The City of Austin is expanding its downtown road improvement project to West 6th Street.
Monday morning crews began putting up barricades on W. 6th Street from Baylor Street to Blanco Street. It is the first stretch of the road to undergo improvements for pedestrian and bicycling accessibility.
"Downtown has to be a nice place; has to be a friendly place to live as well as work," said Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell.
The W. 6th Street project includes sidewalks and curb ramps that are compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. It also incorporates the bike lane connectivity that has been going up across Downtown Austin. It started last Fall on Dean Keeton. The city is striping the road for additional angled parking along with bike lanes.
The City says all of the $18 million being used for bicycle and pedestrian improvements comes from a bond package that voters approved in 2000.
The W. 6th Street project is expected to take about eight weeks to complete. Crews are dividing the work into four phases in order to reduce the impact to any one business or location. There will be one north lane closure during construction hours from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday, until the job is complete.
