Starting today, city crews will begin replacing the water-filled barricades on East Sixth Street with concrete barriers.
The swap is one step in Austin's effort to tame the famously rowdy strip and create a more welcoming district that draws a broader age range and more spending, even if not everyone's ready to sanitize "Dirty Sixth."
The new concrete barricades will stand 3.5 feet tall, shorter than the current plastic ones, and run along both sides of the street for two blocks, from San Jacinto Boulevard to Neches Street. A rubberized curb from Neches to Red River Street, installed in January, will remain.
After installation, a local artist will paint a mural on the barriers, paid for by the , a nonprofit representing property owners, businesses and individuals.
The $150,000 project � funded by Austin Transportation and Public Works � is one part of an evolving safety experiment with Sixth Street. City officials late-night fights and drunken partying in the street while repositioning the district as a more welcoming destination during the day and early evenings.
"The goal is for there to be an evolution into an 18-hour district, which includes high density, high foot traffic, late Saturday nights, all the things that we know and love about Sixth Street," said Hannah Rangel, a vice president with the Downtown Austin Alliance. "But it also includes some restaurants, some daytime activity, something that offers something for everybody."
For decades, the Austin Police Department closed Sixth Street to cars on weekend nights, leaving the road open to young partiers crawling double-decker bars and allowing crowds to gather in the street.
But that changed last December when APD began keeping Sixth Street open to vehicles, pushing foot traffic back onto sidewalks. Only when the sidewalks became extremely crowded, like when bars were about to close, would police block traffic and open the street to pedestrians.
In the first two months of 2025, APD Chief Lisa Davis , the number of times police used physical force against people on Sixth Street dropped in half compared to January and February 2024. The number of arrests fell by a third, from 171 to 113.
"There's a huge behavior shift and cultural shift happening. I think that it's part of a positive evolution for the district � and a necessary one," Rangel said.
Some bar workers say the new setup has hardly been a cure-all for drunken violence.
"I guess there's a little bit less, but it still happens," said Jose Ayala, a bartender at Cheers Shot Bar. "It's more intense, because now it's like everybody's stuck in a close quarter [on the sidewalk]. Now you have ass-to-butt of people just bumping into each other, and then a lot of tensions start rising."
The shift to concrete barricades follows months of trial and error. Temporary fencing installed in January was damaged by people leaning on it. Cars would drive over the base of the fencing that jutted into the street.
In May, the white fences were replaced with boldly colored white and yellow barricades, which weigh hundreds of pounds when filled with water. But they were meant only as a temporary fix.
Richard Mendoza, the city's top transportation official, the new concrete barriers will remain while staff work on "long-term design changes intended for the future."
The city is expected to release options for a sweeping overhaul of Sixth Street as soon as this month. A final recommendation to the City Council is due by late October.
Among the changes being considered: converting Sixth Street from a between Brazos and I-35, shifting the road's function as a busy east-west corridor for vehicles into a more destination-oriented street.
Some investors are already betting on a new chapter for Sixth Street. Among them is Stream Realty Partners, a Dallas-based firm that's acquired dozens of parcels along the street since 2019, such as Dirty Dog Bar, All Saints Tattoo and Easy Tiger. County tax records show Stream's 39 properties on Sixth Street are now valued at over $220 million.
Mendoza said such "stakeholders" are being consulted about the changes, but that public input will influence the design.
Removing the water-filled barricades will take about two days, TPW spokesperson Brad Cesak said. Installing the concrete barriers will take about two more. So they should be up in time for the weekend crowds.
After the concrete barriers are installed, the northern most lane will be designated for loading and rideshare drop-off and pick-up, Cesak said.
The Downtown Austin Alliance said the mural will be done by the end of the month.
