la Frontera In the News
Austin American Statesman
April 19, 2004
Road work zips along in Round Rock
by Ben Wear
From the man-bites-dog file today comes this: The two toll roads under construction in and around Round Rock are both ahead of schedule and under budget. Way ahead of schedule. And considerably under budget.
This probably won't come as a huge surprise to anyone who regularly passes the vicinity of FM 1325 and Interstate 35, where concrete pillars have been springing out of the ground like Johnson grass. Go anywhere along the almost 17-mile-long giant T to be traced by Texas 45 North and the northward extension of MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1), and the bustle of construction activity is unmistakable.
The two roads, really one coordinated construction project, are being built in eight segments that were supposed to be completed at various points in 2007. Now, according to the latest project report, six of those sections are projected to be done by the end of 2006, and all but one are ahead of schedule. Construction just began on Section 5, the part of Texas 45 North east of I-35, and yet it is somehow 16 months ahead of schedule, which I think must require the use of a way-back machine as well as bulldozers.
Overall, the construction bids came in low enough below original estimates that Bob Daigh, the Austin district engineer for the state Transportation Department, felt comfortable suggesting that up to $220 million from this project could be diverted to help build the raft of other Central Texas toll roads in the area that he and others unveiled last week. As for the third toll road under construction, the Texas 130 eastern bypass, work began only in October, and only one of its four sections — from U.S. 79 to U.S. 290 — is significantly ahead of schedule.
Contrast all this good news with, oh, I don't know . . . the Ben White Boulevard/I-35 interchange project, which to passers-by often seems to have the eerily underpopulated aspect of a post-apocalyptic "Twilight Zone" episode and seemingly has been going on forever. Forget that 13-day siege at the Alamo. What really gave Sam Houston time to build his army was the stackup when Santa Anna and the boys tried to get past the orange barrels at Ben White.
This marked contrast between the progress of the turnpikes, which will yield toll revenue when they open, and tax-funded projects, which will yield only congestion relief, has generated conspiracy theories on my voice mail. The dark speculation is that the Ben White contractor, J.D. Abrams, has shifted everyone up north at the behest of the state or to earn lucrative early completion bonuses.
True? No, according to Daigh and Abrams.
Abrams, first of all, is involved on only one of the eight turnpike segments, Section 7 on Texas 45 North west of MoPac, where construction began in September. The lightning work on the other segments has nothing to do with Ben White. And Martin Poduska, chief estimator for Abrams in Austin, says the company has pulled no people or equipment off Ben White. Poduska and Daigh both say the interchange project is not behind what must be a very measured schedule.
Daigh, while offering the caveat that with two years of construction left on the turnpikes, things could still slow down, said the 45 North/MoPac project is going so fast because the state basically demanded it of the contractors. And they offered some rather sizable carrots to go along with the stick.
On Segments 1 and 2, for instance, the MoPac extension from Parmer Lane to Texas 45 North, Zachry/Gilbert Constructors could earn a one-time "no excuse" bonus if the project is completed by July 14, 2006.
"In the past," Daigh said, "people had concepts that if you construct projects over a certain dollar-per-month rate, you will inordinately drive up the cost of the project. And since there were not enough dollars to go around to all the projects, it would not be worth the extra dollars to accelerate the projects."
But in this case, the contractors are building both fast and cheaply, or at least cheaply compared with the state's cost projections. Were the cost estimates way out of whack on the high side? No, Daigh says. Out of whack, maybe, but short of the "way" range.
"We tried to be accurate in our estimates, but on the conservative side of accurate," Daigh said.
With toll roads, where a good part of the money is borrowed on the bond market, the worst thing that could happen is if an estimate were too low and the project ends up needing more money, Daigh said.
Daigh said that what's happened so far up north demonstrates that roads can built quickly at a reasonable cost while still maintaining quality of construction. He said he plans to take the same approach on future highway projects funded with tax dollars.
Assuming any of those ever again get built around here.
