Collin Leadership Policy Summit 2022: The Future Of Transportation

The planning never stops for the rapidly growing Collin County region of North Texas. There are many transportation infrastructures in the pipeline, several already in progress, yet more funding is needed to fulfill all projects. These were the topics discussed in The Future of Transportation, one of the six panel sessions featured during the Collin Leadership Policy Summit.

The three-person panel was moderated by The Hon. Baine Brooks, a member of the Allen City Council from 2012-2022. Brooks began the discussion by asking Collin County Commissioner Duncan Webb to explain his role as chairman of the Regional Transportation Council (RTC) and their plans for U.S. Highway 75.

Commissioner Web explained that the RTC an appointed 45-member council from the 12-county area together with the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) oversee and approve transportation and infrastructure needs.

In the last 20 years, the region has grown dramatically, but our congestion levels have stayed the same and thats because of great planning, great funding, and thinking outside the box, using all the tools in the tool chest. It is a team effort, Webb said. You cant be a loner out there on the council because you need your corresponding members to fund projects.

One of the projects being addressed is the ineffective U.S. 75 High-Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes. According to Webb, an interim solution has been submitted for a technology lane, which will allow the HOV lane to be used for general-purpose driving during certain times of the day.

In the mornings, the southbound lanes would be available for probably two hours for HOV and for electric vehicles and the remainder of that time that lane will be open for general purpose driving, Webb said.

The panel discussion than moved on to the National McKinney Airport, where Kenneth Carley, A.A.E. Airport director, gave the audience an overview of the airport progress and the many projects taking place across the airport.

As you can see now, there are a number of projects to the east side of the airport either under construction today or in the pipeline of being constructed. Theres a runway extension that will add 1500 feet to the length of the runway, Carley said. A 1,000-foot extension to the north, 500 feet to the south. The southern portion of that project mobilizes the Monday after Thanksgiving, and that project will last about two years within the south end and then we will move to the north end.

Carley noted that a project that has been in the media recently is the airports commercial service on the east side of the airport a proposed four-gate, 140,000-square-foot terminal.

This project has been in the airports planning documents for 10 years. In 2019, the airport exceeded its 2026 operating forecast, so that kind of gives you an idea of the rate of growth, Carley said.

The discussion concluded with Michael Morris, director of Transportation for the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG), encouraging the audience to think of time and space as it relates to the different projects and modes of transportation.

So, time and space permit us to layer different projects over time, different modes of transportation over time, Morris said. Under federal rules, we have to forecast the demographics of the region, and we then have to plan for it.

According to Morris, over the past two decades, the region has grown by a million people every seven years. He noted that if Collin County wants to attract and hire the best people, they must consider better modes of transportation.

The chairman asked for a major transit review and that study got completed eight months ago. Were now working on the implementation of it, Morris said. So, the immediate focus is low-cost, technology-based, maybe the private sector, creating trading ubiquitous transfers for if you wish to be moving around and dont want to drive, you have some ability to be a resident of Collin County.

To view the video of this panel session, click here. For more information about the inaugural summit, visit www.collin.edu/policysummit/.