TxDOT holds meeting Thursday on widening FM 812

AUSTIN (KXAN) – The Texas Department of Transportation will host a virtual and in-person hearing Thursday about plans to improve one of the deadliest roads in the Austin area.

TxDOT will hear public comment and show off plans to realign FM 812 from U.S. Highway 183 to State Highway 21 in Travis and Bastrop Counties.

TxDOT said the virtual hearing will be posted online by 5 p.m. Thursday. The public has until Jan. 26 to submit or postmark comment to be part of the public hearing summary report. People without internet access can call 737-272-7027 between the hours of 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, to ask questions and access project materials during the project development process, TxDOT said.

The in-person hearing is Thursday from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Camino Real Elementary School which is on 2380 FM 812 in Dale. TxDOT said people can see the same presentation delivered in the online public hearing, which will play on a screen; review copies of project materials; question TxDOT staff and consultants; and leave written comments.

TxDOT documents describe the current condition of FM 812 as “an undivided rural arterial roadway, consisting of four 12-foot-wide travel lanes (typically two in each direction) with no shoulders from US 183 to FM 973 and two 12-foot-wide travel lanes (one in each direction) with 10-foot-wide outside shoulders from FM 973 to SH 21.” Within the project scope, documents note there aren’t any existing sidewalks or bicycle lanes available.

Data collected through TxDOT’s crash records information system found 1,410 crashes were reported along the project limits between 2013 and 2022, with 32 fatalities listed.

Breaking down the 32 crash fatalities, six of those were of pedestrians killed and 28 were marked as non-pedestrian fatalities. Head-on collisions accounted for 82 of the 1,410 crashes, 352 crashes were rear-end crashes and 432 of them involved vehicles attempting to make left turns.