The storm that brought Austin to a standstill continues to impact city operations this week. Services are closed across the city due to extreme weather with an expectation that more winter is on the way. City officials announced Monday that all city operations, save essential services, would be shut down on Tuesday and Wednesday. All […]
Public Works Department
This city department oversees major capital improvement projects; maintains the city’s trails, roadways, and bridges; and promotes safe travel on city thoroughfares.
Posted inTransportation
Healthy Streets inspires slow streets pilot
With cases of Covid-19 on the decline in Austin, the Transportation Department is preparing to wind down the Healthy Streets initiative, a safe mobility and social distancing program that’s been in effect since May 22. The department will start by removing the Whispering Oaks Drive and part of the Comal Street segments at the end […]
Posted inCity Council
Council OKs short contract to clean up homeless camps
Ten people signed up to tell Council on Wednesday they were opposed to awarding a three-year contract to Relief Enterprise of Texas Inc. for “removal of debris and cleanup services under bridge overpasses, under bridges, and in the transportation right of way.” Austinites addressing Council said they had witnessed employees of the contractor acting in […]
Posted inThe Code
Environmental Commission says Public Works project ‘flies in the face’ of environmental regulations
In order to create easy access and support increased traffic headed to a new Habitat for Humanity development in Southeast Austin, the Public Works Department is working on constructing a road that crosses a “classified waterway.” Under city code, a classified waterway is a body of water identified in the Watershed Protection Ordinance that has […]
Posted inCity Hall
Cypress and Shoal Creek Project potential recipient of hotel tax dollars
The Public Works Department has studied various ways to prioritize and fund the Cypress and Shoal Creek Project on the northeastern edge of the Seaholm District. Now the department has determined that the Historic Preservation portion of the Hotel Occupancy Tax could help get part of it completed. Public Works Director Richard Mendoza wrote a […]
Posted inParks
It’s lit: Project brings long-awaited improvements to Shoal Creek Trail
It took nearly 37 years, but the Shoal Creek Trail Gap Project is finally complete. On Tuesday, the Public Works Department lifted the barricades on the short section of the trail that traces the creek on its bend from West Fifth Street to West Avenue. It allows hikers and bikers to easily traverse the section […]
Posted inTransportation
City defends unusual sidewalk design
A short stretch of zigzagging sidewalk in downtown Austin has wound the city’s Public Works Department into a small patch of controversy. The meandering path on West Seventh Street just before West Avenue first appeared last month and, according to the city, was laid by a contractor doing work on behalf of Cirrus Logic, which […]
Posted inCity Hall
Audit: Public Works skipped quality controls
The Public Works Department, which oversees the city’s capital projects, like the new Central Library and Water Treatment Plant 4, has failed to “consistently follow processes designed to contain costs and ensure the quality” of such projects, according to a report released by the Office of the City Auditor on Wednesday. City Council’s Audit and […]
Posted inBicycles
Upper Boggy Creek Trail one step closer to reality
After a contentious debate among the commissioners, the Environmental Commission approved a variance request submitted by the Public Works Department to widen the design of a concrete trail from 12 feet to 14 feet on Sept. 20 with only Vice Chair Peggy Maceo dissenting. Currently, the Public Works Department and the Urban Trails Program are […]
Posted inRoads
City developing concrete plans to make bus passengers more comfortable
If you close your eyes, you can imagine yourself raiding Berlin in 1943, the deafening explosions of flak violently rankling the thin fuselage that separates you from the battlefields below. But in reality, you’re riding one of the hundreds of Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority buses that grind across badly damaged Central Austin asphalt and turn […]
Posted inRoads
Fixing street cut repair program to take time
City Council Member Ellen Troxclair said she was “really alarmed” when she read the Office of the City Auditor report showing that the city has a 3.6-year backlog in repairing potholes created by utility crews fixing water lines. That’s the number even if there were no new street cuts during that time. Members of the […]
Posted inParks
City begins work on new urban trails
Two new urban trails are set to begin construction next March, providing more options for Austinites who prefer to go carless. Teams should complete work on the Upper Boggy Creek Trail, serving neighborhoods on the east side, in November 2017. And work on a new section of the 30-mile Violet Crown Trail North, located in […]