South Austin bar Manchaca Springs Saloon recently held a grand reopening after making various improvements to its outdoor space.

The details: According to new owner Forrest Welborn, who took over last summer, the business recently improved the existing bar, including rebuilding its outdoor stage, which features live music from local musicians each night, open mic nights and karaoke. The bar also offers a daily happy hour and drink specials. 

• 737 FM 1626, Austin

Two South Austin roadways will be renamed in honor of an historic church and a local civil rights activist. One of the changes also represents the latest effort by the city and some community members to strike Confederate references from Austin's public assets.

Stretches of Paisano Trail and Plantation Road, located south of West William Cannon Drive and east of Brodie Lane, are being renamed after City Council voted in favor of the updates July 23. The updates will honor Zion Rest Missionary Baptist Church, a longtime house of worship in the historic Kincheonville area, and local activist and publisher Tommie Lee Wyatt.

The approach: Plantation Road was one of several assets around Austin previously identified as a high priority for renaming given its association with the pre-Civil War South. Its reclassification comes several years after another Confederate-linked roadway renaming in Central Austin.

Check out the latest transportation project updates across the Austin metro. 

Upcoming projects

Austin Light Rail vehicle design to advance under $39M contract with Stadler: Switzerland-based Stadler has been selected to deliver the train cars for Austin Light Rail, the third and final major vendor brought on for the project's first stages this year. Officials with the Austin Transit Partnership advanced a $39 million contract with Stadler to design the fully electric vehicles July 15.

Ongoing projects

North-south route coming to Round Rock’s west side: Residents on Round Rock’s west side will soon have a true alternative to I-35 once the city and county complete the full extension of Wyoming Springs Drive, officials said in June. Ongoing and future road projects are set to help drivers and pedestrians reach their destinations faster and with less traffic.

Completed projects

New bridge over Onion Creek opens in Buda, increasing city access: The bridge will provide community members and first responders a faster route to travel in the city, connecting Cole Springs Road with FM 2770.

Texas’ power grid operator and regulator have laid out their plans to regulate data centers that connect to the state grid and ensure data center companies, not residents, pay for the industry’s growth.

What's happening: To shield Texans from the negative impacts of data center growth, the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas are:

• Prohibiting data centers from taking existing power resources off the grid
• Launching a new process to evaluate large projects looking to connect to the grid
• Creating standards that large consumers must meet before joining the grid
• Developing incentives for large consumers to reduce their energy use ahead of a grid emergency
• Requiring large companies to pay for the grid infrastructure needed to serve them
• Improving ERCOT’s process for projecting future demand