Parts of Oak Hill Parkway Project begin to open

AUSTIN, Texas - It is a major milestone in the reconstruction of the Hwy 290/71 interchange. It is known as the "Y at Oak Hill" and traffic is now flowing on the new east and west main lanes. 

The construction of Hwy 71 is close to being completed.

The backstory:

The Oak Hill Parkway project is still very much a construction zone, but up on the elevated portion of Hwy 290, east and west traffic is now moving through the Y at Oak Hill with no traffic lights in play.

"As we're looking at older pictures compared to now, it's really impressive to see the changes that have happened," said deputy project manager Cody McGuire.

There has been a lot of heavy lifting since groundbreaking in 2021:

• Crews have put up nearly 600,000 sq feet of new walls, equal to 10 football fields
• Rolled out 23 and a half million pounds of rebar, that’s more than enough to build another Eiffel Tower
• Support beams for 26 new bridges, if placed end to end, would stretch 22 miles

"We've milled out 2 million cubic yards of ground to lower all the main lanes. So, if you put, if you stacked all that up, you'd have a 60-story building made out of solid rock," said McGuire.

People who work and drive in this massive work zone said they've noticed the recent progress.

"Last summer it kind of looked a little slow. And I was like, is it going to happen or what? And then, like, what did I see the last six months? It's just you can tell the difference. Like I said, there's been pop-ups of stop signs, yield signs, and the next day is done," said Dana Miller.

Mark Kernan said he navigates the work zone several times each week.

"On the way down here today, I was surprised to find that my usual forced exit no longer is happening, and I cruised right past. So, I know as we get a little bit further along, it's going to go really, really, really fast," said Kernan.

Dig deeper:

It took a long time to get this $678 million project off the drawing board. 

Challenges from environmental groups caused legal roadblocks and forced redesigns. A decision was made in 2018 to not charge tolls. It was the result of a big statewide push back on toll roads. 

Funding for the project, and others like it, came after state lawmakers and voters approved propositions to redirect money out of the rainy day fund to ramp up highway projects. 

The policy changes resulted in design changes. The Oak Hill Parkway has several stormwater features in place to protect Williamson Creek and fewer trees were removed.

"We have tree preservation areas throughout the entire corridor. We have the six named trees that we've been very good at protecting. That's going to be grandma, grandpa, the nieces, and the Taco Bell tree. We have a dedicated arborist on the project who's been going through it and, as recently as last month, was going through and monitoring all the trees that we have in the protective zones," said McGuire.

What's next:

The cross-over bridge could open before the end of the week, and the opening of the twin flyovers to and from Hwy 71 could open within the next 30 days. That will be the next big milestone for the project. The goal is to have an official ribbon cutting ceremony by mid-summer. 

The weather is a big factor in the timeline. For example, the recent rain is slowing down the paint job for road striping.