ATX-NNW: Impact 11/10/2025

Check out the latest Northwest Austin transportation project updates, including major highway projects, flood risk reduction and a new speed limit.

Ongoing projects
Cameron Road/Dessau Road Safety Project
Project: Various safety improvements between Cameron and Dessau Road including protected bicycle lanes and shared-use paths, enhanced pedestrian crossings, improved bus stop safety, driveway access reconfigurations, street lighting upgrades and lane reconfiguration.
Update: Transit improvements have begun between East 51st Street and US 290, including bike lane protections and multimodal bus stops serving northbound and southbound routes.

• Timeline: completion expected in 2027
• Cost: $14 million
• Funding source: 2020 Mobility Bond program, 2022 Safe Streets and Roads for All grant

• Cost: $500
• Funding source: Transportation and Public Works operating budget

Austin leaders are readying to adopt a downsized budget with potentially cuts to city services, after voters rejected a 20% tax rate increase to fund various public programs.

The impact: The failure of Proposition Q automatically lowers Austin's tax rate to $0.524017 per $100 property valuation—5 cents below the higher tax rate that was on the ballot, but still a nearly 10% increase over last year's $0.4776 rate. The owner of a median-valued home in Austin can now expect to pay just over $100 more in property taxes.

What's next: With less revenue coming in, City Council will now be tasked with reducing a budget they expanded by about $110 million this summer. Austin's final spending plan will now likely resemble the original fiscal year 2025-26 budget proposed by City Manager T.C. Broadnax in July, although changes are possible.

One more thing: The taxing proposition's defeat also prompted calls for a broad audit of city spending and service outcomes from both sides of the election debate.

Check out the top trending Community Impact stories in the Austin metro from Nov. 3-7.

1. New high-rise height limit now in effect for downtown Austin

2. Austinites reject Proposition Q tax hike

3. New Indian grocery store in the works in Pflugerville

4. Lucky Claw Mania now open in Pflugerville

5. Austin ISD to hold off on 3 school closures, delay boundary changes

6. Pflugerville mayoral race heads to runoff; Coffman wins open council seat

The air traffic control tower at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport is staffed at just 45% of its target, according to U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett.

The overview: Only 27 controllers are currently assigned to a tower that needs 60 to meet federal recommendations. The Federal Aviation Administration attributes nationwide shortages to disrupted hiring and training cycles. Controller turnover remains a top issue, according to FAA reports. While the FAA plans to hire 8,900 controllers by 2028, projected departures mean only a net gain of about 2,000. 

The local lens: Those gaps have raised safety concerns. Since late 2022, the FAA has recorded six near-miss incidents at ABIA. 

Local leaders warn that without faster staffing relief, reliability and safety could suffer as Austin’s aviation demand rises.

Quote of note: “These staffing-related disruptions are now systemic, recurring with increasing frequency and intensity. ... With record-setting passenger growth and a multi-billion-dollar expansion underway, AUS cannot meet its operational or safety commitments without immediate staffing relief,” ABIA CEO Ghizlane Badawi wrote in a letter to FAA administrators.