AUSTIN (KXAN) — New safety enhancements are coming down the pipeline for a portion of southeast Austin, following initial work earlier this year.
The Bluff Springs Road Safety Project began work in fall 2023 to upgrade pedestrian and cyclist safety in the project corridor, running from William Cannon Drive to the Austin city limits mark in the 8300 block of Bluff Springs Road.
Work included reconfiguring travel lanes and adding new protected bikeways, pedestrian crossings and upgraded transit stops. City transportation officials targeted the area due to its inclusion in Austin’s High-Injury Network; over a five-year timespan between May 2018 and April 2023, 52 people were either injured or killed and a crash happened roughly every eight days along Bluff Springs Road.
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The latest iteration of construction will include lighting upgrades on Bluff Springs Road between William Cannon Drive and Slaughter Lane. Crews also installed a new traffic signal at Quicksilver Boulevard, which came online in November.
After the completion of the project’s first phase of work last spring, data found high-risk speeding decreased by 58% and the annualized number of crashes dropped by 30%. Injury and fatal crashes declined by 8%, per this initial analysis.
Funding for the improvements are courtesy of 2018 and 2020 mobility bonds as well as federal funding from the Highway Safety Improvement Program. More details are available online.
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