The Oak Hill Parkway is finished. Community Impact reported on Oct. 28 that construction on the $677 million project is substantially complete. Since 2021, it has turned a seven-mile, four-lane undivided road into a six-lane divided highway with new frontage roads and 15 miles of shared-use paths. The Y at Hwy. 71 and Hwy. 290 now has flyovers that carry through traffic over the intersection.
That was the goal. In 2025, the Texas A&M Transportation Institute ranked this stretch 45th on the state's list of the 100 most congested road segments. But the thing that made the Y miserable also kept the shops along it busy. Drivers stuck at a light could see the bakery, the sub shop and the strip center out the window. Now the highway passes over them. Every business near the Y has to give people a reason to take the exit, and the most talked-about opening in Oak Hill in years is set up to do exactly that.
The bottleneck is gone, and so are the drive-by customers
The first places to feel the change were the ones that relied on people driving past. Sweet Treets in Oak Hill Centre recently started serving coffee to bring in more foot traffic, its general manager told Community Impact. She said foot traffic is still lower than it was before construction. She also said the backup at William Cannon has eased. In other words, the change that shortened her customers' drives also pulled them past her door.
"Our retail traffic, it's still pretty severely impacted now that it's a [thruway] ... we aren't seeing as many customers as we used to see."
Tucci's Southside Subs on Hwy. 71 adjusted earlier. After construction started, it updated its point-of-sale system so it could take orders from every delivery service. A shift leader there was more hopeful about the finished road, and he told Community Impact he expects new commercial development to come to Oak Hill.
"If [people] haven't been over here lately, come check it out because it's a lot easier to get around."
Both views can be right at once. A road that's easier to get around is also easier to drive straight through. Which effect wins depends on whether the places by the Y give people a reason to get off.
The newest reason sits at the Convict Hill exit
Escuela opened in September at 6240 US-290 W, on the westbound side at the Convict Hill exit, west of the Y. The location matters. For years, any restaurant on this stretch was competing with the traffic around it. Escuela opened just as the traffic eased, and it's built for people who come on purpose.
The building does a lot of that work. Escuela is in the old Oak Hill Elementary School, a three-room limestone schoolhouse that opened in 1923 on land donated by James Andrew Patton, who served on the Board of School Trustees for about 40 years. Patton's house next door still stands on the property. Rooms were added in 1933 and 1954, and Escuela's history page notes you can still see the three kinds of limestone used over the years. The same page quotes a 1974 article, published as the school was moving to a new building, that hoped the old schoolhouse would be preserved as a landmark. The five-acre property also grows produce for the menu.
The owners are Don, Terri and Truett Brinkman, the Austin family behind Cabo Bob's, Tribeza reported. There are two concepts. Escuela Fino, the one open now, serves creative Tex-Mex inside the restored schoolhouse. Escuela Campo is a more casual, barbecue-focused concept for the oak-shaded grounds, and Tribeza reported it was set to open in November. Escuela's Campo page says it will take walk-ins on a first-come, first-served basis.
Good to know before you go:
- Hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 5 to 10 p.m. Closed Sunday and Monday.
- Reservations: Online for parties of up to six. Axios Austin reported that reservations open 30 days ahead at midnight, and that getting a table took an alarm and alerts once the restaurant took off on social media.
- The bar: The same Axios review says the bar may have a seat for walk-ins on a slower night.
- The garden: Axios says the garden path, where the kitchen's produce grows, is open to anyone to explore, and it recommends leaving time to walk the grounds before you sit down.
- What to order: Axios pointed to the salsa tasting at $9, the corn rib elotes at $11 and the Maestra Martini at $17, which comes with a sidecar pour.
On the Hwy. 71 side, the regulars were already worth the turn
Escuela is the new arrival, but the Hwy. 71 side of the Y already had places people drove to on purpose. Now the drive is easier.
Jack Allen's Kitchen has been at 7720 Highway 71 West since 2009. It booked a patio party for Oct. 27 to celebrate the parkway opening and the end of construction. That tells you which Oak Hill businesses see the finished road as good news.
A little farther out, Southern Steer Butcher opened its Oak Hill shop at 8701 State Hwy. 71 West, Suite 100, on Oct. 18, 2025. It sells meat, sides and appetizers. Its Oak Hill page lists holiday products now, which makes it a practical stop as Thanksgiving gets close.
Tucci's Southside Subs is at 7101 W. Texas 71, Suite A-5, and takes pickup and delivery orders.
Oak Hill Centre is where the access question gets decided
The US 290 side has the shops most tied to the old traffic pattern, grouped in Oak Hill Centre at 6705 US-290. Sweet Treets is in Suite 601, now with coffee. Graze Craze is in Suite 609 and takes online orders. In June 2025, Graze Craze told Community Impact that customers and delivery drivers were having trouble finding the center's entrance during construction. That kind of problem is supposed to go away once frontage roads stop changing every few weeks.
The finished road gives drivers more ways to cross. There are new bridge intersections at Convict Hill Road, RM 1826, Scenic Brook Drive and Circle Drive. In June, KXAN reported that U-turns were open to help customers reach the shopping center at SH 71 and US 290. West of the Y, Oak Hill Social at 8600 Hwy. 290 W was an early example of the new layout helping a business. In mid-2025, it told Community Impact that a new bridge gave it a direct crossing nearby and made it easier to reach.
So the same road layout affects businesses differently. A shop next to a new crossing got easier to reach. A shop that depended on stopped traffic lost some of its passersby.
What's still under construction this week
The major work is done. The eastbound US 290 mainlanes opened in March and the westbound lanes in April, KXAN reported, and by June drivers were using the flyovers at the Y. TxDOT told Community Impact that the shared-use paths, landscaping and painting will keep being finished through November.
That cleanup still means some overnight closures. TxDOT's alerts page lists these for this week:
- Nov. 4 through Nov. 6: Restrictions at the eastbound El Rey Boulevard and RM 1826 entrances, and on westbound US 290 between RM 1826 and Boling Drive.
- Nov. 5 through Nov. 6: Restrictions at the Scenic Brook exit and bypass.
If you're heading to dinner on the 290 side on Thursday or Friday night, check the alerts page before you leave. The road is much easier now, but it isn't fully finished yet.
The parkway changed where Oak Hill feels easy to reach, and that can show up in what nearby homes are worth. If you live near the Y and want to know where your home stands now that construction is over, Walker Residential Group can start with an Instant Home Valuation and then go over the details with you.
