A double deck and more tolls could be in the works for Mopac Expressway

AUSTIN, Texas - More toll lanes are planned for Mopac, this time south of Lady Bird Lake. The focus is from Cesar Chavez to Slaughter Lane.

It was one proposal discussed tonight in a regional transportation plan highlighting construction projects to be completed by 2040.

According to the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority, 130,000 cars and trucks travel the stretch of Mopac from Cesar Chavez to Slaughter Lane each day.

The CTRMA is recommending adding toll lanes to that section of Mopac, just like what is currently being done north of Lady Bird Lake.

Click here to see renderings of the Mopac south proposal.

It would include four toll or express lanes. The fees would increase by capacity.

Two of the express lanes would be elevated beginning at RM 2244, over Lady Bird lake and ending near Austin High School. It would be a direct connect to downtown.

The cost of the project would be $352.8 million.

We're told the project will not be as complicated as the northern portion of Mopac, but that doesn't necessarily mean it will be completed any faster.

Mike Heiligenstein, CTRMA Executive Director says, "It would be significantly easier in some respects, because of the additional land in the middle, but it's still going to be a difficult project, you've got environmental issues, you've got water quality issues, but this is probably the last project, this is probably the last thing you could do to Mopac other than put buses on it, put rail on it something like that."

This one is still in the environmental stage and has not yet been approved.

If approved the goal is to start construction in 20-17--with completion sometime in 2020.

The CTRMA says if this construction does not occur, travel time would increase by 30 minutes in that 8 mile stretch over the next 20 years.