 Gap crosses the Hays-Travis County line, Hays County and the City of Buda fully funded the feasibility study. So far, Travis County leaders have not expressed interest in moving forward with this project because of environmental concerns, but Hays County leaders hope they will agree to meet early next year to discuss what they've found.
"Austin is growing. Travis County is growing. You look at the numbers, and we looked at building build numbers and compared them to no build numbers. That growth is happening with or without the gap project," said Benningfield.
Regarding the impact the SH 45 Gap project would have on MoPac, numbers show it would increase the number of cars on South MoPac. Projected numbers show by 2045, there would be 85,000 drivers a day on MoPac at SH 45 without the construction of the gap. That number goes up to 102,000 if it does get built.
Benningfield pointed out that data they collected showed a significant amount of traffic using SH 45 Southwest did not drive into downtown, but rather stayed in the south Travis County and north Hays County area.
