That prospect, plus preliminary drawings showing some ramps closed and others rebuilt, has homeowners fretting and envisioning a version of Interstate 35. Because they are not going to have frontage roads. It would never have the commercial businesses. At least two years of intensive design and environmental studies remain, and the earliest the project could get state and federal money is 2008. The state must also study the option of doing nothing.
Nothing is immediate.
That advice is not easily taken along the central portion of MoPac Boulevard, where residents swap tales of promises they say the Transportation Department broke, whose house is in danger and what they can do to stop it. Although U.S. 183 West would change, too, the controversy and focus figures to be on MoPac Boulevard, particularly from Town Lake to U.S. 183, where most of the potentially jeopardized homes are located. Several neighborhoods have already drawn a line in the asphalt. We don't believe that that is a solution to traffic problems in Austin. It's a public perception and reception decision.