Project Connect plans to explore above-, below-ground options for East Riverside/Pleasant Valley Transit Center
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The Austin Transit Partnership is exploring above and below ground options for a transit center at the intersection of East Riverside Drive and South Pleasant Valley. (Courtesy Austin Transit Partnership)
The transit center at the intersection of East Riverside Drive and South Pleasant Valley Road could still be above or below ground as the Austin Transit Partnership plans to move forward with either option.
The Austin Transit Partnership, the government company overseeing Project Connect’s designs, hosted a community design workshop to discuss the two options. Peter Mullan, director of architecture and urban design for the Austin Transit Partnership, said it was important to involve the community, especially with intricate designs like East Riverside and South Pleasant Valley.
“We are trying to establish a number of criteria that matter most to ourselves and the community,” said Mullan during the ATP board meeting on October 20. “This is not just a problem that needs to be resolved. There are a number of different criteria that we have to weigh up. “
The station would serve both the MetroRail Blue Line, which would run from downtown to the airport, and the MetroRapid Pleasant Valley bus line, which would run from the Mueller neighborhood to the Goodnight Ranch neighborhood.
Mullan said the conversations during the community design workshop helped highlight the tradeoffs each design offers.
Moving the transit center underground would allow for better traffic flow and ensure pedestrians, cyclists and cars do not have to cross a train line, ATP documents say. However, the bus and train lines would not be on the same level and the costs would be higher.
An above-ground station would create a more seamless transition between the MetroRail Blue Line and the MetroRapid bus line and, according to the documents, offer opportunities in public spaces. It would likely slow down traffic as well.
“As an infrastructure, the light rail is not very agile. It wants to be flat. It wants to be straight, ”said Mullan. “Once you use it, it’s hard to move. We want to do it right, so there are two different strategies for doing it. “
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