Head west on Slaughter Lane from Menchaca Road and the rebuilt version of the street is already in place. It has curb-protected bike lanes, ADA-compliant sidewalks and a pedestrian beacon at Briar Ridge Drive. Cross Brodie Lane and the cones start. The City of Austin's work zone runs from there west to MoPac, past Bowie High School, Sendera South and Norman Trail, and the City now expects it to finish in fall 2027.
That stretch is about a mile and a half long, according to KXAN. It is the piece of the corridor 78749 uses most, and it was supposed to be done by now.
The Date Moved a Year Out
In January 2025, Community Impact reported that the City planned to start widening Slaughter between MoPac and Brodie that spring and expected the $22.9 million six-lane divided roadway to be complete by summer 2026. By June 2025, Community Impact's update said crews would arrive that summer. Work started the week of July 17, 2025, and officials told KXAN it would take about two years.
The City's Slaughter Lane Corridor project page now lists a summer 2025 start and fall 2027 completion. Community Impact's October 14, 2026 roundup gives the same 2025 to 2027 timeline and a $23 million total cost, paid for through the City's 2016 Mobility Bond.
So the summer 2026 finish line has passed, and residents on this stretch have roughly another year of construction to plan around.
Where the Finished Pieces Already Are
The MoPac-to-Brodie phase is one piece of a much longer City corridor project. The full project runs from RM 1826 to Old Lockhart Road, and several segments around 78749 are already finished.
| Segment | Status on the City project page | What's there |
|---|---|---|
| RM 1826 to Barstow Drive | Completed | Bike and pedestrian upgrades, signal upgrades at RM 1826 and Barstow |
| Escarpment Boulevard | Completed | Shared-use paths, ADA ramps and crosswalks, pedestrian beacon at Vinemont Drive |
| Barstow Drive to MoPac | Planned | Shared-use paths, upgraded signal at Beckett Road |
| MoPac to east of Brodie Lane | Under construction | Six lanes, shared-use paths, signal upgrades near Bowie, pedestrian beacon at Zuniga Drive, drainage |
| Brodie Lane to Menchaca Road | Completed | Curb-protected bike lanes, sidewalks, pedestrian beacon at Briar Ridge Drive |
| Menchaca Road to Cullen Lane | Completed | Curb-protected bike lanes, sidewalks, signal upgrades |
| Cullen Lane to Bluff Springs Road | Planned | Sidewalks, protected bike lanes and shared-use paths, new signals, work at Congress and I-35 |
Escarpment already has its shared-use paths and the Vinemont beacon, and the Brodie-to-Menchaca segment already has its bike lanes. The segment in bold connects them. Until it is finished, someone walking or biking from the Escarpment side toward Brodie gets new infrastructure at both ends and a construction zone in the middle.
What This Fall Looks Like in the Work Zone
The City sent its most recent stakeholder update on October 9, 2026, under the subject line "Project Update: Temporary Lane Closure begins next week." Together with Community Impact's October coverage, here is the order of work so far this season:
- August: Crews began installing mast arms for future traffic signals at several locations, with brief delays and closures, per Community Impact.
- Week of October 12: The City scheduled additional lane closures on southbound Brodie Lane approaching Slaughter.
- October: The update said new traffic signals along Slaughter would activate during the month.
- Through November: The City expected the lane reduction on Slaughter at MoPac to stay in place for the rest of the month.
The City's advice in that update was to plan extra time to get through the area. Back in March 2026, Community Impact reported that Slaughter still had two lanes open in each direction between MoPac and Brodie during construction, and that crews had started on the shared-use path heading west from Brodie Lane.
One stage is still ahead, and it will matter more than the others to people who use this road every day. When the project began, officials told KXAN that Slaughter would drop to one lane for about three weeks during paving, and that they hoped to time that work to a school break.
The Turn Change at Zuniga Drive
For Sendera South, the biggest change is how people will get out of the neighborhood.
The plan adds a pedestrian hybrid beacon at Zuniga Drive, the kind of crosswalk signal already in place at Vinemont and Briar Ridge. The same redesign removes the left-turn exit from Sendera South at Zuniga. Drivers heading west on Slaughter will use Bremner Drive instead, KXAN reported from the City's July 2025 public meeting at Bethany Lutheran Church on Slaughter Lane.
At that meeting, project manager Gregory Weems took questions for about three hours, and he told KXAN how long the plan had been in development:
"This design has been in the works for about eight years. It's gone through probably 400 people's eyes and engineers and traffic controls."
Much of that meeting was about Bowie traffic. A Sendera South resident told KXAN that students park along Norman Trail when the school lot fills, and that school buses and residents share the same stretch of Slaughter. The project responds to that directly. It includes improved signal timing in front of Bowie High School, signal and pedestrian work at the Brodie and Bowie intersections, and curb extensions to shorten crossings. A City presentation on this phase also lists a new signal at Norman Trail and an 8-foot shared-use path.
What the Finished Street Will Change
Once the work zone is gone, the City's plan calls for:
- A six-lane divided street from MoPac to Brodie, up from four lanes
- Shared-use paths that link the finished Escarpment segment on the west with the Brodie-to-Menchaca bike lanes on the east
- Signal upgrades around Bowie High School and the nearby neighborhoods
- A Zuniga Drive crossing beacon, with westbound Sendera South traffic moved to Bremner Drive
- Drainage, detention and water-quality improvements under the new pavement
Barstow Drive to MoPac is still listed as planned. When the MoPac-to-Brodie work ends, the shared-use path will reach MoPac from the east, and the next segment west, with its upgraded signal at Beckett Road, will be the remaining gap on the 78749 side.
Keeping Up Between Now and 2027
The City posts project milestones in Austin Mobility News, its weekly transportation e-newsletter. You can also sign up for text or email alerts on the Slaughter Lane Corridor page. For questions about this stretch, email the City's corridor team at [email protected] or call 512-974-2300. Staff have also met with stakeholder groups that ask for a meeting.
If Slaughter is part of your daily drive, we're glad to talk through how the work affects the streets around your home. At Heart of Austin, we live and work in Southwest Austin, and if you're planning a move during the construction, we can help you time it around the work. Contact Us.
