US 290 expansion project being considered by TxDOT

AUSTIN, Texas - As Central Texas grows, so does our need for infrastructure, specifically highways. And with many projects taking years to complete, it's never too early to start planning for the next one. 

FOX 7 Austin's Rebecca Thomas spoke with Brad Wheelis with the Texas Department of Transportation about a proposed expansion of US 290.

______________________________

REBECCA THOMAS: TxDOT is thinking about widening 290 between southwest Austin and Dripping Springs. There was already a lot of work going on near the Y at Oak Hill. What should people know about this proposal, because it's just beyond that point, correct?

BRAD WHEELIS: Right. It would meet up with the Oakhill Parkway project there in southwest Austin. This is a desirable place to live, as you know, a lot of people moving out there. We've seen substantial development over the last several years, and that means more traffic on the roadways. 290 has become crowded. Something we've heard from people who live out there making the commute is that there's congestion. They also have some safety concerns out there. We've got about 31,000 vehicles on average traveling 290 in this area every day, and that number is expected to increase by 45 percent by 2045. So safety enhancements and mobility improvements are needed here.

REBECCA THOMAS: The project is in a study and design phase right now, still very early. What needs to happen before breaking ground?

BRAD WHEELIS: There's a long way to go before we ever break ground on this project. This is a community driven project, Rebecca. We went out to the public back in 2019 with two open houses, blank slate, and we said, what are your concerns? What are your desires? What do you want 290 to look like? We took that public feedback, and we did our engineering studies, and now we're showing our first proposal. So what we're doing with this meeting both virtually, and we'll have the rescheduled in-person meeting on Jan. 30, is have folks come out, take a look at this and tell us what you think. Public feedback is very important. As I said, we've got this meeting. We'll probably have another one about mid-summer or something like that, and we'll get more public feedback and then go back to the engineering table.

RELATED: Plan to widen US 290 into freeway between Austin, Dripping Springs

REBECCA THOMAS: You're gonna be getting a lot of public feedback. If the public does oppose this plan, what alternatives are being considered?

BRAD WHEELIS: Well, we right now are looking at this plan as the best plan we think will work for the community and the corridor there. So this is a six-lane divided highway with frontage roads that would take away the traffic signals along US 290. And that's one of the big concerns that we've heard is people traveling at highway speeds and then stopping at a traffic light. And in some cases, people run those traffic lights, or someone's pulling out, and they don't see a car coming. We get a T-Bone crash, so there's severe crashes, which is a concern to the community. Removing those traffic signals is one way to solve that problem. In order to accomplish our goals, we believe we need to add capacity to the main lanes, and we also need to add those frontage roads so that we can put the local traffic there on the frontage roads. We'll take that for public feedback. We've had a lot of support for changes out there. On 290, the public came to us with some of their concerns, and so we know that there's also going to be some folks who are going to have concerns about this project. We'll take all of that into consideration as we move forward through the process. But no decisions have been made. Nothing is final. And we're a long way from turning dirt on this.

RELATED: TxDOT seeks public input for 'Connecting Texas 2050' plan

REBECCA THOMAS: If people would like to learn more, there is a public meeting on Jan. 30, correct?

BRAD WHEELIS: That's going to be from 6 to 8 p.m. and that will be at the Dripping Springs Event Center. So we encourage you to go online right now at TxDOT.gov. Take a look at the materials there. And if you want to talk to us in person, we will have plenty of folks out there to address any concerns, answer questions, take your input, the things you'd like to see out there, at that in-person meeting.