TRANSPORTATION Under construction

Around Central Texas, crews busy on several road projects

In

this, the 10th year for this turn-of-the-calendar feature in Getting There, updating Central Texas road construction this time was an exercise in deciding what to leave out.

With the city of Austin spending money from two transportation bond elections — including on a first-in-thearea boardwalk on Lady Bird Lake — Williamson County busy with several projects, the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority building yet another tollway and the Texas Department of Transportation still busy spending billions of borrowed money, barrels and barricades are as common as armadillos around here.

Downtown Austin is a particular hive of activity, with four streets being reconstructed, and narrowed in some cases, under the city’s pedestrianfriendly “great streets” program.

TxDOT, meanwhile, continues on its multiyear and multiproject task of widening Austin’s two main Hill County gateways, Texas 71 and U.S. 290, to five lanes.

Two additional TxDOT projects remain idle for the time being.

The agency is looking for new contractors to take over the O’Connor Drive/Texas 45 North and Lakeway Drive/ Interstate 35 projects after the previous contractor went bankrupt and left the jobs in early December.

What follows is a quick look at the largest of the area’s roads and streets under construction.