The morning and evening commutes for about 27,000 drivers on RM 2222 became a major headache Wednesday after a 50-foot-long chunk of pavement washed away about 5 a.m., forcing the closure of the West Austin artery.



By 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, two lanes were reopened.

If the weather is dry today and Friday, officials said they should be able to repave the damaged area and open three lanes by Friday afternoon. With more rain, work might not be completed until next week, Texas Department of Transportation spokesman John Hurt said.

That would return RM 2222 just east of Loop 360 to its configuration — one eastbound lane and two westbound lanes — before remnants of Tropical Storm Hermine moved through and dumped more than a foot of rain on parts of Central Texas. The turn onto Lakewood Drive just east of Bull Creek will reopen when the third lane is back in use, officials said.

RM 2222, connecting Central Austin to the Lake Travis area, had four lanes since 1964 . But crews since last October have been building a new, higher bridge to put RM 2222 out of Bull Creek's 100-year flood plain, closing one lane.

The floodwaters on Bull Creek also damaged retaining walls under construction for the new, higher bridge. The torrent washed out earthen fill from the unfinished bridge approaches on the eastern and western side of the creek, said Tim Weight , director of construction for TxDOT's Austin district. And some concrete panels were washed downstream as well, Weight said.

"We were a little bit ahead of schedule" on the bridge construction, he said. "This is definitely a setback."

The $5.8 million project, which will make the highway 19 feet higher as it crosses the creek, still should be completed by late 2011 , officials said.

Weight said repairs to the bridge walls will make the project more expensive, but he couldn't say by how much.

The repairs to the section that was washed away should cost $50,000 to $75,000 , Weight said.