City working to revamp busy Central Austin corridor

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Construction crews are working on the City of Austin's Corridor Program Office's biggest project to date: upgrading the Airport Boulevard Corridor.

The work will stretch from U.S. Highway 183 to North Lamar Boulevard. It'll be done in four phases.

The first phase stretches from North Lamar Boulevard to 55th Street. Construction is about $12 million. Overall, work along the entire corridor will cost about $100 million, city officials said.

Crews will work to construct new sidewalks, bike paths and improve bus stops. They will also add a new traffic signal at Clayton Lane and make intersection improvements in the area of East Koenig Lane and North Lamar Boulevard. Crews will also be making some drainage improvements and resurfacing pavement.

There will also be new technology installed at traffic signals officials said will help keep traffic moving safely.

"Any signals that currently have aerial infrastructure, like a fiber and electric overhead, we're putting those underground," explained Randy Harvey, the corridor office's program construction manager. "The pedestrian technology at signals, we're using audible pedestrian push buttons that speak to you, we're upgrading all of the technology in the cabinets, we're putting new radar detection out of these, these locations."

Construction will take about a year, but Harvey said they're hoping to wrap up sooner, weather permitting. The next phase of the overall corridor project includes work on two sections of Airport Boulevard — 55th Street to 45th Street and 45th Street to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Both projects are expected to begin sometime in 2024.