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Sunday, September 2, 2001
Highway engineer has long road
New area official to oversee Crosstown, JFK Causeway work
By Jason Ma
Caller-Times

Paul Iverson/Caller-Times

David Casteel (third from left) discusses future projects in Robstown with (from left) Paula Wakefield, Robstown city secretary; Martin Horst, transportation department area engineer for the Corpus Christi district; and Victor Gutierrez, Robstown city engineer.


   Taking care of the exits and entrances to Corpus Christi is David Casteel's job as the new district engineer for the Texas Department of Transportation.
   He stepped into $200 million of ongoing construction projects when he took the job on Aug. 1, replacing Billy Parks, who retired.
   In the job he oversees highways in 10 counties, from Kleberg to Karnes. So area motorists' hopes for smoother traffic will ride on him the next several years, as he works on the Crosstown Expressway Interchange and the raising of the John F. Kennedy Causeway.
   Other projects include the Joe Fulton International Trade Corridor, the proposed Interstate 69, possibly raising the Harbor Bridge and hurricane evacuation routes, such as expanding U.S. Highway 181.
   "The district engineer is one of the most important transportation officials in our area," said David Seiler, the city's traffic engineer.
   The projects affect public safety, the local economy and commute times.
   For example, raising the causeway will make it safer for Padre Island residents to flee in the event of a hurricane.
   Projects' effects
   And the proposed Interstate 69, which would include parts of U.S. Highway 77, would provide improved shipping of goods from Mexico to Canada.
   "This area is one of the most challenging in terms of multimodal transportation," he said, noting the transportation issues related to the port, railroads and the North American Free Trade Agreement. "Where I was (before) was basically roads."
   Interstate 69 is especially important in serving truck traffic from Mexico. Once NAFTA took effect, transportation officials realized that they had underestimated truck traffic, Casteel said.
   "We need to think about the effects of heavy trucks," said Pat Norrell, director of transportation planning and development. "It's the same thing as driving 1,000 cars."
   Before taking the job here, Casteel was district engineer for the Childress district, a 13-county area in the northern part of the state. Though there are more counties to cover, his old job is much smaller in several ways.
   That area has about $100 million in ongoing construction, compared with $200 million here. And it has 39,729 registered vehicles, compared with 422,059 here. His staff in Childress was about 253, and is 436 in Corpus Christi.
   Making transition
   But his staff will help him make the transition to the bigger-scale district, he said. And his experience working in Abilene and Houston has familiarized him with bigger cities, he added.
   Aside from the larger magnitude of what he is responsible for, Casteel said the biggest difference between his old and new jobs is the Coastal Bend's environmental concerns.
   For example, raising the causeway requires paying attention to the water flow under the elevated road and the wildlife that live there, he said.
   Though his title is district engineer, he doesn't do engineering work. Instead, his role is more administrative and requires listening to local governments and communities to satisfy their transportation needs.
   In his first month as district engineer, he has been meeting with city and county officials in Goliad, Live Oak, San Patricio, Nueces and Aransas counties.
   He will have to work closely with local officials, because the most important factors in getting approval from Austin for a project are having local support and some local money, he said.
   Relieving congestion
   The state needs to look at relieving congestion on Farm-to-Market Road 624 in Calallen, said Amin Ulkarim, transportation planning director for the Corpus Christi Metropolitan Planning Organization, which coordinates state and federal funding for regional transportation improvements.
   That could involve widening the road from seven lanes and widening County Roads 52 and 48, which run parallel to FM 624. The growth of businesses and housing in the northwest area has made congestion a problem in recent years, he said.
   The city's main transportation priority is to finish the 2000 bond election road projects as fast as possible, Seiler said. But it also has long-term plans to relieve congestion on South Padre Island Drive that require the state's help.
   For example, the Crosstown Interchange will lead to the extension of it to Farm-to-Market Road 43, allowing motorists in southern parts of the city to take citystreets to Crosstown instead of SPID. But even then, more is needed, he said.
   "The extension will not be the panacea of congestion on Padre Island Drive," he said. "Even before it's completed we're looking at some other improvements."
   One of those improvements would be a three-fourths loop linking the city's southern area with the northwest area, he said. Motorists would be able to bypass SPID and Crosstown completely.
   The loop also would encourage economic development in western, rural areas that would relieve pressure in the quickly growing southern part of the city, he said.
   "It allows the city to grow without much concentration of development," he said.


Contact Jason Ma at 886-3778 or maj@caller.com

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