A dozen people, many from Montview, made public statements at the July 9 Travis County Commissioners Court meeting against route B.
TCTV screen shot
Travis County commissioners voted unanimously to proceed with route B on Tuesday as the $980,000 emergency-only, gated evacuation road between the Steiner Ranch and Montview communities.
A dozen people — mostly opposed to route B from Montview — spoke to the county commissioners at the July 9 meeting. Travis County staff also spoke and gave their recommendation of route B and several residents from Steiner spoke in favor of route B and against route F.
The Travis County Commissioners Court voted unanimously Tuesday, July 9 to approve a new emergency route to help residents of Steiner Ranch escape the community in the event of wildfires.
The 900-foot road, known as Route B, will connect Flat Top Ranch Road to Montview Drive and will be a gated road that first responders can open in an emergency. County staff members plan for the road to be completed by summer 2021.
The Travis County Transportation & Natural Resources department has changed its preference of an emergency route out of Steiner Ranch. On Wednesday, July 3, TNR announced first to Four Points News that it has decided to move forward with recommending route B instead of route F as a gated, emergency only road off of Flat Top Ranch Road in Steiner Ranch.
The team that has been working on an evacuation route out of Steiner Ranch met earlier this year to show Four Points News reasons behind their route choices. On July 3, they changed from recommending route F to route B. L-R David Greear, assistant public works director in the engineering division at Travis County – Transportation and Natural Resources, Kathy Hardin, an engineer with Travis County Transportation & Natural Resources Capital Improvement Projects, and Steven Widacki, engineer from M&S Engineering, LLC. LYNETTE HAALANDTravis County announced on July 3 that it will now recommend route B as the preferred emergency only, gated route for Steiner Ranch.
“TNR recommends, that because of current funding restrictions, route B is now the preferred route as a gated only, emergency route,” said Kathy Hardin, an engineer with Travis County Transportation & Natural Resources Capital Improvement Projects.
Confirmed at July 2 Travis County Commissioner Court meeting
By LYNETTE HAALAND
Four Points News
This near one-mile, $7.2 million road would connect Steiner Ranch’s Flat Top Ranch Road with RM 620. It is called route F and it was the preferred choice of Travis County engineers but according to Brigid Shea, Travis County Commissioner Precinct Two, at the July 2 meeting, an alternate road will be recommended due to the high cost of this route. Source: Travis County
Brigid Shea, Travis County Commissioner Precinct Two, indicated in an email on Wednesday that route F — which was to be a $7.2 million, permanent road out of Steiner Ranch connecting Flat Top Ranch Road to RM 620 — is now not going to be the recommended evacuation route for the community.
