Weather permitting, county-hired workers could finish paving the new North Lakeline Boulevard extension in Leander and open the road by the end of January, the project contractor said.

The work will complete the second phase of the Lakeline project to extend the road from Old Quarry Road to Old FM 2243. In May about 1.3 miles of Lakeline Boulevard opened to connect Crystal Falls Parkway with Old Quarry Road. The portion was financed by KB Home, builder of the Mason Ranch subdivision on the new road portion, and by Williamson County. The county and the city of Leander are spending $3.4 million to connect Lakeline to Old FM 2243. The extension was originally scheduled to open in December, said Christen Eschberger, project manager with county engineering consultant HNTB Corp. But she said workers were delayed in the fall when they encountered a karst feature, a geologic area where the ground could have been home to an endangered insect. “It was just a very small feature,” Eschberger said. “But we had to suspend work in that area while we looked at how we were going to close that feature.”