The Texas Department of Transportation’s short-term solution to improve travel times at the Y at Oak Hill area by 30 to 50 percent is expected to be complete by mid-September, relief that has taken more than two years to construct.

Although other components of the project were completed, one issue had the project on hold in July.

TxDOT was waiting for a part that would allow moving a water line underneath William Cannon Drive. The part arrived in late July, said Victor Vargas, TxDOT area engineer for south Travis County and Hays County. The intersection is slated to open in August, but the water line had to buried deeper underground before work could proceed, he said.

Southwest Austinite Tim Shanley said he drives daily through the intersection of Hwy. 290 and
Hwy. 71, also known as the Y at Oak Hill. The construction is causing
confusion for drivers, he said.

“I know people are disappointed,” TxDOT spokesperson Kelli Reyna said. “Every time we can deliver a project sooner than what we anticipate, that’s our goal, but sometimes that just doesn’t happen. So while we opened the [Y at Oak Hill continuous-flow intersection] early, the water line put us back, but we’re still on target.”

The Hwy. 290 Interim Intersection Improvement Project, from RM 1826 to Joe Tanner Lane, is divided into two phases.

The first construction phase is the addition of a center turn lane and dual left-turn lanes on Hwy. 290 onto Convict Hill Road and RM 1826. It began in May 2013 and finished in September 2014 for $4.6 million.

The second phase, which includes continuous-flow intersections between Convict Hill and Joe Tanner, began in October 2013 and is scheduled for an August completion at a $6.5 million cost, Vargas said.

Continuous-flow intersections move left-turn lanes to the outside edges of a road, which allow vehicles going straight through the intersection to proceed simultaneously as the vehicles turn left. Vehicles turning left go through two sets of traffic signals before making the left turn, one to enter the left-turn lane, another to turn left (see sidebar).

Phase 2 also included a signalized west-to-east U-turn at Hwy. 290 and Joe Tanner and the removal of left-turn lanes to and from Joe Tanner at the intersection. The Joe Tanner improvements were complete in August 2014.

The project is a short-term solution for Y at Oak Hill traffic, Reyna said. The Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority and TxDOT began the Oak Hill Parkway study in October 2012 to find a long-term solution to relieve traffic congestion, Reyna said. That study is still in progress.