Work on Highway 71 resumes in two weeks

BEE CAVE, Texas (KXAN) - Each day for the past few weeks, nearly 29,000 drivers often found themselves at a standstill on the outskirts of Bee Cave. A major road construction project hit a snag, possibly delaying crews for another three months.

On Wednesday, engineers with the city told KXAN they planned to hand over new details to AT&T to move forward with the project. Workers had discovered buried fiber and copper AT&T lines during a dig at the intersection of Highway 71 and Hamilton Pool Road.

One of several longterm projects along a 2.5-mile stretch on 71, this point would eventually connect the highway with a future parkway to ease traffic congestion. After the discovery, crews stopped construction, and the highway narrowed to just two lanes.

Instead of the original 2.5 to three months to move the lines, AT&T will now create a temporary fix. Crews should be ready to go back to work on the road in about two weeks.

The city and TxDOT said they checked with AT&T just before beginning the project in November and got the "all clear." AT&T told KXAN that Bee Cave actually checked with the company in February about a slightly different site, which would not affect any buried lines.

When engineers came back to AT&T in November, the location of the construction had changed a bit, and the company asked the city for new plans. Without those plans, AT&T said it had no way of knowing the new site would interfere with construction.

AT&T will go ahead with the temporary fix but plans to eventually move the lines in question altogether. That process will take up to three months once a construction bid for the new lines is granted, but the company said it will not delay the road project any further.

TxDOT, which has been working with the city on the road construction, said it hopes to be complete with the intersection upgrades by March or April.