Formula Run previewed F1's congestion

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Right across the road from Captain's Chicken Stop on FM 812, the Circuit of The Americas is wrapping up construction to one of its fan entrances. Captain's owner J.C. Parra has enjoyed the customer base from CoTA crews, so far. In a few weekends though, that is all going to change.

"I'm just going to stock up and make sure I have everything, so I don't have to go anywhere,” Parra said. “Getting out of this exact spot is probably going to be a nightmare."

People got a preview of that traffic nightmare last weekend with the Formula Run. CoTA blames the big delay on heavy fog and late registrations for the run.

"We figured it was going to take us about 45 minutes to get here,” said Brenda Howell, who took part in the run. “It took us an hour from Pflugerville to get here."

As many as 5,000 came out to the track. Soon, it will be 120,000. The county estimates the Grand Prix event to have a delay of three hours in and three hours out.

There is also a big difference between the traffic management plans for last weekend and F1 weekend. With 450 shuttle buses and 17,000 cars on-site, it will require a big change in the routes.

Last weekend, there was only one path -- FM 812 -- and it only had its normal two lanes. But race weekend will have five times as many lanes coming to the site. FM 812, Kellam Road and Pierce Lane will all have multiple contraflow lanes. McAngus Road will be specifically for those shuttle buses.

Also, last weekend had just four traffic officers, while race weekend will have 100 on duty.

"Some of the things we learned from Formula Run but also from the first race, we're going to learn quite a bit and probably tweak our traffic control plan every year,” said David Greear, Travis County traffic engineer.

Parra knows, like everyone else, he will have to adjust his own business plan after the first race.

"Yeah, I'm scared,” he laughed. “I'm scared. I'm not going to lie."

His advice - hold your breath and hope for the best.

Traffic officials suggest people riding shuttles to the event to hop on at the County Expo Center, instead of the pick-up near the State Capitol in downtown. They expect traffic will be much worse at that second location.

Also, they urge attendees to follow the directions on their tickets. It will tell you specific instructions about which route to follow and where to enter, instead of plugging something into your GPS that might take longer and cause more problems.