Since Sunday, Aug. 30, 2026, a driver on Loop 360 can pass Westlake Drive and Cedar Street without stopping at either light. TxDOT opened one new mainlane in each direction that morning. Through traffic now passes beneath both cross streets on underpasses, and the traffic signals have been removed from the mainlanes. The opening caps a project that began in June 2022. It still leaves the corridor in the middle of its rebuild. The Westlake Drive and Cedar Street segment has a final phase ahead. Construction crews are on its connector roads this week. A separate intersection project at Courtyard Drive and RM 2222 started in April 2026 and is scheduled to run to late 2029.
For anyone who drives 360 every day, that changes the question. The four years of construction at Westlake Drive are ending, but the corridor has at least three more years of work ahead.
How the new pattern works
The new layout gives drivers three routes. TxDOT's project page and KXAN's Aug. 28 preview of the opening describe them the same way:
- Passing through. Stay in the left lane. It is the new mainlane, and it bypasses the signals at both Westlake Drive and Cedar Street.
- Going to Westlake Drive or Cedar Street. Exit right onto the connector road. The connector roads still serve both intersections.
- Turning around. Use the non-signal U-turns on the Westlake Drive bridge, which lead back to both northbound and southbound Loop 360. The southbound U-turn south of Bold Ruler Way stays open as well.
The U-turns are a year older than the new lanes. Community Impact reported in August 2025 that the Westlake Drive bridge U-turns had opened. At the same time, the old double U-turns near Cedar Street and the Shell/Refuel station at 3310 N. Capital of Texas Hwy. closed. Anyone who adjusted their turnaround route last summer is already driving the permanent version. The August change moved through traffic off the connector roads.
As of early October, none of the local outlets we reviewed has published anything on how the new pattern is performing. We found no reports on travel times, confusion at the exits, or follow-up adjustments from TxDOT. The one detailed account of the opening is KXAN's preview from two days before it happened.
What "open" does not include yet
On the current project page, phases 2, 3 and 4 are all still listed as ongoing. Phase 2 covers the new connector roads, drainage systems and shared-use paths. Phase 3 covers the Westlake Drive bridge and the start of the mainlanes. Phase 4 covers the Cedar Street bridge and completing the mainlanes. The last phase has not started. TxDOT describes it this way:
"Phase 5: Perform final paving and striping and open to permanent traffic patterns."
So the one-lane-each-way layout drivers have used since Aug. 30 is not the permanent one. TxDOT still describes construction on the mainlanes between Bold Ruler Way and the Pennybacker Bridge as continuing through late 2026.
The completion date has moved twice already. TxDOT's June 2025 construction information sheet expected the project to finish in mid-2026. KXAN's year-end roundup, posted Dec. 29, 2025, used the same mid-2026 timing. The current project page now says "late 2026, weather permitting." Copasa Group is the contractor. TxDOT's information sheet puts the project's cost at $72.1 million, paid for by TxDOT and the City of Austin's 2016 Mobility Bond.
The paths are the piece most likely to change a weekend
Drivers may barely notice the remaining paving work. Walkers and cyclists will notice the shared-use paths. TxDOT's February 2025 community update describes the design:
- Width and spacing: 10-foot paths, generally set about five feet back from the curb.
- Bridge crossings: protected east-west crossings on both the Westlake Drive and Cedar Street bridges.
- North end: the path extends north to connect with the Pennybacker Bridge, and TxDOT's workshop handout shows the segment near the Loop 360 boat ramp linking to the bridge's existing bicycle and pedestrian accommodations.
- Cedar Street: the 2019 plans added a sidewalk on the south side of Cedar Street that connects to Bridge Point Elementary.
TxDOT gives no opening date for any of the paths, and its project page still lists them as part of an ongoing phase. Until TxDOT announces an opening, a walking or cycling route from Westlake Drive to the Pennybacker Bridge is still a plan.
This week on the connector roads
Work is still active in the segment, and TxDOT's posted schedule shows how it affects the roads. A left-lane closure on both the northbound and southbound connector roads, between the Pennybacker Bridge and Shell Refuel Gas, runs from tonight, Sunday, Oct. 4, through Thursday, Oct. 8, from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. each night.
Daytime work follows its own schedule:
| Activity | When TxDOT says it happens |
|---|---|
| Excavation, weekdays | 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. |
| Excavation, Saturdays | 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. |
| Hauling | Overnight |
Because hauling happens at night, trucks will use this stretch after dark for as long as the mainlane work continues. Saturday morning excavation also overlaps with the time many people set aside for errands.
The project that started while this one was wrapping up
The Courtyard Drive and RM 2222 project began in April 2026, four months before the Westlake Drive lanes opened. TxDOT expects it to finish in late 2029.
That project's page lists no lane closures at the moment. It does post a changed traffic arrangement at RM 2222. The entrance ramp from eastbound RM 2222 to southbound Loop 360 is closed, and drivers headed south on 360 now turn right at the RM 2222 signal. The exit lanes from northbound Loop 360 are now assigned as left-only, left-or-straight, and right-only. The page does not say when this arrangement took effect. Anyone who uses that ramp should treat the posted layout as current and confirm it on the page before an early drive.
Where the remaining signals stand
Here is each Loop 360 project TxDOT lists, with its posted status:
| Project | Status as posted by TxDOT |
|---|---|
| Westlake Drive/Cedar Street | New mainlanes open since Aug. 30, 2026. Final paving, striping and permanent patterns still ahead. Completion expected late 2026. |
| Courtyard Drive/RM 2222 | Under construction since April 2026. Completion expected late 2029. |
| Lakewood Drive/Spicewood Springs Road | Not under construction. Utility relocation comes first. Construction depends on funding and could start as early as 2029. |
| RM 2244 | Will proceed when additional funding becomes available. |
| MoPac to RM 2244 | Plan would replace the Walsh Tarlton Lane signal with an overpass. An overpass or underpass at Lost Creek Boulevard and Westbank Drive is still under consideration. Construction depends on funding. |
Only two of these projects have expected completion dates. Lakewood Drive and Spicewood Springs Road has an earliest possible start and nothing more. Construction on all three of the remaining projects depends on funding. The Walsh Tarlton Lane signal remains part of a plan that has not yet reached construction. The Lost Creek Boulevard and Westbank Drive design is still being decided between an overpass and an underpass.
Put together, the posted schedules show that, of the projects TxDOT lists, Westlake Drive and Cedar Street is the only one where new signal-free mainlanes have opened. Final paving there is due by late 2026. Construction at Courtyard Drive is scheduled to last three years after that. The earliest possible start at Lakewood Drive and Spicewood Springs Road is 2029, the year Courtyard Drive is due to finish. Over the next several years, the work will move from one intersection to the next rather than wrap up across the whole corridor at once.
A move timed around Loop 360 has to account for the whole 2026 to 2029 construction schedule, not only the August opening. The Kathryn Scarborough Group follows these project timelines closely across Westlake. If you are planning a move or a sale near the corridor and want to talk through how the schedule fits your plans, please contact us.
