The Goodman Corporation, an Austin-based civil engineering firm, provided Bastrop City Council with an update on potential roundabout designs as part of the Blakey Lane extension project during an Oct. 21 meeting.

The details

Two roundabout options were discussed:

• A single-lane roundabout
• A compact roundabout with bypass lanes

“This is way more complicated, but we could look at adding what we call bypass lanes,” Jake Gutekunst, an engineer with The Goodman Corporation, said during the meeting. “If someone was coming off Hwy. 71 and they just wanted to get on Old Austin Highway and not deal with this, this would allow for a lane to go north and turn right and avoid the whole thing.”

Bastrop Assistant City Manager Andres Rosales emphasized that both designs are just concepts.

“I want to make that very clear, even to the public,” he said during the meeting. “This is just a discussion. We’re not constructing this tomorrow.”

Some context

Bastrop City Council approved an engineering contract with The Goodman Corporation during an Aug. 12 meeting for the roundabout redesign as part of the Blakey Lane extension project.

The move, at a cost of $88,000, came after a traffic analysis of the intersection where Old Austin Highway and Hwy. 71 meet was completed in late May.

Although officials initially called for the Blakey Lane extension project to connect Blakey Lane to Hwy. 71, current plans seek to connect Blakey Lane with Old Austin Highway.

“There’s a reason that we can’t come all the way out to Hwy. 71,” Place 2 council member Kevin Plunkett said during the Aug. 12 meeting. “[The Texas Department of Transportation] will not let us because that would put too many intersections too close together.”

Zooming in

There are approximately 4,000 cars a day that travel along Old Austin Highway, according to the traffic analysis.

“That's well below the capacity that the road can handle,” Gutekunst said. “Will traffic increase on it if you make this connection? Yes. So we have to make some assumptions for that. We don't want this thing to just work. It needs to last for a while.”

A common planning horizon, the time period organizations use to guide long-term decisions, is 10 years out, according to officials with The Goodman Corporation.

The outlook

Next steps include:

• Selecting the preferred design for the roundabout
• Moving through 60%, 90% and final design
• Preparing bid documents for the extension project

The city of Bastrop will also need to acquire the land that the roundabout would be built on—a purchase that Bastrop City Manager Sylvia Carrillo-Trevino told Mayor Pro Tem John Kirkland would cost approximately $700,000.

“Again, this is not fully designed,” Gutekunst said. “We have to figure out things like drainage and other stuff that's very important to make sure everything works as we go through this process.”