Austin's ghost highways (or a history of Austin's ill-fated east-west traffic solutions)

Transportation planners hard at work on a 290/I-35 intersection circa 1970.

Building a successful east-west corridor is nowhere near a new challenge for Austin. Cutting through some of the most environmentally sensitive and visually attractive land in the Texas Hill Country has raised the ire of many residents throughout the years, particularly environmentalists.

This is a cycle we've been stuck in for over half a century is being repeated in Oak Hill as the Oak Hill Parkway is encountering some opposition. This time, by tree preservationists.

If you look carefully around town you will see the right-of-way and other tell-tale signs of preparation for several, aborted east-west routes through Austin. Below are few of those would-be projects from the annals of Austin transportation planning. Have a good cry when you're sitting in traffic tomorrow morning.

*First Street -- Long before being named for a leftist farm labor leader, this route was at least twice earmarked for expansion into a freeway. But environmentalists were concerned about runoff into nearby Town Lake. The Riverside Freeway or Town Lake Freeway would have linked Congress Avenue and Riverside Boulevard via a bridge.  

*Enfield/15th Street -- This was going to be a segment of the planned Crosstown Freeway, but residents protested the increased traffic in the homey neighborhoods. (The traffic came anyway.) Crosstown Freeway would have started near Mopac and 12th Street, then snaked upward to 16th Street just north of the Capitol, before leading into East Austin. 

*Windsor Road/24th Street -- According to the Pease Park anti-frisbee golf society, the city had planned to demolish the 24th Street Bridge in 1988. The plan was to expand Windsor to six lanes ... until ultra-liberal Democratic U.S. Sen. Ralph Yarborough secured historic landmark status for the inadequate bridge. (Ironically, the bridge was built by the city in less than a month in 1928 in order to encourage growth in nearby Pemberton Heights.) 

*35th/38th streets -- The proposed Camp Mabry Highway would have followed 35th street from Loop 1 to Lamar Boulevard. It would have been the western companion of ... 

*FM 2222/Koenig Lane/Allandale Road/Northland Drive -- ... The Koenig Lane Freeway, which would have linked North Lamar with IH-35. You can see the right-of-way driving down Koenig today ... and several houses that became small business fronts in preparation for this much-anticipated route. The Koenig Lane Freeway was a victim of what is sometimes called "the Great Highway Cancellation Event of 1994." Another victim included ... 

* Loop 360 (the freeway version) -- from 1970 up until 1994, Loop 360 was envisioned as the western segment of an eventual freeway loop around Austin (connecting highways 183, 71, and 290, for starters). Now it's a glorified street with traffic lights. Current plans call for a six-lane highway, even though there's plenty of right-of-way for more. 

* The Oak Hill Parkway toll road -- Currently in the planning phases ... and under protest. 

* State Highway 45 Southwest Connector toll road -- We're happy to report that at least one route to ease east-west traffic is coming to fruition. Thank you to Republican County Commissioner Gerald Daugherty for fighting for this ... even if it's another tollway.

Special thanks to TexasFreeway.com for the detailed account of Austin roadway history.

Do you know of any other aborted efforts at easing transportation? Are you so knowledgeable on your Austin history that you know the origin of the name of "North Loop Boulevard?"  If so, please chime in the comments section.