HOW MOPAC IS FARING AFTER ADDITION OF TOLL LANES

Tollway officials say they’re seeing lighter traffic in free lanes along stretch from Duval to Braker.

The MoPac Boulevard toll lane, even in its truncated, interim state, is already making a difference, officials with the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority said Wednesday.

Before that added northbound lane opened, from south of Far West Boulevard to just short of Parmer Lane, traffic during the afternoon peak commuting period tended to get congested from around Duval Road south as far as U.S. 183 and Steck Avenue, said Tim Reilly, the mobility authority’s operations director.

But during the toll lane’s first week after its Oct. 15 opening, officials eyeing the traffic through cameras along MoPac saw lighter traffic in the free lanes in the Duval-to-Braker stretch, and free flow south of there. Diverting up to 800 vehicles an hour into the added toll lane (at tolls that have remained at 53 cents or less) is the cause, Reilly said.

“That backup at 183 has basically disappeared,” he said.

Even south of the toll lane entrance, the authority’s director, Mike Heiligenstein, said, anecdotal reports suggest the northbound afternoon clog in the city’s center is thinning north of West 35th Street.

Traveling from near RM 2222 to Parmer Lane, a distance of about six miles, took about six to seven minutes in the toll lane during the evening rush hour, according to data from Oct. 17-19. That was generally one to two minutes