CREEDMOOR, Texas — Ask anyone who drives on U.S. Hwy 183 in southeast Austin, and they'll tell you that it keeps getting busier and busier.
"It can be congested," Mustang Ridge resident Karla Sonnek said.
With neighborhoods, businesses and Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (ABIA) all straddling the highway's corridor, Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) spokesperson Antonio Lujan says they want to make changes.
"Look at improvements such as connectivity, you know, possibly expanding the roadway, adding frontage roads and looking at intersections to possibly add innovative intersections," Lujan said.
TxDOT has proposed a plan that would widen and divide U.S. Hwy 183 from SH 71 to SH 130 to address the congestion.
But first, the department is hearing from drivers and neighbors, holding a meeting at Creedmoor Community Center on Thursday night to get more input.
It is one of many meetings TxDOT plans to hold before anything gets started.
"I don't think widening and dividing will help," Sonnek said, expressing disagreement with the proposed expansion.
"I think that's going to cause more accidents because more people will be traveling on [U.S. Hwy] 183 then. I think now people avoid it because it can get congested at 5:00," Sonnek said. "Sometimes, we get stuck in the congestion and it's frustrating, but it's frustrating to go [Interstate] 35 through downtown Austin too. So you know, it's the growth."
TxDOT says it does not pan to install toll lanes as part of the project. If you would like to submit feedback, you must send in your comments by Oct. 18. You can submit those comments online at TxDOT's website, or by emailing aus_us183southeast@txdot.gov.