View Austin Street Closures For Texas Relays 2011 in a larger map
The Texas Relays are not just a serious competition for track and field athletes. The annual event has also become a celebration of southern car culture. All those slabs cruising through downtown can make it very difficult to navigate the area. This year, Austin police say they are taking extra measures to try to mitigate the gridlock.
"The volume of cars will end up exceeding the capacity of the roadways, so it's going to be a traffic management issue for us," APD Assistant Chief Raul Munguia told KUT News.
"One of the issues with [traffic] last year was drivers entering blocked intersections," he said. "Basically when the light would turn red, they're stuck in the intersection, and the opposing traffic couldn't proceed through the intersection because it was blocked."
Munguia says this year, APD is assigning officers to frontage road intersections at East 11th, East 12th, East 7th, and East 8th streets to try to prevent that from happening.
He says APD will also be monitoring the traffic volume through cameras and controlling stop lights in an effort to keep cars moving. Munguia says it’s the first time they've done that during the Texas Relays.
Please understand the legend of our Google Map! Black means a full closure, which APD says could take effect as soon as 6 pm today or Saturday. Red indicates a partial closure. Pink represents an optional closure. APD could implement those if it deems it necessary for public safety.
