{"id":290911,"date":"2026-05-13T08:01:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T08:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/290911\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T08:01:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T08:01:10","slug":"georgetown-officials-update-plans-for-austin-avenue-university-avenue-corridor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/290911\/","title":{"rendered":"Georgetown officials update plans for Austin Avenue, University Avenue corridor"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGeorgetown officials and <a href=\"https:\/\/kpaengineers.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">KPA Engineers<\/a> updated the schematic design in late April for proposed changes to the Austin Avenue corridor, including portions of University Avenue and Seventh and Eighth streets.<\/p>\n<p>What happened<\/p>\n<p>The main changes include removing the median from the Myrtle Street and University Avenue intersection as well as adding left- and right-turn lanes, KPA Engineers Vice President Trae Sutton said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[This] opens up more traffic and allows traffic to get off University not just at Elm [Street], but at the first stop at Myrtle [Street],\u201d Sutton said. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot safer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Council members approved the changes to the schematic designs at an April 28 City Council meeting.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think that we\u2019ve been able to make some changes that have been impactful to the neighbors,\u201d District 1 council member Amanda Parr said. \u201cI know we\u2019ll continue to look at tweaks that can be made in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>What they\u2019re saying<\/p>\n<p>Parr is interested in investigating locations for more pedestrian crossings without a signal, she said at the meeting.<\/p>\n<p>While schematics do not show additional pedestrian crossings within this corridor, the intersection of College Street and University Avenue may be a possible location to consider, Georgetown Transportation Manager Lua Saluone said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe can look at that further once we get into the full design,\u201d Saluone said.<\/p>\n<p>Tom Yantis, Georgetown resident and former assistant city manager, said that while he supports the changes to Austin Avenue, he has concerns about the updated schematic design for University Avenue, which he says prioritizes vehicular traffic over pedestrians.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t think that the proposed changes to University Avenue are in keeping with the goals of the downtown master plan or the long-standing goals of making university more pedestrian friendly and less of a through route for vehicles,\u201d Yantis said.<\/p>\n<p>In case you missed it<\/p>\n<p>Sutton presented the initial schematic plans to Georgetown City Council on <a href=\"https:\/\/communityimpact.com\/austin\/georgetown\/transportation\/2026\/02\/26\/austin-avenue-to-see-roadway-changes-downtown-upgrades-with-new-corridor-schematics\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Feb. 24<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The plan included removing parking spaces from the downtown square to accommodate expanded sidewalk use, narrowing roadways to three lanes in some sections to slow vehicle speeds, and expanding roads in other areas to five lanes to allow for better traffic flow.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Georgetown officials and KPA Engineers updated the schematic design in late April for proposed changes to the Austin&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290912,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,73002,134,133,12268,106350,106351,271,13112],"class_list":["post-290911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-avenue","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-georgetown","tag-kpa-engineers","tag-schematic-design","tag-txdot","tag-university-avenue"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}