The Lights Are Gone at Westlake Drive, but Loop 360 Isn't Finished Yet

Low view across a limestone garden walk toward a limestone home with a cedar porch, bronze windows, and a mature spreading oak.

"When it's finished, you could walk from St. Stephen's, have lunch at Jack Allen's, cross the Westlake Drive Bridge, go to Davenport Village, and then walk north and go to the Pennybacker Bridge and then loop back around," Katherine Seth, the public involvement contact for TxDOT's Loop 360 program, said in a St. Stephen's news update in September 2025. That sentence describes the end of the project. What drivers on the West Lake Hills side of Loop 360 have had since late summer is the stage before it.

At the end of August, KXAN reported that TxDOT would open single lanes in each direction that skip the signals at Westlake Drive and Cedar Street. Through traffic between Bold Ruler Way and the Pennybacker Bridge no longer stops for a red light. The road you drive today is still an interim layout, though, and the work left to do is the part meant for people walking.

One Lane Each Way Is a Temporary Setup

TxDOT's project page says Loop 360 has one lane open in each direction through the project. Drivers stay left to bypass both intersections and exit right for Westlake Drive or Cedar Street. Trips to the cross streets use the connector roads, and turnarounds use U-turns without signals.

Your trip	How it works right now
Straight through, Bold Ruler Way to Pennybacker Bridge	Stay in the left lane; no signal at Westlake Drive or Cedar Street
To Westlake Drive or Cedar Street	Exit right onto the connector road
Turning around to go the other way on Loop 360	Use the U-turns on the Westlake Drive bridge, which have no signals and serve both directions
Southbound turnaround near Bold Ruler Way	The southbound U-turn south of Bold Ruler Way remains open

The Westlake Drive bridge carries most of this. It opened in August 2025, 20 days ahead of schedule and before St. Stephen's started classes, according to the school's update. A year on, that bridge is how anyone along this stretch reverses direction without a light. The new mainlanes that run under it still carry only one lane each way.

Three of the Five Phases Are Still Underway

TxDOT splits the project into five phases. Its page shows only the first as complete:

Complete: set up the work zone and build waterlines.
Ongoing: build the new northbound and southbound connector roads, drainage systems and shared-use paths.
Ongoing: build the Westlake Drive bridge and start the northbound and southbound mainlanes.
Ongoing: build the Cedar Street bridge and finish the mainlanes.
Still to come: final paving and striping, then open the permanent traffic patterns.

The Westlake Drive bridge has carried traffic since August 2025, but Phase 3 also covers the mainlanes, and TxDOT still lists the phase as ongoing. That fifth phase is when today's layout becomes the permanent one. Until then, the lanes you use are a construction arrangement that can still shift.

Construction began in June 2022, and TxDOT now expects to finish in late 2026, weather permitting. In February 2025, Community Impact reported TxDOT's estimate as mid-2026, so the target has moved back by about two quarters. The contractor is Copasa Group. The project costs $72.1 million, paid for by TxDOT and the City of Austin's 2016 mobility bond, per Community Impact's October roundup.

The Work Mostly Happens After Dark

Until Phase 5 is done, the rhythm of the work matters as much as the lane layout. TxDOT lists excavation on weekdays from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., with hauling done overnight. Daytime trips mostly see crews working beside open lanes. The access closures fall at night.

The first week of November shows how that works. From Sunday, Nov. 1, through Thursday, Nov. 5, TxDOT scheduled the following, all from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m.:

Alternating single-lane closures on the northbound and southbound connector roads between the Pennybacker Bridge and Bold Ruler Way, every night that week
Bold Ruler Way and Waymaker Way access from northbound Loop 360 closed on alternating nights, starting Sunday
The northbound mainlane closed between the Shell Refuel Gas station and the Pennybacker Bridge, along with the East Westlake access, on Monday
The boat ramp access road at Loop 360 closed on Tuesday
Cedar Street access at Loop 360 closed on Wednesday
West Westlake Drive access at Loop 360 closed on Thursday

Crews closed one access point per night, so a different set of streets was affected each evening. If you get home after 8 p.m. by way of Cedar Street or West Westlake Drive, that night's closure decides your route. TxDOT updates the lane closure list at the top of its Westlake Drive/Cedar Street page, so check it before a late drive home.

The Last Piece Is the Part Built for Walking

The closures, the extra phases and the single lanes are all heading toward the walk Seth described. TxDOT's June 2025 construction information sheet lists shared-use paths and sidewalks within the project limits. The project schematic shows a 10-foot shared-use path and a 6-foot sidewalk on the west side of Westlake Drive.

Seth's description names the landmarks the route is meant to connect: the St. Stephen's campus, Jack Allen's Kitchen, the Westlake Drive bridge, Davenport Village, and the Pennybacker Bridge to the north. Today, getting from Jack Allen's to Davenport Village means a car trip across Loop 360. The finished project is designed to make it a walk over a bridge. In September 2025, the same St. Stephen's update said pedestrian access was still under construction. TxDOT still lists shared-use paths in Phase 2, which it shows as ongoing.

So the change most West Lake Hills households noticed first, driving through without a red light, came in the middle of the schedule. The change that would reshape everyday errands on this side of the river, walking between the shops and restaurants on either side of Loop 360 and up toward the Pennybacker Bridge, is part of the work still being built.

Then the Crews Move North

Late 2026 is the end of construction at Westlake Drive and Cedar Street, not on Loop 360. Community Impact's October 12 roundup lists the rest of TxDOT's Loop 360 program, which covers 14 miles under the Texas Clear Lanes initiative:

Project	What it changes	Status	Cost
Westlake Drive/Cedar Street	Mainlanes run under both cross streets; shared-use paths and sidewalks	Underway, 2022–26	$72.1 million
Courtyard Drive/RM 2222	Overpass at Courtyard Drive; RM 2222 becomes a diverging diamond interchange; paths and sidewalks	Broke ground April 29, four phases, 2026–29	$68.4 million
Lakewood Drive/Spicewood Springs Road	Mainlane signals removed, overpass at the cross street	Environmentally cleared in summer 2023; could start in 2029 if funded	To be determined
MoPac to RM 2244	Overpass at Walsh Tarlton Lane; overpass or underpass at Lost Creek Boulevard and Westbank Drive	Depends on funding	To be determined
RM 2244	Intersection improvements; a diverging diamond interchange is being studied	Waiting on more funding	To be determined

The project closest to the homes on the south end of this corridor is the one with the least certain timing. The MoPac-to-RM 2244 segment would remove signals at Walsh Tarlton Lane, Lost Creek Boulevard and Westbank Drive. Environmental work started in fall 2019, and TxDOT held public engagement events in 2019 and 2020. Its timeline, cost and funding are all listed as to be determined. For now, those three intersections keep their signals, and the active construction on the corridor moves north to Courtyard Drive and RM 2222 through 2029.

Big road projects change how buyers judge a location: how long the drive downtown takes, which streets they can walk, how far it is to Davenport Village. If you're planning to buy or sell along the Loop 360 corridor and want to know how this work is affecting your street, Grimes Group Austin can walk you through it as it happens. Request a Confidential Home Valuation and we'll show you how the new road is changing your address.