Tag Archives: Public Works Department
Thursday, May 3, 2018 by Caleb Pritchard
Parks
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…
Monday, March 19, 2018 by Caleb Pritchard
Transportation
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…
Tuesday, October 3, 2017 by Jo Clifton
City 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…
Tuesday, September 26, 2017 by Jessi Devenyns
Bicycles
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…
Wednesday, April 26, 2017 by Caleb Pritchard
Roads
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…
Friday, March 31, 2017 by Jo Clifton
Roads
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…
Monday, August 29, 2016 by Cate Malek
Parks
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…
Wednesday, August 17, 2016 by Cate Malek
Budget
City responds to call for more street and sidewalk maintenance
Austinites who have complained about the state of the city’s streets may soon see an improvement, if a proposed tax increase is approved as part of next year’s budget.In a survey conducted by the city last year, members of the…
Tuesday, June 21, 2016 by Caleb Pritchard
Transportation
With funding still in question, Council approves sidewalk plan update
City Council last week gave nearly unanimous approval to an update of the 2009 Sidewalk Master Plan.The 9-0-1 vote comes in the middle of the ongoing debate over a small batch of mobility bond proposals that could go before voters…
Wednesday, May 11, 2016 by Jo Clifton
Austin
More funds needed to finish Waller project
City Council will be considering seven items on Thursday’s agenda with a combined financial impact of $7.5 million for completing the Waller Creek Project, which has been fraught with difficulties since the discovery that the intake tunnel had been designed…
Wednesday, May 11, 2016 by Elizabeth Pagano
Transportation
City ponders giant increase in sidewalk investments
Now that Uber and Lyft have driven over the horizon, some are looking to their feet for transportation options. At the moment, the odds are good that those feet may be standing on broken or incomplete sidewalks. But if the…
Tuesday, April 26, 2016 by Jo Clifton
City Hall
Lazarus offered top job in Ann Arbor
The City Council of Ann Arbor, Michigan, has chosen Howard Lazarus, director of Austin’s Public Works Department, as its new city administrator. The Michigan Daily reported Lazarus’ selection as the city’s top manager last week.Lazarus told the Austin Monitor on Monday,…
Friday, March 4, 2016 by Jack Craver
Transportation
How should Austin fund its transportation needs?
The City Council Mobility Committee largely steered clear of discussing a potential bond election during a meeting Wednesday focused on how the city can finance its looming transportation needs.A bond election, said Council Member Ann Kitchen, who chairs the committee,…
Thursday, October 1, 2015 by Jo Clifton
Transportation
Council making plans for mobility money
With the budget behind them, Austin City Council members can turn their attention to other projects – chief among them, dividing up a little more than $21 million in money from the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The funds are known…
Thursday, September 10, 2015 by Elizabeth Pagano
Budget
Zimmerman plan to “rebalance” transportation spending splits Council
City Council Member Don Zimmerman would like to see a change in Austin’s transportation infrastructure spending.His proposal, which would mandate at least $2 million per district for mobility Capital Improvement Projects, won varying levels of support from Council Members Ora…
Tuesday, June 23, 2015 by Elizabeth Pagano
Entertainment & Events
Hotel construction casts a shadow over downtown music venues
This past weekend, worries that a new downtown hotel was threatening Cheer Up Charlies and the Mohawk overtook Austin’s social media.A lot of Austinites’ concerns focused on whether a parking garage for the Hyatt House hotel would destroy the iconic…
Friday, June 19, 2015 by Tyler Whitson
City Council
Council to disperse quarter-cent fund “equitably”
On Thursday, City Council took the first step in a plan to disperse the $21.8 million remaining in the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority Quarter-Cent Fund “equitably across all Council districts” for transportation and mobility improvement projects.In a resolution, Council directed…
Friday, June 5, 2015 by Audrey McGlinchy
Parks
Austin ventures into civic crowdfunding
The Internet is replete with crowdfunding appeals for endless pet projects: help fund your college roommate’s rap EP, pitch in for your buddy’s film or donate a few dollars toward your cousin’s volunteer trip to Haiti.But what about a Kickstarter…
Friday, May 1, 2015 by Tyler Whitson
Transportation
Redbud, Barton Springs bridge fixes move ahead
As Public Works Department Director Howard Lazarus said at Wednesday’s City Council Mobility Committee meeting in regard to improving the Barton Springs Road and Redbud Trail bridges, “If you never get started, you’ll never get finished.” Those projects, it appears,…
Tuesday, March 17, 2015 by Jo Clifton
City Council
Council sends cost overrun issues to committee
City Council members approved an additional expenditure last week of a little more than $91,000 for the construction contract for restoration of infrastructure along lower Shoal Creek to Lady Bird Lake. The total budget of that project was $1,217,366 to…
