Until this fall, the center turn lane on Williams Drive carried a lot of daily traffic between Serenada Drive and Lakeway Drive. You could swing into a parking lot or wait in the middle for a gap and then turn left. That lane is now being removed. The City of Georgetown set September 16 as the start date for a raised center median on that stretch, and its project log shows crews cutting for the first medians by September 21. The city's announcement says that once work starts, "the existing center turn lane will be removed, and drivers will no longer be able to make left turns across the roadway in this section."
For anyone coming and going from Serenada, this changes the shape of the errand run more than any new restaurant has. Turns that used to happen in the middle of the block will now happen at the signalized intersections. The busiest of those for this neighborhood is where Serenada Drive meets Williams. The city expects the work to be finished in late 2027.
A Median Where the Turn Lane Used to Be
The Williams Drive Enhancement Project covers the whole corridor from Austin Avenue to Jim Hogg Road, and the city is building it in phases. The first phase runs from Serenada Drive to Lakeway Drive and includes the raised median, new street lighting, landscaping, and upgraded intersections and signals. Community Impact's October roadwork roundup puts this phase at $10.5 million. The money comes from the city, traffic impact fees, federal grants and tax increment financing.
The project's purpose explains why the turn lane has to go. City documents say the goal is to "enhance safety, reduce congestion and improve traffic flow," as Community Impact reported when construction began. A continuous center lane lets drivers cut across traffic almost anywhere. A raised median moves those turns to fixed points. The city says every business and neighborhood can still be reached, "though some traffic movements and access points will change."
How the First Month Has Gone
The city's project log on ClearGov shows the schedule so far:
- August 24: Dan Williams wins the construction bid, and the meet-the-contractor event is moved to September 3.
- September 16: The city's announced start date for median work between Serenada Drive and Lakeway Drive.
- September 21: Crews begin milling and cutting six inches deep for the median concrete between Serenada and Sports Clips Way. Traffic drops to one lane in each direction.
- September 25: The first section of concrete is scheduled to be poured.
- August 13, 2027: The anticipated completion date in the ClearGov timeline. The city's public announcement uses the looser "late 2027," with the caveat "weather, field conditions, and work progress permitting."
The September 23 entry also describes how the work moves. The contractor plans to stay "at least 1-2 medians ahead of their concrete crew" with the milling, and the log warns that "at times traffic will be down to 1 lane each direction." So the narrowed section moves along the corridor as each median segment is cut and poured. The Williamson County Sun reported that week that traffic was squeezed into one lane through the work zone. In practice, the stretch near Serenada Drive changes from week to week. The lane layout you drove past on Monday may not be the same on Friday.
Two Signals Do the Work the Center Lane Used to Share
The phase has a signal at each end. The city's 2024 Williams Drive Corridor Recommendation Report lists the signalized intersections at Deer Haven and Serenada and at Booty's Crossing and Lakeway.
The report's recommendations for Serenada and Lakeway are very different. At Serenada, it calls for a southbound left-turn bay, lane-specific striping, and a right-turn lane from Serenada Drive onto Williams Drive. At Lakeway and Booty's Crossing, it lists no additional changes. Across the corridor, it recommends raised medians with left-turn bays and wider pavement where U-turns are planned.
That report is a planning document dated February 2024, and the final design may differ. Still, it shows where the planners expected the pressure to land. Serenada Drive is the intersection they marked for added turning capacity in both directions: more room to turn onto Williams and more room to turn off it. The city has not published the exact locations of median openings or U-turn bays inside the segment. For now, the most reliable assumption is that a left turn across Williams between Serenada and Lakeway will happen at a signal.
The Errand Stretch Filled In Just Before the Median Arrived
The timing matters because the shops along Williams Drive in the 4500 to 4800 blocks have grown over the past 18 months. The new median now shapes how drivers get to them.
- H-E-B sits at 4500 Williams Drive, the corridor's grocery anchor.
- Cedar Breaks West, at 4610 Williams Drive, is a retail development by Durham & Bassett Realty Group. Tenants include Petco and Tropical Smoothie Cafe, and Sprouts Farmers Market is next door.
- Marshalls and HomeGoods were next. Community Impact reported in March that Arch Con Corp received city code approval in early February for shell spaces covering a 24,000-square-foot Marshalls and a 23,870-square-foot HomeGoods. Marshalls is a standalone building, and HomeGoods is next to Sprouts.
- Crust Pizza Co. opened May 5, 2025, at 4620 Williams Drive, Suite 107.
- Texas Honey Ham Company opened in mid-April 2025 at 4720 Williams Drive, Suite 220. Visit Georgetown lists it as a breakfast and lunch stop.
All of these addresses have even numbers, so they sit on the same side of Williams Drive. That is useful to know once the turn lane is gone. If your trip puts these lots on your right, you just pull in. If it puts them across the median, the trip goes through a signal first. A pizza pickup at Crust or a sandwich run to Texas Honey Ham can feel very different depending on which direction you leave from. That gap will grow as more of the median is poured.
A second Little Caesars is also coming to Williams Drive, at 3920, Suite 107. Community Impact cites a state filing that forecasts a $200,000 renovation starting in January 2027 and finishing in June. So new openings along the road will keep landing during construction.
The Back Way Is Under Construction Too
Normally, a closed or narrowed main road sends local drivers to a parallel route. For trips from this side of Georgetown, Shell Road is that route, and it has its own crews.
The city is widening Shell Road from Williams Drive to Sycamore Street to four lanes. The plan includes a raised median, a shared-use path, and left- and right-turn lanes. According to the Community Impact roundup, crews were installing storm sewer as of September. Street lights and signals were in at Rosedale but not yet turned on, and road base testing was still underway. The $19 million project runs from January 2026 through December 2027.
Shell Road meets Williams at the DB Wood and Shell signal, just outside the median work limits. The 2024 recommendation report calls for new signal phasing there, including letting the right-turn phases on Williams Drive run at the same time as the left-turn movement from DB Wood and Shell. The two schedules overlap almost exactly. The Williams Drive median is set to finish in late 2027 and the Shell Road widening in December 2027. Both of Serenada's usual routes onto the Williams corridor will be active work zones for about the same 14 months.
Neither project has a confirmed date for the next phase. The city describes the full Williams Drive corridor as running from Austin Avenue to Jim Hogg Road. The 2024 report put the DB Wood to Jim Hogg segment in a later third phase, timed "TBD" based on funding.
Where the Lane Changes Get Posted
The city sends traffic shifts and lane closures through the ClearGov project page, where you can also sign up for project updates. Questions go to [email protected] or 512-354-2627. Because the work moves one median section at a time, the page is most useful the night before a morning commute on Williams.
The city's main November event is at San Gabriel Park, away from the median work. The Field of Honor returns to the San Gabriel Park event lawn along Chamber Way and Morrow Street from November 7 to 15. It will have 2,026 flags, a Tunnel to Towers mobile exhibit from November 7 to 12, and a Veterans Day ceremony on November 11.
New medians, turn bays and signal changes affect how a home's street connects to everything around it, and that connection is part of the property's value. If you're thinking about how the Williams Drive work affects a home in Serenada you own or are considering, Bryan Thomas Properties can go through the city's plans with you, explain the construction schedule, and show how access fits into pricing and timing. Work With Bryan.
