RM 620's Widening Has a Budget. Hudson Bend's Stretch Doesn't Yet.
The Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization describes its Transportation Improvement Program as a list of projects "that have funding and will begin implementation in the TIP time frame." Anyone who drives RM 620 off the Hudson Bend peninsula will want to know where that funded project ends.
It ends at Dave Drive. A City of Lakeway resolution packet from September 2026 lists the six-lane expansion from SH 71 to Dave Drive with a target fiscal year of 2029 and an estimated cost of $151.2 million. The segment that runs from Aria Drive to Hudson Bend has a target year of 2033 and "no identified funding commitment." On paper, the full TxDOT corridor reaches Hudson Bend Road. The part with a price tag and a fiscal year attached stops several miles short of it.
Most people say "the 620 widening" as if it were one job. In the planning documents it is two, and they are at very different stages.
| Segment | Planning ID | Target year | Funding status as of Sept. 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| SH 71 to Dave Drive | MPO 51-00199-00, CSJ 0683-02-072 | FY 2029 | Listed at an estimated $151.2 million |
| Aria Drive to Hudson Bend | MPO 51-00200-00, CSJ 0683-02-073 | 2033 | No identified funding commitment |
The northern project appears in CAMPO's 2050 Regional Transportation Plan. That plan is the long-range list. The TIP is the short list of projects with money behind them. For Hudson Bend, the gap between those two lists matters more than any date on a timeline.
The two segments also overlap. Aria Drive sits south of Dave Drive, so the stretch between them shows up in both projects. Lakeway's resolution calls this "an apparent overlap" and cites it as one more reason to plan the corridor as a whole.
If you have read about 620 this fall, the dates may have seemed to shift between articles. They did, depending on who was describing the project.
The Lakeway newsletter of September 25, 2026 summarized a TxDOT update this way: widening from SH 71 to Flint Rock Road is expected to start in 2029, interim improvements are planned from Flint Rock Road to Dave Drive, and the Dave Drive to Hudson Bend section is expected to start in 2033.
A day earlier, the Austin American-Statesman reported the same council briefing by TxDOT area engineer Orlando Gallegos. It described the first project as "projected to be completed in 2029" and the second, running from Flint Rock Road to Hudson Bend, as "scheduled for completion in 2033."
So the two accounts disagree on whether these are start years or completion years. They also place the northern project's southern end at three different streets: Dave Drive, Flint Rock Road and Aria Drive. Everyone agrees on the order. Hudson Bend's end of the road comes second, and it is the part without committed funding. Use 2033 as a target for the northern segment, not a date to plan around.
The design itself has been settled for years. TxDOT's RM 620 project page covers SH 71 to Hudson Bend Road under three control numbers: 0683-02-066, 0683-02-072 and 0683-02-073. The public hearing was held on February 20, 2020.
The Final Environmental Assessment, dated July 2020, describes what replaces today's four-lane rural road:
The detail that matters most for peninsula drivers is where the new road ends. Hudson Bend Road is the project's northern terminus, but the design carries the work about 1,500 feet past that intersection so the six-lane section can merge back into the existing 620. The environmental study covers the southern segment of 620 ending at Hudson Bend Road. It does not extend to the Mansfield Dam and RM 2222 area.
TxDOT's Finding of No Significant Impact lists refinements made after public comment. All of them fall south of Hudson Bend:
These are the same places where the funded project and the interim work are concentrated. The design documents and the money both point toward the southern end of the corridor.
Until the northern segment is funded, drivers heading north toward the peninsula will mostly see changes that are already in place or that involve no construction at all.
Signal timing. The Lakeway newsletter reported that TxDOT's RM 620 signal-timing study is complete and that "reprogramming of the signals should start this fall." That update did not list the intersections involved. Of everything in the 620 plans, though, retiming is the only change scheduled for this season.
The medians that are already there. According to the Statesman, Gallegos told the council that the temporary raised medians installed on RM 620 in 2018 cut annual left-turn crashes by 72%. The average fell from 20.8 a year in 2016 through 2019 to 5.8 a year in 2020 through 2025. The same report says TxDOT will replace the temporary medians with a permanent solid median during the widening. The U-turns and blocked left turns that drivers work around today are a preview of the permanent layout.
Work south of the peninsula. Right-of-way acquisition stood at 75 of 96 parcels, according to the Lakeway newsletter. Demolition and utility relocation in those sections come before construction. Gallegos said he did not expect the timelines to slip, but that utility relocation could cause delays. For someone coming from Hudson Bend Road, that work will show up on the drive toward SH 71 and the Bee Cave end, well before anything changes near home.
Travis County's road-closure listing currently shows closures on Sassman Road, Jesse Bohls Road and Old San Antonio/Puryear. It shows none on Hudson Bend Road or RM 620.
The funding gap has drawn public attention this fall. A Lakeway staff report for the September 8, 2026 council meeting said the draft TIP "includes the expansion of RM 620, but only in Bee Cave." The council then passed Resolution No. 2026-09-08-01. Its title states the request directly:
A resolution of the City of Lakeway, Texas, requesting that the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization modify the Transportation Improvement Program to extend the planned RM 620 improvements through the City of Lakeway to Oak Grove Boulevard; expressing the City's opposition to a partial improvement of the RM 620 corridor.
The resolution says that ending the funded project at Dave Drive "would divide the RM 620 corridor through the Lakeway area at an arbitrary point." Hudson Bend drivers have a stake in the outcome, because any extension of the funded limits brings the six-lane section closer to the peninsula.
The decision on the limits belongs to CAMPO. Its fall 2026 open house page set the public comment deadline for the 2027–2030 TIP amendments at September 21, 2026, scheduled a public hearing at the Transportation Policy Board's September 14 meeting, and listed October 4 as the expected date for action on the amendments. With that date now past, CAMPO's TIP page is the place to check the adopted limits for CSJ 0683-02-072 and whether CSJ 0683-02-073 has any funding attached.
If you're weighing a move on or off the peninsula, or you just want to talk through what the 620 timeline means for a home near Hudson Bend Road, Ellen Steele is glad to walk through it with you, without any pressure. Let's Connect.
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