Fueled by a growing need for water, construction on Water Treatment Plant No. 4 is well underway.

The planning for a new water plant began in the 1970s, with the Austin City Council voting the project through in 2009. The final price of the plant: $508 million.

Water from Lake Travis will be pumped to raw in-take stations and treated before the fresh supply of water will be sent to consumers across the city.

Crews are currently working on a tunnel that's about a mile long which would take the water from the lake into the plant.

"I am very pleased on our progress, and personally it's wonderful to see these things come off of the plans and actually see the concrete coming out of the ground," Austin Water Utility Project Sponsor Bill Stauber said.

Initially, opponents of the plan stressed ecological concerns. They asked for a project delay to fully study the environmental impact of construction and tunneling.

City engineers said the new plant will be more energy efficient than the two other water plants currently in operation.

Experts working on the plant said Lake Travis's elevation above the plant will allow water to flow downward using less energy for water to be pumped into homes.

Further work is needed to finish construction on the tunnel to supply the water. The plant is scheduled to begin operating at full capacity in 2014.

The city expects the plant to create approximately 3,500 jobs.