Hooray! After 20 years of planning, and numerous changes to the plans, the reconstruction of LBJ Freeway will get underway in 2009.

LBJ originally was built in 1969 to carry 180,000 cars a day. At that time, many people thought that highway would never have that much traffic.

Today more than 270,000 vehicles a day use LBJ, and 10 years from now, it’s projected to carry 450,000 cars and trucks daily.

In the late 1980s, state highway department (TxDOT) engineers and local officials began to look at how to relieve the congestion that was already plaguing LBJ. After three years of study, they came up with a "Locally Preferred Alternative": 24 lanes of concrete including frontage roads, a veritable river of cement. The homeowners and businesses along LBJ took one look at that plan and said, "No way. Go back to the drawing board and start over." They also insisted on two conditions: The new road would be no higher and no wider than the existing road.

So the engineers went back to work to try to figure out how to add a great deal more capacity without adding any more right-of-way. Over many years and many meetings, with the help of a committee of homeowners, business people and elected officials, agreement on a new plan was reached. This plan would add two tunnels under the existing roadway, with three lanes in each tunnel. These tunnels would run the length of the worst congestion, from approximately Preston Road to Webb Chapel. The tunnels would be like HOV lanes, except that people driving alone could use them if they paid a toll.

Adding tunnels met the conditions of “no higher and no wider”, but also added tremendously to the cost of reconstruction. During the same time, funding for highways began to decline. Back to the drawing board.

Now we have the final design. Right now the design is for only the western portion of LBJ between Central and Stemmons, because that is the funded portion. The eastern portion between Central and I-30 isn’t yet funded.

The new design calls for eight free main lanes and six new managed toll lanes. The toll lanes will be built at a lower level, but not in tunnels, with the free lanes cantilevered over them. There will be numerous on and off points for the managed lanes.

With managed toll lanes, varying amounts will be charged depending on the type of vehicle, the number of people in the vehicle, and the time of day. The rates will be higher during rush hours and lower at other times of the day. This pricing strategy is supposed to enable traffic to keep moving at 50 mph in the toll lanes at all times.

The design also calls for frontage roads to be built where there aren’t any now.

The interchange at LBJ and Stemmons will also be rebuilt, and reconstruction there will extend south to include the portion of Stemmons between LBJ and Loop 12. Eventually, that interchange at Highway 635 (LBJ) and I-35 (Stemmons) will look like the High Five at Highways 635 and 75. The High Five was the last phase of the reconstruction of Central Expressway, and the first phase of the reconstruction of LBJ. More than 500,000 cars and trucks a day pass through the High Five.

Also in the LBJ design, room was left under the highway for a possible future DART rail line.

The reconstruction of LBJ has been the region’s No. 1 transportation priority for at least the last six years. It’s wonderful that the project is finally getting underway. Even better, because it’s being built as a public-private partnership project, it will be finished in five years instead of 20.

I can hardly wait to drive on the new LBJ instead of sitting on the old parking lot it is today.