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Austinites aren’t the only ones who are bringing some change to the new year. The airport in Austin will be undergoing some modifications in 2026. More gates, more flights – and more construction.
We’ll take a closer look at the changes happening at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.
Plus, a major milestone has been reached in the construction of a new water delivery system underneath Lake Travis. Once it’s finished, the system is expected to increase the Brushy Creek Regional Utility Authority’s water supply to 145 million gallons per day and reduce its vulnerability to drought.
Maybe you’ve decided to cut back on alcohol to start the year. That doesn’t mean a relaxing drink should be a boring one. We’ve got some Dry January recipes that’ll jazz up your 2026.
The full transcript of this episode of Austin Signal is available on the KUT & KUTX Studio website. The transcript is also available as subtitles or captions on some podcast apps.
Jerry Quijano [00:00:09] Austinites aren’t the only ones who are bringing some change to the new year. The airport in Austin will be undergoing some modifications in 2026. More gates, more flights, more construction. The change is happening at Austin-Bergstrom, plus a major milestone has been reached in the construction of a new water delivery system underneath Lake Travis. Once it’s finished, the system is expected to increase the water supply for Cedar Park, Leander, and Round Rock to 145 million gallons per day and reduce vulnerability to drought. We’ve got those stories coming at you next.
KUT Announcer: Laurie Gallardo [00:00:42] The Austin Signal is a production of KUT News hosted by Jerry Quijano.
Jerry Quijano [00:00:47] And maybe you’ve decided to cut back on alcohol to start the year. That doesn’t mean your drink should be a boring one. We’ve some recipes that’ll jazz up your 2026. Coming up next on Austin Signal. Howdy out there, thank you for tuning in. This is Austin Signal. It’s Wednesday, January 7th. We are completing our first full week of 2026 and we’re very glad you’re spending part of it right here with us. This is listener-supported public radio, KUT News. I’m your host, Jerry Quijano. Let’s get into today’s show. The Austin Bergstrom International Airport will be undergoing a few changes in 2026. It’s a story that KUT’s transportation reporter, Nathan Bernier has been following. He was out at a press conference held at the airport this morning, and he’s here in the studio with us now for an update. Howdy, Nathan. Hey, Jerry. So, take us back a little bit, I know this goes to August of last year, City Council approved an expansion to the airport, and also a new deal that made that expansion even bigger?
Nathan Bernier [00:01:54] Yeah. So basically what happened is this expansion really, it’s been in the works for years. It got paused during COVID because, you know, because, and, uh, and then after COVID people started flying in droves. Yeah. Yeah. The numbers really went up. Yeah. And so they started the expansion, but they never really knew exactly how big the expansion would be. One of the biggest pieces of this is something called Concourse B, and this is a standalone facility. It’s like a new building with at least 20 gates connected to the existing Barbara Jordan terminal by an underground pedestrian tunnel, and the renderings show a moving walkway, so, you know, it’ll make it a little bit easier for you, Jerry. Yeah, yeah. But, so anyway, what happened late last year is the city finally negotiated 10-year lease agreements with the seven biggest carriers. At Austin Berksham International Airport, like those with the biggest presence, Southwest, Delta American, and those were finalized by the airlines in recent days. So those 10-year contracts give the city a couple things. Number one, a very clear idea of how much gate space these airlines are planning to lease over the next decade. And now this Concourse B, for example, that’s slated to open in the early 2030s, so within the next decade. So it gave them how much an idea of exactly how much gate space we can get into that if you want to talk about specific airlines. I mean, Southwest is looking to perhaps more than double its presence. The second thing it did is it gave the city the ability to borrow against that, those contracts. So the airport expansion, it’s now pegged at over $5 billion. City doesn’t have that. And this money, by the way, does not come from property tax.
Jerry Quijano [00:03:42] I was gonna ask you, where does it come from?
Nathan Bernier [00:03:44] So it comes from loans that are repaid with airport revenue. Now, and some of it is paid up front, it’s not all loans. Some of this is like literally, you know, the airport takes in a lot of money. They charge the airlines, they make a ton of money from parking. So you can think about that every time you stay in the red garage for a few nights, you’re helping for the airport expenses.
Jerry Quijano [00:04:02] Especially after the holidays.
Nathan Bernier [00:04:04] So, so that, so now it’s all coming together. And today they finally said, this is exactly how many gates we are planning to open and the number is, you wanted me to say it? 32 gates. Now that’s not all concourse B. So this is something that, uh, people may be less familiar with concourse M. So concourse, B I told you about that. That’s going to have a 20. Six gates, 26 gates, Concourse B, we didn’t know that until today, they’re going to open with 26 gates most of those are going to southwest, they are going be the new anchor tenant of Concourse b, then there’s something called Concourse M, M stands for midfield, so this is like a pre-manu, the term the airport official used with me was pre-engineered, a building, basically they’re gonna put a building in the middle of the airfield And you’ll get to it by going down to gate 13 in the Barbara Jordan terminal, hopping on a bus, taking a three to five minute bus ride to Concourse M. And that’s gonna have six gates. Some of them will be kind of like the south terminal now where you literally walk onto the airfield and like walk up a flight of stairs to get on your plane. There’ll be a couple, some of them we’ll have actual jet bridges like the tube, the tunnel you walk through to get onto the plane. But right now they don’t have any airlines committed to Concource M. Their initial plan is to use it for like flight diversions or maybe charter flights. And they hope that they can convince. Airlines, this is something you want to use. Now, Allegianton Frontier are currently in the South Terminal, which is going to close in the spring, so they can knock it down and make space for more taxiways. So maybe Allegiantont Frontier will operate there? I don’t know. I asked an airport official back today. They said, you know, no one’s committed yet. So right now, Allegentont Frontiers are going to be just in the Jordan terminal, as far as we know, as we know for now.
Jerry Quijano [00:05:45] Okay, well, we have been speaking with KUT’s transportation reporter, Nathan Bernier. As I said, he was out at the airport today. He’s gonna have more coming up later on KUT.org and we will have that story in our show notes. Nathan, thanks for coming on the show.
Nathan Bernier [00:05:57] Glad to be here, Jerry, thank you.
Jerry Quijano [00:06:03] Alright, well central Texas cities get their water in a mix of ways. North of Austin, the Brushy Creek Regional Utility Authority just completed a major milestone in getting water to the residents of Leander, Round Rock, and Cedar Park. That’s underground tunnels beneath Lake Travis. For more about this, we’re speaking with KUT’s Hays County reporter, Kailey Hunt. Kailey, thanks for coming on the show.
Kailey Hunt [00:06:24] Hey Jerry, how’s it going?
Jerry Quijano [00:06:25] I’m doing pretty well, how are you?
Kailey Hunt [00:06:27] I’m good.
Jerry Quijano [00:06:28] Alright, so tell us about this project. What is it and why was it implemented in the first place?
Kailey Hunt [00:06:35] Yeah, so you know it’s really interesting. This project actually dates back about 20 years, all the way back to 2006-2007, which is actually when the cities of Cedar Park, Leander, and Round Rock came together to form the Brushy Creek Regional Utility Authority, or as you might known as the BCRUAs, people say.
Jerry Quijano [00:06:56] Much simpler.
Kailey Hunt [00:06:57] And, yes, so, and what they decided was that these cities together was that they needed a safe and reliable, but more importantly, cost-effective way to supply water from Lake Travis to these three fast-growing cities. And so that was priority number one. Second, as we’ve gone through the years, we’ve had some terrible droughts, right? We’ve covered that quite a bit at KUT.
Kailey Hunt [00:07:24] Mm-hmm. So the other part of it was they needed to make sure that they were constructing a system that would be quote drought resilient right allow them to continue to draw water from Lake Travis even when those water levels drop.
Jerry Quijano [00:07:38] Yeah, so now that they have these tunnels underneath Lake Travis, that’s how they are planning to get their water. A few more steps to come, we’re going to talk about that. First I want to ask, how do they get their water right now?
Kailey Hunt [00:07:50] Yeah, so that’s perfect. You kind of need to know how we’re currently getting our water to kind of understand how this new system is really going to help us out.
Jerry Quijano [00:07:58] Mm-hmm.
Kailey Hunt [00:07:59] So currently the cities of Leander, Cedar Park and Round Rock use what are called floating barges, which is like those big like flat bottomed boats and ships that you often see. And so we have these barges that are located all throughout Lake Travis and they have these pumps that are attached to the bottom. And that’s how we actually pump water from the lakes and then those are connected to the pipelines that go to our water treatment plants. So. The problem with these barges though, Jerry, is that during extreme droughts they can actually sink and bottom out and at that point they’re only gonna be pumping out sand and not water. So the idea is that with these new tunnels and by drawing water from deeper parts of Lake Travis, we won’t have to worry about that during droughts. We’ll still be able to continue to pump water just because we’re in a deeper part of the lake.
Jerry Quijano [00:08:55] Okay, that makes sense. So tell us, as I said, this is a major milestone that these tunnels are completed, but there are still steps to be taken. What is the next one?
Kailey Hunt [00:09:05] Yeah, so again, really significant amount of work. This is a five year project. It started in 2022. So we’re about three and a half years in now. They’ve completed all the underground components. So that was a big milestone. Still to be completed though is a big pump station which is gonna be able to pump all of this water.
Jerry Quijano [00:09:25] Mm-hmm.
Kailey Hunt [00:09:26] Back to our cities in Leander Cedar Park and Round Rock. And apparently Jerry is so big that they had to get these pump parts like custom made in Spain. So we have that to look forward to. And then also on top of that too, the BCRUA is also concurrently doing an expansion of its water treatment plant. So, you know, right now we’re talking about drawing water from the lake. Well, that water isn’t necessarily clean or ready to drink. So that’s where the water treatment plan comes in. So. With the expansion of that, then the cities will see more available clean and treated water available as we go forward into the future.
Jerry Quijano [00:10:03] Excellent. Well, we have been speaking with KUT’s Hayes County reporter, Kailey Hunt. We’re going to have a link to her reporting in the show notes and over at kut.org slash signal. Kailey, thanks for talking with us. Have a great day.
Kailey Hunt [00:10:17] Thanks, Jerry, you too.
Jerry Quijano [00:10:22] And thank you for spending part of your Wednesday here with listener powered public radio. This is Austin Signal on KUT News. We’re coming up on a break and after the break, you know, we’ve been talking all week long about resolutions and making yourself a little bit better. Perhaps you’ve given up alcohol to start 2026. That doesn’t mean that your relaxing drink should be a blah one. We’re going to have ways to spice it up, spruce it up and jazz up 2026 that’s coming up next. And it’s right here on Austin Signal. This is Austin Signal, thank you for tuning in today. We are completing the first full week of 2026 today and for many of you out there, it might mean day seven without any alcohol. Now you’ve probably heard of dry January by now. Abstaining from drinking during the first month of the year has been on an upward trend recently, but for some this one month stint can also kick off the idea of a much longer break. And some folks are choosing to stop altogether and for many different reasons. And as more people are choosing to avoid alcohol, options for non-drinkers are also expanding beyond sodas and sparkling waters. Here to tell us more and share a few mocktail recipes, we’re talking with Chris Marshall. He is the founder and owner of Sands Bar, an alcohol-free cocktail bar here in downtown Austin. Chris, thanks for joining us here on Austin Signal. Jerry, thank you so much for having me. We are glad to have you here, and we’re excited to get these recipes. But before we start there, just because you’re taking alcohol out of the equation doesn’t necessarily mean that a nice relaxing beverage has to be a blah, right?
Chris Marshall [00:12:06] Absolutely. I think there’s a misconception around non-alcoholic beverages. People think that it can just be either soda, water, or just a sugar bomb. And I really do believe that adults deserve adult beverages that taste elevated and interesting. And that’s, I think that’s the beauty of Dry January. It gives everyone an opportunity to try something new. Yeah. And tell us a little bit about Sands Bar. How long have y’all been operating in Austin? Nine years. This is coming up on nine years and so we started off in East Austin a couple years ago and then moved downtown about three or four years ago and it’s just been a remarkable journey just to watch this idea that I had a couple of years ago of non-alcoholic beverages really Transform into something that I’ve been able to start here and take off
Jerry Quijano [00:12:52] over the world.
Chris Marshall [00:13:16] It’s been really interesting to watch when I was in college, I definitely participated in alcoholic beverage consumption. And as I’ve run Sands Bar and just been out in the community, it’s amazing to see how many people come into the bar and they’re really excited about trying really great drinks. I think there’s just a move away from. Socializing that’s centered around alcohol. I think alcohol will always be a part of social life and we’re not prohibitionist by any stretch of the imagination, but we do observe so many people who are just interested in a life without putting alcohol in the center of their socializing.
Jerry Quijano [00:13:59] And Austinites certainly enjoy going out and enjoying themselves with a nice drink, a nice meal, and doesn’t mean that alcohol has to be part of that equation. So speaking of that, let’s transition and talk a little bit about the recipes that you brought us today to share with our listeners. Let’s start with the first one. What do you got for us? All right, I got a sage blueberry gin and tonic. Okay, that doesn’t sound boring at all, you know? It doesn’t sounds like, no disrespect to sparkling waters, I love my sparkling waters. But sometimes they’ll just be like, lemon. Lemon Lime. Say that again? The sage and blueberry gin.
Chris Marshall [00:14:33] Gin and tonic. Okay. So what is in that? So the first thing is a non-alcoholic spirit. I think that that’s a really important thing to just kind of note off the top, that there are a lot of great non- alcoholic spirits that kind of mimic the flavor of spirits. There’s a lot great nonalcoholics wines that do the same thing, that have the same profile that you would expect in a traditional wine without the alcohol. So this is a kind of a play on a gin and a tonic, we have some blueberry sage Simple Syrup We have a non-alcoholic gin and tonic water. So think of your G&T, give it a little bit of sage, that earthiness and just a bit of sweet on the blueberry. It really is a nice kind of spring to summer drink here in Austin. Yeah.
Jerry Quijano [00:15:18] Feels very fragrant, you know, I can smell that blueberry, I’m almost being crushed in the drink, it sounds delicious. Okay, let’s go to the second one, what do you have for us there?
Chris Marshall [00:15:29] So if you do like a little bit sweet and I’m a person who’s kind of partial to sweet drinks. I think that there’s nothing wrong with a little bit of natural sugar. So this one is something you can make today. You can go home and probably have the ingredients at home. It is what we call the lady bird.
Jerry Quijano [00:15:45] Whoa, that sounds good and sounds very Austin very okay. What what what do you what do we need to make that one?
Chris Marshall [00:15:51] So for the ladybird, we have muddled strawberry, three or four sprigs of mint, half ounce of lime. I’m going to muddle that up really good. Throw some ice on top and you can top it with either club soda or my favorite ginger beer. And that way you got this really interesting drink that’s got the citrus, it’s got the mint, it all kind of working together to give you something that’s just more than your typical ginger beer
Jerry Quijano [00:16:19] Okay, well I gotta say, I can feel my stomach rumbling. The muddling of strawberries, just those words together sounds very good. But I do have another question for you, brought to mind by the name of the first drink. It has gin and tonic in the name, even though it is a mocktail. And getting ready to talk to you for today’s episode, we realize here at the show that mocktail, there’s a kind of, it’s a topic of debate. What is the dispute there?
Chris Marshall [00:16:45] Yeah, I think there’s a lot of debate around the word mocktail because for a long time mocktail just meant juice and soda. And I think this idea that that is an infantilizing word to use. Now I personally believe in reclamation and reclaiming what words mean and I believe that we can make mocktail mean something interesting and complex. You know these these recipes that I’ve given you today. Some have the non-alcoholic spirit, some don’t. But I do think that we can, you know, kind of remix it and say non-alkalic cocktail or in a cocktail. Those are okay things. But look, I’m okay with mocktail because when I go to a bar and I order a drink, I want to be very clear that I want something that doesn’t alcohol.
Jerry Quijano [00:17:31] All right, well I have one last question before you get out of here today. You mentioned that you’re no prohibitionist by any stretch of the imagination, you used to partake in alcohol and now you run Sands Bar, an alcohol free cocktail bar. What is a piece of advice you would give to somebody who’s trying to abstain from alcohol, maybe just for January, but who knows, like I said, maybe it’ll grow into something bigger than that.
Chris Marshall [00:17:56] Yeah, I would just say, approach it with curiosity. See what this month means to you. We have alcohol part of every part of our lives, right? From sports to socializing to philanthropy, right. Alcohol is everywhere. And just imagine what your life looks like when you remove alcohol. If you try to go on a break and you realize it’s harder than you thought, that’s just information. That’s just your body and your brain saying that hey, I may lean on alcohol more than I realize. And if that’s the case, there’s always resources. But I believe that everyone can enjoy a great non-alcoholic drink and I enjoy having friends who do both, right? I think that there’s just no shame or stigma in your relationship with alcohol.
Jerry Quijano [00:18:43] Excellent, we have been speaking with Chris Marshall, the founder and owner of Sands Bar, that’s an alcoholic-free cocktail bar in downtown Austin. Chris, thanks so much for the recipes and for your time today. Thank you. This is Austin Signal. Thank you for spending part of your Wednesday right here with us. Let’s talk a little live music now. Music in general, actually. Here to help us out is our friend, Maile Carballo from our sister station, KUTX. Howdy Maile. Hey.
Maile Carballo [00:19:14] Hey Jerry, happy Love Austin Music Month!
Jerry Quijano [00:19:16] Happy Love Austin Music Month to you. I think that’s why live music was on the brain, you know? Oh yeah. But before we talk live music, because I know we got a lot of cool live music happening this weekend here in Austin, KUTX started off the new year with some great news, lots of recognition and some nominations. Tell us about this poll.
Maile Carballo [00:19:34] Absolutely. So what’s happening right now? A little love. It’s Love Austin Music Month, but the Austin Chronicle also just put out their 44th annual Austin Music Awards Poll Nominations, nominated by just a slew of industry professionals, myself included, but-
Jerry Quijano [00:19:50] Oh, wow, humble brag. Yeah.
Maile Carballo [00:19:53] I’m over right there. No, I’m kidding, but
Jerry Quijano [00:19:55] Well that’s why we bring you on, because you are an industry expert, you know?
Maile Carballo [00:19:58] That’s precisely the reason why. But yeah, KUTX has gotten a lot of love alongside just amazing, amazing people in the industry. KUTx is nominated for best radio station. I believe Taylor Wallace also has a nomination for best Radio Personality. Mark Fort also, who is also on co-op radio. So just a city full of a lot radio love right now.
Jerry Quijano [00:20:22] Absolutely and also some love for our audio engineer Jake Perlman, you know, Jake, you don’t hear his work a lot But you hear him as an underwriter. You know his voice real smooth. Yeah. Yeah, and there is a real a Huge recognition a Susan Castle. What is she up for?
Maile Carballo [00:20:39] Susan Castle, you know her, you love her, she’s up for the Austin Music Industry Hall of Fame. So yeah, personally, I would love to see her in there because she deserves it just to the moon and back. I love that woman. But yeah, there’s over 53 categories in the poll right now, anything from best band of the year, radio station to miscellaneous instrument player. So all of the recognition for all the great people out there.
Jerry Quijano [00:21:04] Yeah, we would love to see that recognition for Susan. We are lucky at KUTX to have had quite a few music industry hall of famers, Jay Trachtenberg and all these other folks. So how do people actually vote?
Maile Carballo [00:21:17] Absolutely, so you can actually open up a physical copy of the Chronicle and scan a QR code. I know, I wish you could cast a ballot.
Jerry Quijano [00:21:26] Send in a ballot, yeah. Right?
Maile Carballo [00:21:27] Right? But you can actually, at Free Week this weekend, they are having a show and you can cast your ballot in person. But if you are on the interwebs, just as a normal person does on their day-to-day, you can casting your vote at vote.austincronicle.com
Jerry Quijano [00:21:42] Excellent. Well, get out there and vote. I believe you don’t have to vote in all of them, right? I believe like 25 maybe to get like a chance at winning a South by something like that.
Maile Carballo [00:21:50] Yeah, so if you do vote in over 25 or more, you do get your name entered, your email entered to win a 2026 music wristband for South By.
Jerry Quijano [00:22:00] Okay, well we have about 20 seconds left. Do you have your free week plan ready for this weekend?
Maile Carballo [00:22:05] I do. I will be seeing Tear Dungeon on Thursday, which is an unofficial free week show, but Mohawk, it’s going to be great, and of course the KUTX show on Friday.
Jerry Quijano [00:22:13] Absolutely, we had the KUTX Morning Drive Time host, Taylor Wallace, in with us on Monday to talk about the KU-TX Showcase and a few more of her recommendations. You can listen to that over at kut.org slash signal. And we have been speaking with Maile Carballo from KUTX. Maile, thank you for your time. Thank you, Jerry. And thank you out there for spending part of your day here with Austin Signal. That’s it for today’s show. We’ll be back tomorrow and we’ll talk to you then. Kristen Cabrera is our managing producer and Rayna Sevilla is our technical director. I’m your host, Jerry Quijano. Talk to you then.
This transcript was transcribed by AI, and lightly edited by a human. Accuracy may vary. This text may be revised in the future.
