Turn lanes at U.S 290 William Cannon to open
TxDOT offifficials hope changes in Oak Hill reduce travel times.
Jerry Strange, from his home atop Convict Hill in Oak Hill, has watched U.S. 290 evolve over the past 35 years from a lightly traveled rural highway to an all-day, suburban traffiffic nightmare.
And during the past couple of years, he’s likewise watched crews installing what Texas Department of Transportation officials hope will take a bite out of that congestion: a “continuous flow ” intersection at U.S. 290 and William Cannon Drive. But Strange is skeptical about the size of that bite.
“It looks like some Aggie drew it up,” Strange, a retired mortuary owner, said of the odd collection of lanes set offff by medians. “There’s nothing continuous about it.”
But when the new-style intersection opens early Wednesday, TxDOT officials believe the fifinal stage of what has been $6.5 million of intersection improvements along U.S. 290 through Oak Hill will make a meaningful difffffffffffference in traffiffic backups, reducing travel times through that area by 30 percent to 50 percent.
“This is not going to completely eliminate traffiffic congestion,” TxDOT spokeswoman Kelli Reyna cautioned. “But
if you have to sit through two cycles of the light when it used to be four or five cycles, it’s a huge improvement.”
She emphasized that the department is continuing design and environmental clearance work on the so-called Oak Hill Parkway, what is likely to be the expressway through Oak Hill that TxDOT has been trying to get approved and constructed for more than 20 years. TxDOT hopes for final environmental approval next year of what has been proposed as a toll road. For now, drivers will have this “interim” change.
The U.S. 290 and William Cannon intersection, through Tuesday, was operating as a traditional confluence of two heavily traveled roads. The repeating cycle of signals included four parts: green light time for east and west travel on U.S. 290; green for left turns from U.S. 290 onto William Cannon; green for north and south on William Cannon; and yet another green for left turns from William Cannon to U.S. 290.
What TxDOT has done eliminates the time devoted to one of those parts, the left turns from U.S. 290 to William Cannon. People wishing to make those lefts, instead of lining up at the intersection in a traditional left-turn bay, instead will queue up several hundred feet before it in a separate channel controlled by a new traffic light. As long as traffic is moving east-west on U.S. 290, they will face a red light.
But when the main intersection signal goes green for north-south on William Cannon, their control lights will as well, allowing them to cross the opposing direction of U.S. 290 and then line up in a left turn bay on what most people think of as the wrong side of the street. Then, when the light goes green for east-west U.S. 290, they’ll be able to turn left without obstructing or waiting for oncoming traffic.
The net result, with one piece of the traffic signal cycle removed, is more time for the three that are left. City of Austin officials, who control the signal timing of the U.S. 290/ William Cannon light, will allot 7 percent to 10 percent more time for eastwest U.S. 290 than was the case with the traditional intersection. In the afternoon, that will amount to about 10 extra seconds for westbound drivers in each 150-second cycle.
By moving more people through the intersection on a continual basis, and thus preventing or lessening traffic stack-ups, the percentage of time saved will actually be several times greater than the percentage of added green light time, officials said.
TxDOT in the past two years has opened two other continuous flow intersections, both in San Marcos, and is working on yet another at RM 1431 and Ronald Reagan Boulevard in Cedar Park.
The changes along U.S. 290 in Oak Hill have included another continuous flow left turn, from eastbound U.S. 290 to westbound Texas 71 at the Oak Hill “Y” and the replacement of a traffic light at Joe Tanner Lane with a U-turn lane in the center median. TxDOT spent an additional $4.6 million to widen U.S. 290 and add left turn lanes between the Y and RM 1826.