Toll road saves time

• By SCOTT DYER
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Mar 8, 2008 - Page: 1B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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AUSTIN — Before this city’s bypass opened in late 2006, a trip from Georgetown north of Austin to the airport took about two hours during rush hour.

Motorists who take Austin’s new toll-supported bypass can make the same trip in 22 minutes, according to HNTB Vice President Richard Ridings.

“It’s the most congested stretch of I-35 in the country,” Ridings told a contingent led by Baton Rouge officials who are looking to build a toll-supported loop.

Ridings said the bypass became a reality after a growing number of motorists and businesses realized traffic congestion on I-35 was costing them time and money, and compromising their quality of life.

Even a worker who earns $10 per hour can make money by paying the 17 cents per mile toll in order to avoid sitting an hour or two in traffic on the interstate, Riding said.

Tim Weight, the engineer who oversaw construction of the bypass, said the problem hit home when the Austin area’s premier employer, Dell Computers, opted to move a planned expansion of its headquarters to Nashville because of the Austin area traffic congestion.

“The traffic was so bad that Dell couldn’t get on-time deliveries in and out of Austin,” Weight said.

Before the bypass opened, the eight-mile trip from Dell headquarters in Round Rock to neighboring Cedarpark used to take about 45 minutes. With the bypass, the same trip takes about eight minutes, Weight said.

Weight said the new bypass is particularly popular with Dell’s 13,000 employees, whom he jokingly called “Dell-ionaires.”

In addition to providing motorists with a quicker, toll-supported option, the bypass has caused property values to soar.

Ridings said that back in the 1980s, an acre of undeveloped land near one of the bypass’s main interchanges was selling for about $1,200 per acre.

“Now, if you can get that same property for $500,000 per acre, you buy it without a glance,” Riding said during a tour of the bypass Friday.

Similarly, houses that used to sell for $1,500 along the North Dallas Tollway are now worth $500,000, Riding said.