AUSTIN (KXAN) — Traffic patterns throughout parts of Austin could look substantially different in several years' time, as Project Connect officials detail new roadway configurations to accommodate the future light rail system. Project Connect is planning a 9.8-mile, 15-station route as its initial phase of light rail, running from 38th Street to Oltorf Street to Yellow Jacket Lane. The project's current timeline is kickstarting construction in 2027 and completing the first phase of light rail in 2033. Officials released last week the draft environmental impact statement (DEIS), a federally required document analyzing the totality of environmental, sociocultural and neighborhood impacts the future light rail line will have along the project corridor. Included in the massive, 16,000-plus page document are details on future street reconfigurations, primarily located near the West Campus neighborhood and downtown Austin. Here's a walkthrough of the road changes to come under the current plan presented in the document. North section The northern section of the light rail route travels between 38th Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. The DEIS detailed the light rail will run in the center of the roadway with an at-grade alignment, traveling south from 38th Street down to the University of Texas at Austin campus. New stations, urban greenway detailed in Austin’s Project Connect light rail impact draft Guadalupe Street between 29th and 27th streets will function as a light rail and pedestrian only corridor, with vehicle traffic (save for emergency vehicles) restricted courtesy signage, traffic control devices and curbs. From 27th to 21st streets, Guadalupe Street will operate as a transit and pedestrian-centered corridor, with this area featuring the light rail guideway, bicycle and pedestrian facilities and one travel lane in each direction for buses. Vehicles traveling along Guadalupe Street will be diverted to surrounding roads, such as San Antonio Street, Whitis Avenue and Nueces Street. Artist conceptual visualization of light rail crossing near The University of Texas at Austin (Courtesy Austin Transit Partnership) Downtown section The downtown portion will comprise Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard through Lady Bird Lake. The light rail will continue extending south on a center-running, at-grade alignment along Guadalupe Street from Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard down to Third Street. For this portion, Guadalupe Street will feature the light rail guideway, sidewalks and one lane of traffic in each direction outside of the light rail line. The current southbound bicycle lane on Guadalupe Street and the northbound bicycle lane on Lavaca Street north of Fourth Street will be removed due to the new street configuration. Instead, new bicycle lanes will be built on Nueces Street and existing facilities will be upgraded. On Guadalupe Street between Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Third Street, non-light rail and pedestrian traffic will be limited to buses, emergency vehicles and vehicles needing access for local deliveries and garages. General traffic will reroute to Lavaca Street, which will become a two-way roadway with traffic in each direction between Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Second Street. To accommodate that road pattern change, Lavaca Street will be restriped between Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Cesar Chavez Street. Lavaca Street will then feature two northbound lanes, two southbound lanes and left-turn lanes at some intersections. Billions of dollars in Austin transportation projects to advance in 2025 Along the South First Street Bridge, the road will be restriped to offer a northbound left-turn lane for buses needing to access northbound Guadalupe Street. A northbound bus queue jump feature will also be added to the traffic signal at Riverside Drive and South First Street to all northbound buses traveling in the outer traffic lane to merge into the innermost traffic lane to access that northbound left-turn lane onto Guadalupe Street. On Third Street between Colorado Street and Congress Avenue, vehicular traffic won't be allowed and will instead be redirected to area roadways, such as Second and Fourth streets. The protected bikeway on Third Street would move to Fourth Street, which will be modified between Nueces and Trinity streets to have protected bike lanes in each direction. The current parking available on Fourth Street would be removed or tweaked to add in the bike lanes while maintaining one lane of vehicle traffic in each direction. Artist conceptual visualization of Project Connect's light rail system crossing Lady Bird Lake (Courtesy Austin Transit Partnership) South section The light rail will travel across Lady Bird Lake and connect to east Riverside Drive before splitting into two branches: the south section and the east section. The south section branch would travel south along South Congress Avenue, before finishing at the intersection of South Congress Avenue and Oltorf Street. “This area of South Congress Avenue hosts a high activity mixed-use district and education facilities including Lively Middle School and the Texas School for the Deaf," the DEIS read. "The center-running at-grade eastern portion of the Build Alternative would traverse the neighborhood of Travis Heights and parkland on the south shore of Lady Bird Lake.” Project Connect would incorporate bike and pedestrian facilities along the project corridor, which will include features like bike lanes, sidewalks and shared-use paths. Artist conceptual visualization of light rail passing by the H-E-B at the intersection of Congress Avenue and Oltorf Street (Courtesy Austin Transit Partnership) East section The east section travels along East Riverside Drive from Interstate 35 to Yellow Jacket Lane, with the light rail guideway a center-running path traveling at grade. Bike and pedestrian facilities are also planned along the eastern section of the project, linking to existing or planned facilities in development. Currently, there are some bus-only lanes along East Riverside Drive. The project proposes removing the existing bus-only lanes between Summit Street and Grove Boulevard to accommodate the project's design, instead having buses travel in general traffic lanes. Artist conceptual visualization of light rail and an urban greenway recommended near the intersection of Riverside Drive and Pleasant Valley Road (Courtesy Austin Transit Partnership)