Contractors address lack of progress on Hill Country Village road work

Contractors leading Hill Country Village’s citywide road and drainage project said encountering a water main is among myriad reasons behind what local officials call a lack of progress.

Austin Bridge and Road began a multiphase project around the start of 2022, applying nearly $6 million in repairs and upgrades on several older streets. The project is funded by an $8.5 million bond issue passed by voters in 2019.

Brady Kosub, department manager with M&S Engineering, the city’s consulting engineering firm, addressed City Council on July 21 about residents’ complaints that work seemingly was taking longer on certain streets.

Kosub, however, said the entire project was more than 45% complete.

“In the grand scheme of things, we are on schedule,” Kosub said, adding that the project contractor is on track to wrap up all road work by January.

Council Member Allison Francis said she and other Hill Country Village residents are worried about having to constantly drive on roads that were still open to traffic and yet were seeing active road work, which ranges from surface improvements to full reconstruction.

In other instances, Francis said, the wind often blows dust from street work sites across roadways and into people’s yards.

ABR’s project engineer, Steven Jimenez, told the council that his workers have had challenging encounters with underground utilities, slowing down various portions of road work.

Jimenez also said some specific roadways, depending on the type of scheduled improvements, take longer than expected because of street conditions and the materials required to get the job done.

Additionally, having some streets open to traffic during project activities tends to prolong workloads, Jimenez said.

“We’ve worked to build this as fast as possible,” Jimenez said.

Jimenez was asked by the city to submit a weekslong preview of upcoming scheduled project activities. A document dated July 21 said the project contractor was set to finish flex base grading on two roads, Treasure Trail and Tomahawk Trail, between July 18 and 23.

The same document from ABR said a concrete subcontractor was slated to spend the final week of July pouring ribbon curbing on Treasure and Tomahawk.

Contractors are also spending the last week of July examining utility line sites on roads that will undergo the next phase of improvements, Jimenez said.

Additionally, contractors are spending time picking up trash, hauling off excess materials and backfilling disturbed areas with topsoil on streets that saw the end of road work in recent weeks, according to Jimenez.

Jimenez’s letter to the city said the first week of August will see asphalt work on Hidden View, then proceeding to Mint Trail, Treasure and Tomahawk.

The letter also said, if all goes well with current project activities, mid-August will bring the launch of the next project phase, which will include Blackhawk Trail, Bison Road and Hill Country Lane.

Council Members Matthew Acock and Thomas Doyle said complainants may only see a perceived slowdown on road surfaces, but not be aware of contractors hitting an underground utility line. Acock asked ABR to be more communicative with the city about the road project.

“I think it’s that many residents don’t know what’s going on,” Acock said.