Hays County to host open house Thursday on SH 45 expansion
Hays County will hold an open house Thursday about a $2.5 million study to expand State Highway 45 between I-35 and RM 1626.
Editor's note: The video in this story aired on June 8, 2023.
AUSTIN (KXAN) – Hays County will hold an open house Thursday about a $2.5 million study to expand State Highway 45 between I-35 and RM 1626.
The open house is from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Sunfield Station Event Center in Buda, located at 2610 Main St. There will be a comment period from Dec. 7 until Dec. 22. The county said comments may be submitted through the county's SH 45 Gap Study website, during the in-person open house, or by using these resources.
This will be the county's second open house on the expansion study. It said people can get background data, input from the first open house and preliminary route concepts.
Hays County expects the study to take one to two years.
Currently, many Hays and Travis County drivers use SH 45 Southwest to travel from southwest Austin to cities like Kyle and onto I-35, but they have to take 1626 to do so because that’s where SH 45 currently dead ends. And traveling from the east side of I-35, SH 45 Southeast dead ends at I-35.
Hays County Commissioners would like to see a new portion of SH 45 constructed in the near future to connect that current gap, but Travis County and City of Austin officials have expressed concern about the expansion.
In August 2022, when Hays County Commissioners voted to begin engineering and design on the SH 45 Gap, the Travis County Commissioners sent a letter documenting their frustrations with Hays County leaders, citing traffic and environmental concerns.
In June, City of Austin Interim Director of Transportation and Public Works, Richard Mendoza, sent a memo to the Austin Mayor and City Council informing them that Interim Assistant City Manager Robert Goode would be the Single Point of Contact for the City of Austin. Hays County requested a point of contact as the study on the SH 45 Gap gets underway.