Several ongoing transportation projects are underway around Southwest Austin.[/caption] In our Transportation Updates section we provide the current timelines and descriptions for local ongoing transportation efforts in the Southwest Austin area. Ongoing Projects 1. The MoPac Intersections Project to alleviate congestion and increase safety at Slaughter Lane and La Cross venue is in the final design phase and construction is not funded. The project’s anticipated start date is May 1, but a pending lawsuit could delay that timeline, according to the Texas Department of Transportation. Timeline: May 2017-June-Nov. 2019; subject to change 2. In October the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization approved $7.6 million for the Texas Department of Transportation’s Manchaca Road widening project, which will include two lanes in each direction and a center turn lane between Ravenscroft Drive and FM 1626 as well as sidewalks and shoulders. TxDOT completed design and an environmental study but will re-evaluate its noise analysis, which will take an estimated 18-24 months. Timeline: Project will go out for bids in 2018, construction could start in spring 2018 3. TxDOT began work May 2 on a yearlong project funded by Texas Proposition 1 to replace the Slaughter Creek overpass on I-35 and build a new southbound-to-northbound U-turn bridge. No major detours will occur until the contractor is ready to pour the bridge slab. Timeline: May 2016-May 2017 4. Design is underway on a $1.6 million city of Austin project to add safety features at Manchaca Road and Slaughter Lane, including raised medians and turn lanes. Timeline: October 2015-fall 2016 (design), spring 2017 (construction) 5. Workers are filling in the grassy median of I-35 between Stassney Lane and William Cannon Drive with asphalt and moving utilities, with lane closures Sun.-Fri. on southbound I-35 from Ben White Boulevard to Slaughter Lane normally from 9 p.m.-5 a.m. Frontage lane closures can also occur during the day from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Timeline: July 2016-winter 2020 6. Construction is in progress on a bicycle and pedestrian bridge along northbound Loop 1 lanes over the Barton Creek Greenbelt from one frontage road turnaround to the other near Loop 1’s intersections with Southwest Parkway and Loop 360. Weather has delayed the original completion goal of summer to spring. Timeline: February 2014-spring 2017