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April 20, 2017
Expressway News
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Happy Earth Day from the Mobility Authority
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This week we celebrate Earth Day; a time to remember the importance of protecting our environment, a time to give thanks for the bountiful natural resources entrusted to us, and a time to demonstrate our efforts toward preserving the ecosystem we are fortunate to have. We live in the midst of incredibly beautiful settings of green spaces and clean waters, and we are proud to call Central Texas home.
As an agency charged with enhancing quality of life and economic vitality through innovative and sustainable transportation options, we must balance the need for new infrastructure with preservation of the environment. Our work is crucial to maintaining our region’s vibrancy. We take our responsibility seriously, striving to achieve that delicate balance in all we do. We see mobility and sustainability as simultaneous priority goals. As such, we have implemented a number of initiatives to encourage a new way of thinking about harmonizing development and the environment. Sometimes those initiatives involve adding capacity to our roadways. Other times, they involve optimizing the capacity we already have and challenging ourselves to adopt new ways of thinking about sustainability in transportation.
Our efforts also extend to engaging in partnerships with non-profits that hold a stake in environmental preservation, incorporating sustainable design principles into transportation projects, and collaborating with entities who share our vision for greater mobility.
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Keep Austin Beautiful Clean Sweep: Celebrating our City
We all enjoy our parks and natural resources and have a responsibility to preserve and maintain them. The Mobility Authority is committed to doing our part. In April, we were proud to sponsor the Keep Austin Beautiful Clean Sweep, a city-wide service day spanning more than 131 sites throughout Austin and resulting in more than 26 tons of trash removed. Our 183 South Project team partnered with the Pecan Springs Neighborhood Association to remove more than 2000 pounds of trash from Walnut Creek District Park which included piles of vehicle tires, scrap wood, and even an old couch. It was a privilege to join our community in this effort to enhance the 183 South Project corridor.
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Greenroads®: Raising the bar on what it means to be “green”
The trend toward greener buildings has rapidly expanded around the world in recent years with those in the architecture industry, following the LEED® rating system for green buildings. For the transportation industry, we have our own barometer called Greenroads®, the most widely valued and used transportation sustainability rating system worldwide.
At the Mobility Authority, sustainability is one of our core values. To demonstrate that commitment, we are currently pursuing Greenroads certification on the 183 South Project and are hoping to raise the industry bar for what it means to design, build and operate a sustainable roadway. Through this process, we have begun to look at the carbon-intensive aspects of construction and aim to reduce our overall carbon footprint. Greenroads is a third-party rating system that will consider the project for certification by evaluating the design and construction based on a set of criteria, and assigning a rating to truly gauge environmental responsibility. The 183 South Project is currently the largest roadway project on track for Greenroads certification.
To help promote this practice and encourage other project teams to pursue sustainability in design, the Mobility Authority hosted one of four Greenroads’ Bootcamps held across the nation. The workshop was attended by transportation organizations interested in pursuing a Greenroads project of their own, and offered an insider’s view into the process. We were proud to welcome Dr. Jeralee Anderson, Executive Director and Founder of Greenroads International. Dr. Anderson shared her experience with transportation projects worldwide to help us and others glean insight on sustainable practices that have been implemented on comparable projects. This was an opportunity to share our experience completing the first round of certification requirements for the 183 South Project. Offering our expertise and understanding of the certification process aided Bootcampers in understanding the value a third-party certification system holds for increasing environmentally-friendly practices within the transportation community.
Learn more about Greenroads® here.
Adding Value to our Natural Resources Through Community Partnerships
The Mobility Authority understands the value trees have on our ecosystem. Their mere presence effectively reduces carbon and other harmful pollutants in the air—a benefit to our environment and our community we must not underestimate.
We look for every opportunity to preserve and expand our urban tree canopy here in Austin and along our project corridors. We’ve teamed up with the non-profit organization TreeFolks for our efforts on the 183 South Project to mitigate the potential impacts on the community. The 183 South corridor crosses eight major bodies of water including the Colorado River. With the proximity of the project to a wildlife sanctuary and the rich biology of the Colorado River, the Mobility Authority has worked with the contractor and design team to help move Central Texans in an efficient and sustainable manner while promoting the natural beauty of our area. On this project alone, the Mobility Authority will plant more than 7,000 trees within the project limits, providing an economic investment of $5.6 million to the east Austin community.
These additional trees will help to filter the air and water surrounding the project. They will also help prevent erosion and potential flooding that may come as our city continues to develop.
Environmental Preservation: A Community Approach
We are fortunate to be a part of a community that shares our love for exploring the natural resources of our region. In Austin we collectively view those resources as a valued asset and are committed to preserving them. Our work with other local entities also reflects that commitment.
The Mobility Authority has established a partnership with Capital Metro that gives Express Buses toll free access to the MoPac Express Lane. This helps promote use of public transit, which in turn maximizes throughput along the corridor and reduces the number of vehicles on the roadway. We’ve also been exploring potential partnerships with Austin Energy to identify ways to build infrastructure which will encourage sustainable or carbon-neutral forms of transportation.
Additionally, the Mobility Authority promotes sustainability through coordination with the City’s Office of Sustainability to quantify air emissions on our roadways, exploring electric vehicle usage and charging infrastructure needs, as well as examining how our changing climate will affect our roadways in the future. Over 36% of our community-wide carbon emissions come from transportation activities. Providing multi-modal infrastructure such as shared-use paths and electric vehicle charging infrastructure are steps towards reducing our carbon footprint.
As a local agency, we remain cognizant of the impact of our work on the precious natural resources we are fortunate to have here at home. We will continue to view sustainable transportation through a progressive lens and explore opportunities to incorporate sustainable elements into all of our projects, programs and agency-wide initiatives.
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