Hwy 29 re-alignment

Here is the article from the Austin American Statesman regarding the realignment of SH 29.

Williamson offers Texas 29 expansion plans
Residents speak up on various route options in first of two meetings.
By Melissa MixonAMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Tuesday, May 13, 2008

LIBERTY HILL — Liberty Hill residents got their first look Monday at possible routes for a major Williamson County road expansion that could affect hundreds of property owners.
Engineers hired by the county have been studying ways to expand almost 19 miles of Texas 29, a heavily traveled east-west thoroughfare in the county that serves as a gateway from Georgetown to Liberty Hill.
Engineers presented about a dozen alternate routes to Liberty Hill residents during a town hall meeting Monday night. Another meeting will be tonight in Georgetown.
No cost estimates were attached to the routes. The county has already agreed to pay the engineers as much as $4 million for their work on the plans.
County officials said they started the study last year because they wanted to avoid congestion on Texas 29 that's already bogged down similar roads in the county, such as RM 620 in Round Rock.
With 20,000 new homes already platted near Texas 29, 50,000 to 60,000 more people are expected to use the four-lane road in coming years, County Commissioner Cynthia Long said.
Some of the proposed routes call for expansions along the current road; others would bypass the road.
The proposals are being broken into two sections, one closer to Georgetown and one closer to Liberty Hill:
The Georgetown section is a seven-mile portion that runs west of the city, from D.B. Wood Road to Ronald Reagan Boulevard. The four alternatives proposed for that section all would widen the existing road, either on the north or south side or a combination of the two, said Justin Word, the deputy project manager for the expansion study.
The second section is almost 12 miles from Reagan Boulevard to the Burnet County line. That section runs through Liberty Hill. Some proposed routes call for expanding the road; several others call for a north or south bypass. Three of the proposed northern bypasses would run through mostly residential areas.
Word, who works for the engineering firm Chiang, Patel & Yerby Inc., said his firm does not yet have a preference for a particular route but will likely present one to the county over the summer. Cost estimates will be included in the recommendation, as will feedback from Monday's and tonight's meetings, he said.
The effects on the environment, residents and businesses were all considered in the route proposals, county officials said.
Residents and property owners along Texas 29 like Irene Hieber raised concerns Monday about some of the proposed routes.
Some also questioned the need to expand the road at all.
"We don't want them to do this, nobody in Liberty Hill does, but they'll do what they want to do," said Hieber, who owns an animal boarding kennel with her daughter, Laura Collins, on Texas 29.
Under one of the options, a portion of the road would cut into their property. They said they would prefer that over a route that bypasses the city because they don't want Liberty Hill to become a "ghost town."
Clyde Davis, a real estate broker in Liberty Hill who owns land on Texas 29, questioned how the county, which is strapped for road funding, would pay for the project.
"They have no money," he said.
To pay for parts of the right-of-way acquisition, said Long, the county commissioner, the county will use money from a $228 million road bond package that voters approved in 2006. She said other costs might have to be paid for through a future bond referendum.
mmixon@statesman.com; 246-0043
The county's second open house about a proposed expansion of Texas 29 is tonight in Georgetown. The meeting is from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Georgetown Church of Christ, 1525 W. University Ave.
For more information, contact Kathy Grimes in Commissioner Cynthia Long's office at kgrimes@wilco.org or (512) 260-4280