The Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, or CAMPO, gave the go-ahead to the project Monday, which will add two toll lanes on MoPac in each direction from Cesar Chavez to Slaughter Lane.
The lanes are in addition to lanes already under construction north of the lake. At Monday’s meeting, CAMPO debated approving just one toll lane in each direction, but ultimately decided that approving two lanes will allow them to keep their options open.
"You can always go from up to down and you can't go down to up if you will,” Hays County Commissioner Will Conley said. “We wanted to make sure that all options were fully vetted, scoped and that we could look at all those along with local communities."
The toll road operator says it will tweak the design as much as it can before sending it off for final approval this fall. Construction could begin in about two years.