At a special City Council meeting held Feb. 3, council member Kent O’Brien brought the idea forward to council, having already spent some time discussing feasibility of the project with the Texas Department of Transportation, or TxDOT. At least four intersections would be included in the improvement plan, which would involve increasing the turning radius at U-turn points along RM 620 by adding additional pavement.
The overview
O’Brien’s plan proposes to implement improvements at each signalized intersection within the raised median section of RM 620 in Lakeway, including Lakeway Boulevard, Dave Drive, Main Street, and Lohmans Crossing Road. All of these intersections currently have U-turn breaks in the median, which O’Brien said often pose challenges for drivers attempting to turn in a timely manner.
“I think all of us have probably seen someone who couldn’t make that U-turn very well and had to either stop and back up or make a three-point turn—and that impacts the movement of traffic as well as safety,” O’Brien said.
O’Brien’s proposed solution for this problem would be the implementation of "loons"—a term engineers use to refer to additional pavement added to the side of a street to provide more space for vehicles to turn. The loons would increase the turning radius at each U-turn so that vehicles could turn around more easily and more quickly, O’Brien said.
In order to begin work on the improvements, the city would need to coordinate with TxDOT to authorize the project through a TxDOT Advanced Funding Agreement. If that agreement were to be approved, TxDOT may require Lakeway to contribute to the project’s total cost.
O’Brien estimated that the city would likely be required to contribute up to $250,000 to the project, based on his assumption that the project would cost somewhere between $3.5 million and $4 million, with local entities typically being expected to contribute 15%-20% at most.
TxDOT also indicated that if new signals were implemented at each of these intersections, the city would likely only need to pay for pavement construction, with TxDOT paying the rest of the design and construction administration costs, according to city documents.
These improvements would be considered a "breakout" project, in addition to TxDOT’s upcoming RM 620 widening project, which O’Brien estimates could take another decade or so to complete.
“I don’t think that we as a city should sit for a decade, status quo,” O’Brien said. “We should be looking for opportunities to make improvements, however minor they might be, that could enhance safety as well as enhance operation of the roadway.”
What residents should know
If these U-turn expansions are formally proposed and approved, to begin construction, TxDOT would first need to acquire the needed right of way. Additionally, utilities would need to be adjusted at intersections, O’Brien said.
Since these tasks would take some time to accomplish, it would likely take between 15 and 18 months to begin construction on the project, O’Brien said. After that, it would take about six to eight months to complete the project.
The raised medians and U-turns currently in place on RM 620, between Bella Montagna Circle and Lohmans Crossing Road, were implemented in 2020 in order to reduce severe accidents on this stretch of RM 620, according to previous reporting by Community Impact.
Following the implementation of these medians, the number of accidents remained roughly the same, but the severity of accidents was greatly reduced, with many T-bone accidents being replaced by accidents occurring between two vehicles flowing in the same direction of traffic, Mayor Thomas Kilgore said.
What’s next?
Although no action was taken at the meeting, council agreed that O’Brien should continue working on the project and return with refined details when ready.
“I’d like to see a lot more resolution of numbers and concepts, if we’re going to take something forward,” Kilgore said. “I don’t mind if council member O’Brien continues to diligently proceed on this.”
Council member Jennifer Szimanski added that she would appreciate clarification from TxDOT that O’Brien’s current plan is the best possible solution, and also suggested potentially prohibiting U-turns in certain areas, such as by the H-E-B near Main Street.
Mayor Pro Tem Gretchen Vance agreed that the H-E-B turn was a specifically concerning spot and that adding signage warning drivers of incoming U-turns may help.
“What I’ve proposed here is just some basic improvements. If there is a desire of the folks on this dais to do more, we can certainly do more,” O’Brien said. “We can certainly propose more to TxDOT.”
