WHAT CHANGES ARE AFOOT FOR MOPAC?

Southbound drivers need to merge right earlier for new exit.

That exit-only lane that sneaks up on southbound MoPac Boulevard drivers heading into downtown is about to sneak up faster.

Starting Sunday, those looking to exit onto Cesar Chavez Street or Fifth Street should move to the right lane after the Enfield Road exit, because the downtown exit will be temporarily moved about a half-mile north.

The temporary exit, which will also provide access to Lake Austin Boulevard, was added as part of the MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1) expansion.

The new exit “does mean people need to be in the righthand lane sooner,” said Steve Pustelnyk, a Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority spokesman.

The temporary exit should be in use for at least three to four months, Pustelnyk said, while crews continue with the most complicated phase of the $140 million expansion of North MoPac. The project involves adding a toll lane to each side of the expressway from Cesar Chavez to Parmer Lane, and that includes creating underpasses connecting those new toll lanes to Fifth and Cesar Chavez streets. Temporarily shifting the southbound MoPac exit ramp that heads to downtown will give crews more room to work on those underpasses.

Pustelnyk said drivers on MoPac — notoriously snarled at rush hour — don’t need to aggressively move out of the right-hand lane if they are caught off guard by the exit’s new location. If they exit there by accident, they can take the Lake Austin Boulevard exit and follow the frontage road until it reaches the on-ramp that takes them back onto southbound MoPac.

Pustelnyk said the overall project is expected to finish in mid-2016.

RALPH BARRERA/ AMERICAN-STATESMAN Starting Sunday, motorists traveling southbound into downtown Austin on MoPac Boulevard who wish to exit at West Fifth and Cesar Chavez streets will have a new exit to the north.