Bee Cave’s efforts to complete roadwork at Hamilton Pool Road and Texas 71 have stalled again — this time due to the discovery of underground fiber and copper AT&T lines.

The intersection has become a tangle of congested traffic, orange barrels, cones and construction equipment as both Texas Department of Transportation and Hunter Industries work crews attempt to finish improvements to the roads and rights-of-way and the city prepares it for the future expansion of Bee Cave Parkway.
City contractor Hunter Industries’ progress has slowed because of weather delays, and just before Christmas its crews reported finding the AT&T lines on both the north and south side of Texas 71.
When Hunter crews located the lines, they stopped work on installing a culvert and improving the subgrades on both sides of Texas 71 and removed their equipment. Hunter will not resume construction until AT&T moves the lines, and city was holding its breath that the contractor would not charge it to remobilize equipment, which originally cost the city about $50,000.
AT&T officials indicated they would need two and a half to three months to design new lines and bid the project for construction. City consultant Casey Sledge said he believed it could take AT&T up to four months to complete the work.
Sledge also told council members that before Hunter began construction, AT&T stated they did not have lines in the area.
The issue wouldn’t be the first time the city has wrangled with AT&T over lines buried under major construction projects.
When crews were working on Texas 71 improvements in 2005 and 2006 that would tie into construction on Hill Country Galleria, they reportedly located buried AT&T lines.
“What is it from Yogi Berra? Déjà vu all over again? This is the exact same thing they did to the Highway 71 improvements years ago. This is ridiculous. Every project we do, they have lines in the middle of places where they are not supposed to be,” council member Mike Murphy said. “Isn’t there anything we’ve done to bring them into this?”
Bee Cave City Council members were set to meet in closed session Tuesday night to discuss which party would be responsible for line relocation costs as well as potential construction expenses on the second phase of Bee Cave Parkway incurred by the conflicting lines.
City Attorney Patty Akers noted that AT&T recently lost a Texas Supreme Court case that supports prior case law and states the company is responsible for relocation costs.
“I would like for us to be able to track all of our relocation costs – whether direct or indirect costs,” Akers said.
Akers and Mayor Caroline Murphy said that other cities throughout the state experience the same surprising line discoveries.
“Who really knows then what’s under there? I have been commiserating with other city officials on other committees and it was the same story: You don’t really know until you dig and that’s so frustrating because that’s tens of hundreds of thousands of dollars of delays and costs …” Mayor Murphy said.
In the meantime, the city is working to find ways to continue work on the intersection improvements.
“What we have asked TxDOT to look at now is there anything we do in the interim … that would improve traffic on 71,” City Manager Frank Salvato told council members at their regular meeting Jan. 12. “That would maybe speed up traffic a little bit there.”
Salvato said he and Don Nyland, area engineer for TxDOT, discussed striping a continuous right turn off eastbound 71 onto Hamilton Pool Road. That turn off has experienced backups because motorists turning and those attempting to continue east are sharing the same lane.
They also explored the possibility of opening up two westbound lanes to improve traffic flow.
“If that occurs we might not need [police] officers there in the afternoon,” Salvato said of efforts by the Bee Cave Police Department. “We are continuing to look at ways that we maybe could address traffic out there with a minimal cost.”