Next month, the Austin City Council is expected to vote on several road projects meant to increase capacity on nine major roadways and reduce crashes.
Council will be voting on the Corridor Mobility Program, which was created following the 2016 Mobility Bond.
The $720 million in funds approved by the 2016 Mobility Bond was split up in three categories:
- $482 million for the Corridor Mobility Program
- $137 for the Local Mobility Program
- $101 million for the Regional Mobility Program
The corridor program includes improvements to nine major roads or “corridors.”
They include:
- Guadalupe St.
- Airport Blvd.
- Burnet Road
- East MLK Blvd.
- North Lamar Blvd.
- South Lamar Blvd.
- East Riverside Drive
- William Cannon Drive
- Slaughter Lane
Among the nine, East Riverside from I-35 to Ben White Boulevard will be seeing some of the most significant improvements.
Business owners like Rosa Rodriguez, who runs the Rosa’s Al Pastor Taco Truck off Parker Lane and Riverside, said the improvements are needed.
“You'll see accidents -- I swear maybe it's once a week,” Rodriguez said. “Or maybe even twice. It just all depends."
The city wants to improve technology at 14 traffic signals, make turn lane modifications and pavement reconstruction at Riverside.
The city has similar improvement plans for the other eight roads.
"Those were the corridors that were the basis for looking at potential investment,” said Mike Trimble, director of the Corridor Mobility Program. “We have 34 investment packages that came out of that. And so what we're going to be doing is recommending moving forward with all 34 investment packages … but using different funding strategies."
City Council will have the final say, but the estimated total cost of recommendations is $1.4 billion dollars and that may require an additional bond package.
East Riverside, however, will still see major roadwork funded from the 2016 mobility bond.
"We need that,” said Rodriguez. “So many accidents. We need extra help for people out there."
City Council is expected to take up the road recommendations on March 22.