Safety improvements come to East Riverside

Motorists driving along East Riverside Drive may notice crews from Austin’s Public Works Department working in the 800 block, making “safety improvements aimed at decreasing serious injury and fatal crashes in the area,” according to the Transportation Department, which is collaborating on the project. The collaboration came out of a Vision Zero analysis of five years of crash data from the area, which found several crashes “in which vehicle drivers crossed into oncoming lanes of traffic. In recent years, multiple severe crashes on this stretch of East Riverside Drive have caused a fatality and serious injuries.” The safety enhancements will include “new crash attenuators, or materials that absorb the impact of a vehicle to reduce the severity of a crash, as well as new guardrails.” In early January, the crews will be moving to the east side of the road to finish the project.