The 290 Toll Road (Manor Expressway) is a 6.2-mile toll facility in the eastern Austin, TX, region. Soon after opening, the new roadway experienced high demand leading to traffic congestion at the frontage road intersections of the two major tolled facilities, 290 Toll and SH 130. As a result, the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority (CTRMA), in concert with the Texas Department of Transportation, initiated a comprehensive solution to improve congestion at the interchange and provide motorists with free-flowing direct connections. The project improves connectivity for east Travis and Williamson County residents while accommodating the rapid growth throughout the region.
STV served as the prime design consultant, providing plans, specifications and estimates (PS&E) services to CTRMA to improve the link between SH 130 and US 290 Toll. The project constructed three direct connectors (both tolled and non-tolled) along with additional operational improvements to improve mobility while also freeing up capacity on the non-tolled frontage road intersections. This included a new toll gantry with associated fiber connections to existing tolling systems. Through an expedited schedule, the team first updated and revised the geometric design prepared by both the SH 130 and 290 Toll schematics to provide a standalone (PS&E) that worked with the existing interim facility as well as ultimate planned improvements for both tollways.
The optimization of the 290E/SH 130 geometric design resulted in a five-level interchange with over 10,000 linear feet of bridge structure and 66,000 linear feet of retaining wall. The team also designed toll gantries, ITS improvements, high-mast illumination, and a railroad overpass requiring close coordination with CapMetro.
The team also identified major ITS toll fiber duct banks and coordinated utilities to accommodate interchange improvements, as well as ITS designs for 2.4 miles of temporary fiber lines to avoid interruptions to electronic toll collections. The team coordinated closely with the CTRMA toll integration team to include the appropriate ITS connections and to ensure the civil infrastructure was compatible with the wireless toll collection systems.