Outreach Team In The Community

The MoPac Improvement Project Communications Team recently collaborated with the Capital Area Food Bank for a “MoPac Day of Service.” The Capital Area Food Bank is the largest hunger-relief organization in Central Texas. The Food Bank is able to serve 26 million meals to the community each year through partnerships with local non-profits and private organizations.

The team spent a Saturday sorting over three thousand pounds of food that will be distributed all across Central Texas. Volunteers ensure that quality food makes it to those that need it most. Click here to find out more about how you can get involved, too!
 
The MoPac Improvement Project Outreach Team has also been busy meeting neighbors in the corridor to provide construction updates and answer any project related questions. In September, the team partnered with the Friends of Tarrytown Park to sponsor a “Movie in the Park” night featuring Big Hero 6. The team provided snacks and flashlights which were a big hit when the sun went down.

The Bryker Woods Neighborhood Association asked the MoPac Improvement Project to help sponsor their annual National Night Out party on October 6th. National Night Out is a community building event that promotes camaraderie to foster safe neighborhoods. Pizza and games were provided to the kids as neighbors mingled. There was even live music courtesy of The Dove Tail Joints.

We will also be sponsoring the Pemberton Heights Neighborhood Association annual picnic on October 25^th. We hope to see you there!

Informational Video Set to Launch

After the success of the social media campaigns that were launched this summer, the MoPac Improvement Project and advertising agency Zellmer McConnell have produced an informational campaign about how the Express Lanes will work. The video, set to launch the week of October 26^th, features several Austinites and local “celebrities,” asking and answering key questions about the lanes. Animation in the video gives drivers a virtual experience on how variable tolling works, illustrates where drivers can access the lanes, and provides a graphic rendering of how the Express Lanes will increase mobility and ease congestion along MoPac. A newly designed landing page will host the video and offer links to supplemental information about the project. Look for social media campaigns later this month that invite you to ask your own “Austin question.” The video—directed by Ramsey Nickell—was a collaboration with Zellmer McConnell Advertising, Arts + Labor Productions and Powerhouse Studios.

Construction Update

As has been widely reported, the MoPac Improvement Project has fallen behind schedule and the new express lanes will not be fully operationally until late 2016. Despite the setback, significant progress continues to be made. On the north end of the project crews are finishing the base layers of pavement for the express lanes. They have poured the bridge decks at the Capital Metro Red Line Crossing just south of Parmer Lane and will be installing the concrete bridge rails and finishing the bridges this month. Crews will be pouring the bridge decks for the Union Pacific crossing near the Domain this month and work on those bridges should be done by November.
 
There are three locations on the project where bridge decks still need to be poured; RM 2222, Windsor Road and Westover Road. Those bridges should be completed by early 2016. A number of new sign structures have been going up and the project contractor is hoping to place the final layer of permeable friction course asphalt between RM 2222 and Parmer Lane by spring 2016, making a partial opening of the project possible. Shared use path construction is taking shape along the southbound frontage road south of Braker Lane and a new sidewalk is nearly complete on the northbound frontage road north of Steck.
 
South of RM 2222 a significant amount of work remains to be done. Crews are focusing on the northbound side of the project where most of the sound wall foundations are in place and sections of sound wall should start going up over the next 6 months. On the southbound side of MoPac the focus will be on drilling foundations for the sound walls, adjusting drainage structures and installing roadway base material. Wall installation on the southbound side should take place in phases starting in spring 2016.
 
Work on the downtown express lane underpasses south of Enfield Road is moving along. In the southbound direction crews are nearly done with excavation for the underpass and construction of the concrete underpass structure is set to start this month. In the northbound direction workers are in the process of constructing a new Cesar Chavez/6^th Street on ramp to northbound MoPac and they are building a detour that will route northbound Mopac around the area where the new northbound express lane underpass will be constructed. Excavation of the northbound underpass is expected to begin in November.