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A rail tunnel under Lady Bird Lake is getting closer to reality as initial designs for Austin’s $ 7.1 billion mass transit system, approved by the voters, have ruled out a new bridge for the system’s crown jewel light rail line.
When the Orange Line light rail was first drafted, engineers at the Austin Transit Partnership determined that much more of the Orange Line would have to go underground, raising the prospect of the light rail being more than its original price of $ 2.5 billion will need.
The most notable change in the new designs is that to cross from North Austin to South Austin, the Orange Line must pass under the bedrock below Lady Bird Lake. The Orange Line could board the subway near Guadalupe Street and 21st Street, with tunnels leading to Live Oak Street on South Congress Avenue.
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Overall, the new designs indicate an additional 2.3 to 2.7 miles of new tunnels. This could double the 2.4 km long tunnel originally estimated for the two light rail lines in the local transport plan.
During a recent meeting of the Austin Transit Partnership Board – the body created to oversee the implementation of the voter-approved transit system – board member Tony Elkins said that each mile underground costs between $ 700 million and $ 1 billion could. If his estimate is correct, extending the tunnel length would cost between $ 1 billion and $ 1.7 billion.
Austin Transit Partnership officials emphasized that no official cost estimates were made. These will not be available until the planners come up with a more refined design, which is expected in about a year.
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Elkins, the board’s financial expert, told the American statesman that upgrading the tunnels would not make a budget increase safe. And whatever it costs, the project’s budget must be within the 8.75-cent property tax to finance the construction.
“It’s a great vision,” said Elkins of the design. “We just have to keep in mind how we’re going to pay for it. Every time we expand the scope, it has an impact on costs and on the schedule. “
The so-called 15% design plan is the first of several incremental designs that will be introduced over the next three years until the orange and blue lines are finally designed and built.
The main reason the Orange Line has to go under Lady Bird Lake is because of a lack of space.
The first phase of the Orange Line runs from US 183 above ground along Lamar Boulevard, then onto Guadalupe Street near the University of Texas campus, where it connects between the 21st line to the Blue Line and the existing Red suburban train Line.
The original idea was that the Orange Line would jump out of the ground somewhere north of Lady Bird Lake and then cross the water on a new bridge next to the South First Street Bridge.
However, in the 15% design plan recently submitted to the Austin Transit Partnership Board, engineers stated that building a bridge would require the permanent closure of Second Street on Guadalupe Street to block vehicle and pedestrian traffic. In addition, numerous supply and water pipes would have to be shortened.
So a tunnel.
In addition, the designers found that the Orange Line had to stay underground much further south than originally thought due to the floodplains for the lake and Bouldin Creek. Instead of showing up near Auditorium Shores, the Orange Line would instead hit daylight near either Nellie Street or Live Oak Street on South Congress Avenue.
In the meantime, the Blue Line, which joins the Orange Line downtown and runs to Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, will operate on a new bridge. It is expected to cross the lake near Trinity Street and lead into a large proposed commercial and residential development proposed for the site that currently houses the American-Statesman’s offices. The newspaper will be moving to new offices later this year, and the current location is being redeveloped by the Atlanta-based Cox family who own it.
Tunnels aren’t the only new pieces in the Orange and Blue Line designs.
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The 15 percent design, presented by Peter Mullan, Head of Architecture and Urban Development at the Austin Transit Partnership, includes a complete redesign of downtown Fourth Street.
Fourth Street serves as a link for the Orange Line, Blue Line, and Red Line suburban trains, as well as other planned local transit lines, all of which connect near the Austin Convention Center.
The redesign of Fourth Street could include building a three-story system both above and below ground, with improved pedestrian zones on the ground floor, walkways underground for easy access, and the train platforms at the bottom.
In the middle is a newly planned train station on Fourth Street and Congress Avenue, opposite the Frost Bank Tower on a site that is currently a parking lot. Mullan told the statesman that officials from the Austin Transit Partnership are already in talks with the owners of the property, which has been owned by the same family since 1967 and is valued at approximately $ 2.3 million, according to property records.
Mullan said the train station could be an element of civil architecture.
The 15 percent design for the mass transit system known as Project Connect saw the biggest changes in the scope of the program, according to Elkins. It is the first attempt to develop the $ 7.1 billion system beyond conceptual planning. Mullan called it the “first design milestone”.
“It’s really about understanding the scope of the project, if you will,” said Mullan. “Of course there is still a lot to understand and develop as a design progresses, but it is an important milestone because we now have a clearer sense of the scope of the project.”
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