East Austin Residents Brace Themselves For Traffic Gridlock

EAST AUSTIN, TX -- The type of traffic snarls seen lately on MoPac Boulevard as new expressways are built are soon coming to a neighborhood near you, if you live in East Austin.

Come April, the Central Texas Mobility Authority will start rebuilding Highway 183, known as the Bergstrom Expressway. Expected to take four years, the project stretches from eight miles starting at Highway 71 near the airport to Highway 290.

Main arteries such as Manor Road and Airport and MLK Boulevards are likely to get slammed with gridlocked traffic as a result.

People are already on edge. Already, MoPac traffic has come to a virtual standstill in light of construction work -- so bad that people have taken to calling it the MoPacylpse.

“At what point do you cram so many cars on Manor Road that it’s just gridlock?” a frustrated Sam Evans, an East Austin resident, asked incredulously in an interview with Fox 7 News.

Last week, the type of future construction-fueled gridlock was seen as motorists avoided MoPac traffic jams and others avoided a major wreck on Interstate 35.

Jeremy Sapp, who drives to East Austin to get to work from the south side, told Fox 7 it took him one hour and 15 minutes to reach his destination last Monday.

“I’ve been here 22 years, so it’s not something that I’m planning on moving,” Sapp said. “But is sure comes into my mind as to why in the world do I do this.”

The Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority is building express lanes in each direction on north MoPac, from Cesar Chavez Street to Parmer Lane. As a result, the artery has been reduced to two lanes at the Enfield Road exit up to just north of Lady Bird Lake.

Motorists wise to the construction are increasingly cutting through East Austin neighborhoods to reach their destination, a trend that will likely continue until after the September date for the project’s concluson.

And then there’s April, when the East Austin work begins.

Be afraid, East Austin residents. Be very afraid.