Wirtz Dam bridge draws questions

By Glynis Crawford Smith

The Highlander

The idea of a bridge across the Colorado River below Wirtz Dam met serious questions Wednesday, Oct. 26, at an open house hosted by the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO) in Horseshoe Bay.

More than 50 area residents came to hear a presentation by Burnet County Judge James Oakley, who sits on the CAMPO board, and to share their own opinions on the proposed project.

Cottonwood Shores City Council Member Roger Wayson had one of the longest list of doubts to express.

County Road 426 would connect Wirtz Dam Road with Ranch to Market Road 2147 if the bridge were constructed.

“It would come right past our nature preserve,” said Wayson. “It would be destructive to our eco-system...Traffic would go from 50 a day to thousands a day.”

“It would divert traffic from the commercial area we are trying to develop,” he also claimed.

He said some residents had moved to Cottonwood Shores specifically because of the peace and quite that would be disturbed by construction and traffic.

A former employee of the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), Wayson said extensive ecological study would be required before the project could even be considered and noise abatement measures and traffic control were a given.

Horseshoe Bay Cynthia Clinesmith asked about increased traffic seeking passage to Texas 71 from Ranch to Market Road (RM) 1431 via RM 2147. Mayor Steve Jordan said a new route would undoubtedly require improvements or changes to RM 2147.

“This sounds like a sales pitch,” observed one audience member as Oakley, a professed supporter of the project, provided information and opinions already considered around individual questions.

That speaker was disgruntled about the prospect of up to $20 million going into such a project because it would be tax money. The fact that funds proposed for the project would be state money that came to TxDOT's administration through gasoline tax, was as objectionable as if it has been property tax, without a decision being made on the ballot, he said.

Oakley contends the passage would be an alternate route into Marble Falls, said a 2005 traffic study of RM 2147 saw 93 percent of traffic turned left into the city and any additional work on the road would be facilitated by the alternate route.

For him, it is all about the future and managing future traffic, he said, estimating a bridge project could be realized in no less than five years.

“We have about 10,000 acres of property in preliminary stages of development in Burnet County. Austin is growing out. San Antonio is growing up.”

Although most public speakers from Cottonwood Shores have pointed to negatives of the project, another member of the city council, Marley Porter, has been disappointed in seeming opposition to growth and development he calls “inevitable.”

As to destruction of wildlife habitat, the architect who has been rated as one of the top 10 in environmentalism was resigned: “The noise generated by heavy equipment at the LCRA complex, cigar boats on Lake LBJ, the multitude of wave runners and airplane traffic, coupled with youngsters looking for a place to park and drug dealers looking for a place to transact business, make me wonder if we have any birds left to worry about.”

Everyone who uses roadways in the Highland Lakes area is invited to the next public meeting and take a survey to add to data on the project. Copies of the survey will be available at public meetings and online at www.CAMPOtexs.org/wirtzdam. The next open house will be from 4-7 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 3, at Lakeside Pavilion at 307 Buena Vista Drive in Marble Falls.

All comments received and survey results are to be compiled into a report to TxDOT by year's end.