The Round Rock City Council has approved it's part of a construction project that will pump greater amounts of water from Lake Travis to the city as well as to the cities of Leander and Cedar Park.

“This project will enable Round Rock to meet the growing demands of our community for years to come,” Utility Director Michael Thane said in a city news release. “This will also be a reliable source of water under drought conditions.”

The City Council on Thursday also approved an economic agreement with the Valex Corporation, a California-based manufacturer that makes components for the semiconductor and solar industry.  The Round Rock Transportation and Economic Development Corporation will pay a $225,000 incentive over a three-year period in exchange for the company making a $5 million investment in improvements to a building at 120 E. Old Settler's Park Boulevard and providing 75 jobs over a five-year period with an average salary of $50,000, the agreement said.

The Brushy Creek Regional Utility Authority Phase 2 Raw Water Delivery System Project is expected to deliver up to 141.7 million gallons of Lake Travis water per day to Round Rock, Leander and Cedar Park by 2027, officials said. The cities are all part of the utility. 

The construction cost is estimated at $224.8 million. Round Rock's share of the cost is $63.4 million, which the city will pay in cash, said Thane.

"We have planned for this project and that's why we have the money ready to go," he said.

Round Rock's approval on Thursday gave the utility authority the ability to approve the construction contract with Thalle Construction Co. and SAK Construction, according to the city release.

Construction is expected to start soon and finish in June 2027, Thane said. Round Rock gets most of its water from Lake Georgetown. It also currently uses 1.5 million to 2 million gallons per day of water from Lake Travis. The new construction project is expected to bring an additional 40.8 million gallons of water a day to Round Rock from Lake Travis, officials said.

Currently the water that Round Rock receives from Lake Travis comes from a temporary floating barge built by the Brushy Creek Regional Utility Authority, Thane said. 

READ: City acquiring electronic easement for BCRUA Project

The  barge is sensitive to lake levels and when the lake drops to a certain point, he said, the barge can't pump water. 

The new construction project will include a permanent raw water intake in a deeper location within Lake Travis that can pump water 121 feet below the lake's full level, he said. The water will be sent through a gravity-flow tunnel to a new high-capacity pumping station on a portion of Sandy Creek Park.

A pipeline will extend about 2,680 feet from the pump station to nearby Trail’s End Road, where it will connect to the raw water pipeline, according to the city's news release.

The existing pumpline will then send the water to the Brushy Creek utility, Cedar Park. Leander and Round Rock's water treatment plants.