183 South Expressway

A Fluor-led consortium, Colorado River Constructors, was chosen to design and construct a $581 million infrastructure expansion project in Austin, Texas. The project expanded an approximately eight-mile stretch of highway from U.S. 290 to the southern terminus near the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (State Highway 71) into a six-lane superhighway. Colorado River Constructors is comprised of Fluor and Balfour Beatty Infrastructure Inc., two leading companies in the development of transportation projects.

The 183 South Project Expressway added capacity to one of Austin's most important arterial roadways, which serves more than 60,000 vehicles a day. The project included the design and construction of six new tolled lanes (three in each direction), new general purpose (frontage) lanes, five grade-separated interchanges, 38 new bridges including four new pedestrian bridges and two new direct connect flyover ramps, along with the installation of intelligent traffic management systems. Enhanced landscaping and aesthetics, trailhead improvements, and bike and pedestrian sidewalks with shared-use paths were also included along the entire corridor to provide east Austin with multimodal connections to the community.

The 183 South Project is the region's largest roadway construction project by the Central Texas Mobility Authority (Mobility Authority). The project signifies a major step forward in continuing a comprehensive regional transportation system that offers greater mobility, reliable travel times and improved access to affordable housing.

Client's Challenge

The 183 South Project is located in a congested urban corridor and entirely within Travis County. The project added capacity to one of Austin's most important arterial roadways, which serves more than 60,000 vehicles a day. Tolling of the main lanes will be just south of Springdale/Manor Road and end just south of Thompson Lane. Tolling will only occur for added capacity, and at a minimum, the same amount of non-tolled capacity that currently exists will be maintained within the corridor.

The project provided grade separated interchanges at Springdale/Manor Road, Loyola Lane, MLK Boulevard, Montopolis Drive and Patton Avenue. Bridges were proposed at Little Walnut Creek, Boggy Creek and the Colorado River, and collector distributor ramps are were proposed at MLK Boulevard. The project also added two direct connect flyovers that linked eastbound SH 71 to northbound 183 South and southbound 183 South to westbound SH 71. A new five-foot bike lane was added to the general purpose roads on each side of the project to provide improved access for cyclists. In addition, a 10-foot shared use path and a 6-foot to10-foot sidewalk were constructed as part of the project.

Fluor's Solution

Fluor utilized a self-perform construction approach for the project. Colorado River Constructors utilized lane closures during construction that were generally be limited to overnight hours. The consortium relocated numerous utilities and built new general purpose roads first, transferred traffic to the new roads and then built the toll lanes in the center. The project created free-flowing general purpose lanes with added U-turns by eliminating five crossings along U.S. 183 at East 51st Street, Techni Center Drive, Bolm Road, Vargas Road and Thompson Lane

Fluor has been continuously designing and building infrastructure projects in Texas for nearly 20 years. The Fluor-led Lone Star Infrastructure consortium completed the first ever TxDOT design-build tollway project in 2008, which has provided much needed mobility to Central Texas. Fluor’s design-build presence began in Austin in 2002 with the construction of State Highway 130, Segments 1-4, which was completed in 2009.

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Conclusion

Colorado River Constructors provided design-build services to Mobility Authority to expand an eight-mile stretch of highway in Austin, Texas from U.S. 290 to the southern terminus near the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (State Highway 71). The project broke ground in 2016. In March 2021, Fluor announced that Colorado River Constructors opened the project to traffic.