The City of Round Rock will begin work this month on two projects to lessen congestion along Gattis School Road.

The City will install Flashing Yellow Arrow signals on Gattis School Road beginning the week of March 18. The new signals are the first step to implementing a coordinated signal timing plan along the corridor, from Red Bud Lane to Mays Street.

The Flashing Yellow Left Arrow will allow drivers to turn left, after determining the turn is safe, during the period between the protected green arrow and the red light.

Flashing Yellow Arrow signals were installed along University Boulevard in November, with the goal to reduce wait times by 30 percent on that corridor.

The first phase of the Gattis School Road project will improve timings to reduce delay from Red Bud Lane to A.W. Grimes Boulevard. Evening traffic along Gattis School Road should experience almost 20 percent less delay, while the morning rush hour should feel almost 50 percent less congested.

The second phase of coordination work will continue the timing plan improvements all the way to the Mays Street signal, but that work can’t be done until the existing signal at Greenlawn Boulevard is replaced.  The contract for that work will be up for approval at the March 28 City Council meeting.

The City is implementing Flashing Yellow Arrows in the wake of a multi-year, multi-state study conducted for the Federal Highway Administration. The study showed this type of signal display provides a more intuitive message and eliminates driver confusion. This signal display became the national standard for allowing protected/permitted left turns in 2009. The State of Texas adopted this standard in December 2011.

The second project is adding a center turn lane on Gattis School Road at its intersection with Rusk Road. Construction should begin in mid to late March, first to realign the sidewalk on the north side of Gattis, with the road work to follow in early April.   The City expects this construction to be completed by mid-summer.