Michael Donaldson of Austin takes great pride in his back yard. It gives his dogs a place to play. On Thursday, however, there was a big, gaping hole in his fence.  Donaldson is frustrated over how it got there.

Early Wednesday morning, the driver of a black sedan lost control near the 4500 block of MoPac. The vehicle slammed into Donaldson’s fence, and slid for several feet before it stopped on its side near a guard rail.

No one was hurt, yet Donaldson believes the damage will cost him at least $10,000, and be an immeasurable burden on his time.

At the same time, he hopes the crash serves as a wake-up call to the agencies responsible for MoPac improvements.

Donaldson said he does not mind sound spilling over, but he does mind vehicles.  Because of the danger, he is hoping for sound walls.

“That really is a safety issue more than a sound issue,” he said. “I have an eight-foot embankment and a six-foot privacy fence, and that is all that protects me from a vehicle leaving MoPac.”

Since 2004, the state has spent millions of dollars studying sound walls. Yet there are none along the stretch where Donaldson lives. He says traffic has increased, and that accidents have too.  He cannot understand why there is still no wall.

“The amount of money that has been spent in replacing fencing, you know, we could have probably had sound walls from Lake Austin up to Windsor by now,” he said.