"Drivers will stay in the left lane to bypass signals at Westlake Drive and Cedar Street. Drivers will exit right for access to Westlake Drive and Cedar Street." Those two sentences sit near the top of the Texas Department of Transportation's project page for Loop 360 at Westlake Drive/Cedar Street. They describe the biggest change to the Davenport Ranch drive in years.
The new mainlanes opened Aug. 30, 2026, with one lane in each direction running beneath both cross streets. Two days later, the Austin American-Statesman photographed traffic flowing under both bridges. For decades, a red light at Westlake Drive made Davenport Village the easiest stop on Loop 360. Every driver headed that way had to pause in front of it. That pause is gone. Getting to the center now takes a lane choice made before the intersection. And the shopping center's owner has spent the past year and a half restocking it with tenants that give drivers a reason to make that choice.
The Move You Make Before the Bridge
The signal didn't vanish overnight. In February, Community Impact reported that signals at Westlake had moved onto permanent structures Jan. 23 and that both bridges were open while crews kept digging out the mainlanes. The August opening finished the switch. Through traffic now drops under Westlake Drive and Cedar Street, and every local trip happens one level up.
Here is how TxDOT lays out the current pattern:
| If you're headed to... | What the current pattern asks of you |
|---|---|
| North or south on Loop 360, passing through | Stay in the left lane and pass beneath Westlake Drive and Cedar Street without a signal |
| Westlake Drive or Cedar Street | Exit right onto the connector road |
| Loop 360 in the other direction | Use the non-signalized U-turns on the Westlake Drive bridge |
That last row matters most for a quick errand. The Westlake Drive bridge now handles turnarounds that the old signal used to handle at grade. A stop at Davenport Village on the way home now begins with an exit at the right moment and, depending on your direction, a loop over the highway. Through traffic got the simpler drive, while a corner errand now takes some planning.
What's Still Under Construction
Opening the mainlanes did not finish the project. TxDOT lists the job in five phases. Phase 1, the work zone and waterlines, is complete. Phases 2 through 4 are still marked ongoing: the connector roads, drainage and shared-use paths, the Westlake Drive bridge, and the Cedar Street bridge along with the completed mainlanes. Phase 5 is final paving and striping and the opening of permanent traffic patterns. TxDOT expects completion in late 2026, weather permitting.
In practice, the one-lane setup and the exit-and-U-turn routine reflect the current configuration, not necessarily the final one. Until Phase 5 is done, TxDOT says mainlane construction between Bold Ruler Way and Pennybacker Bridge will continue. Excavation runs weekdays from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., and hauling happens at night. Copasa Group is the contractor. The project page also posts temporary lane closures on the connector roads, so it's worth checking before a late-evening drive.
Construction began in June 2022. Community Impact's Oct. 12 roundup of the Loop 360 program puts the cost at $72.1 million, paid for by TxDOT and the City of Austin's 2016 mobility bond.
A Walkable Edge, on Paper
The part of the project most likely to change weekends hasn't been fully built yet. TxDOT's design calls for shared-use paths and sidewalks along this stretch of Loop 360. In 2022, KUT reported that the plan puts bicycle and pedestrian paths outside the frontage roads on both sides of the highway, across a project stretch of roughly two miles that begins near Pennybacker Bridge.
The 2019 public workshop summary adds detail that came out of public comment. TxDOT extended the north end of the path to connect with Pennybacker Bridge. It also planned a shared-use path on the Cedar Street bridge so people on foot or bike can cross between the two sides of Loop 360. The design isn't uniform. KUT reported that the east-side path narrows to eight feet in places, with a two-foot buffer along cliffs and at the Westlake Drive right turns.
Shared-use paths are still on TxDOT's ongoing Phase 2 list, so these routes should be read as plans until the barriers come down. Once they open, the Cedar Street crossing and the Pennybacker connection will add a walking and biking route along a corridor that has carried cars almost exclusively.
The Center at the Corner Changed Its Pitch
While the highway was rebuilt, the shopping center at 3801 N. Capital of Texas Hwy. was rebuilding its tenant mix. In March 2025, owner Whitestone REIT announced it had begun transforming the merchandising mix at Davenport Village. It described the goal as an "18-hour" activity hub built around coffee, fitness and executive workspace.
That pitch only makes sense if people come back to the center more than once a day. A highway that no longer stops drivers in front of the center raises the stakes. Here is what's open there now:
- Pvolve, Ste. D-120. Community Impact reported a soft opening on May 16, 2025.
- RVE Fitness, Suite I-100. Community Impact noted it opened in February 2023, before the remix began.
- Branch + Bird Home Interiors, Ste. D-130. Owner Laura Parsons opened it Oct. 21, 2025, offering interior design services and home accessories.
- Club Champion, Suite D100.
- Salons by JC, Suite D-200, with salon, barber, spa and beauty-professional suites.
- Face to Face Spa, F-110.
- Maudie's, which Whitestone's property page lists among the center's tenants.
Most of that list depends on repeat visits on a schedule: booked classes, standing salon appointments, a fitting at a golf shop, a design consultation. Those are planned trips, and planned trips survive the loss of a stoplight better than impulse stops do. Two fitness studios, a salon suite operator and a med spa give a driver a fixed reason to take the Westlake Drive exit on purpose.
North of the Bridge, the Next Signal Comes Down
The Westlake Drive pattern is about to be repeated farther up the highway. On April 29, 2026, TxDOT broke ground on the Courtyard Drive/RM 2222 project. It removes the Loop 360 signal at Courtyard Drive, builds an overpass and rebuilds the RM 2222 interchange as a diverging diamond, with shared-use paths and sidewalks added. Community Impact's roundup lists the cost at $68.4 million, with work in four phases on a 2026–29 schedule.
Here's the order on the calendar:
- Late 2026: Westlake Drive/Cedar Street reaches Phase 5, with final paving, striping and permanent traffic patterns, weather permitting.
- 2026–29: Courtyard Drive/RM 2222 construction runs across four phases north of Pennybacker Bridge.
- As early as 2029: The Lakewood Drive/Spicewood Springs Road project, environmentally cleared in summer 2023, could begin construction if funding comes through.
- No date yet: The MoPac-to-RM 2244 stretch, which would replace mainlane signals with an overpass at Walsh Tarlton Lane and an overpass or underpass at Lost Creek Boulevard and Westbank Drive, depends on funding.
All of it falls under TxDOT's 14-mile Loop 360 overhaul, part of the Texas Clear Lanes congestion relief initiative. Each signal that comes out repeats the change Westlake Drive just went through. The highway gets faster for people passing through, and each corner business depends more on drivers choosing the exit than on a red light stopping them there.
For now, the Westlake Drive exit is where that change shows up first. By the time the Phase 5 striping is down, the U-turn on the Westlake Drive bridge will be part of the regular route to an evening Pvolve class or a stop at Maudie's.
If you want to talk through how the Loop 360 projects affect daily life in a home along the corridor, DEN Property Group is glad to help. Find Your DEN.®
