South Pleasant Valley Road

In 2018 and 2019, the City of Austin partnered with the community to develop and select a new bicycle and pedestrian bridge design over Lady Bird Lake.

The Preliminary Engineering Report for a new bridge is now complete. The “Wishbone” bridge will advance into the design phase of project development. Timeline for full design and construction of the new bridge will depend on when funding is secured.

As part of the community conversation to develop a new bridge design, near-term interim improvements were also identified. A  final set of interim improvements  was shared in December 2019.

Currently, one travel lane is coned off on South Pleasant Valley Road for walking and biking as part of the City of Austin’s  Healthy Streets  initiative during the COVID-19 pandemic to accommodate increased trail traffic and to support social distancing. This initiative is not related to this project.

In early 2020, the  Vision Zero  program finalized a citywide analysis using the most recent five years of crash data. This led to the identification of 13  High-Injury Roadways  where over 350 Austinites were seriously injured or killed in the last five years. 

South Pleasant Valley Road between Cesar Chavez Street and Oltorf Street is one of Vision Zero’s 13 High-Injury Roadways. The 13 roadways are receiving focused engineering design initiatives, improved signage, and targeted enforcement.

Between 2015 - 2019, over 160 crashes were reported on South Pleasant Valley Road between Willow Street and Lakeshore Boulevard. On average, a crash happened every eleven days along this section of South Pleasant Valley Road. The  comprehensive crash cost  for this roadway over this time-period was $46 million and countermeasures have been identified for many of the crash patterns.

The analysis on this section of South Pleasant Valley Road led  Austin Transportation Department  (ATD) staff to update the scope of the interim improvements to align with the safety needs of people driving, rolling, and walking in the area.

In response to the crash data, the interim improvements have been updated to increase roadway safety. These changes will enhance safety for everyone on South Pleasant Valley Road, including the most vulnerable road users.

 Review an interactive map of the updated interim improvements. 

The number of lanes at the Lakeshore Drive and Cesar Chavez intersections will remain the same.

Before the Krieg field entrance, the northbound lanes will merge to one lane to create space for the safety improvements presented above including new dedicated left turn lanes, separation between opposing traffic lanes, pedestrian crossing islands, and improved space for walking and bicycling over the bridge.

After the new northbound left turn lane at Canterbury Street, a second northbound motor vehicle lane will be added to allow the same number of vehicles to move through one Cesar Chavez green light cycle as present-day.

No changes will be made to the number of southbound travel lanes.

This project will improve safety along South Pleasant Valley Road with:

• Reduced rear end crashes
• Reduced and more consistent motor vehicle speeds
• Reduced potential for head-on collisions
• Improved pedestrian and bicycle crossings
• Improved trail, pedestrian and bicycle comfort
• Enhanced transit stops

Email Emily Tuttle at  Emily.Tuttle@austintexas.gov