diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 30ae6e669c..9dc4462caa 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -1,5 +1,9 @@
 sudo: false
 language: java
+before_install:
+  # change reference from now-defunct maven repository
+  # (https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/google-cloud-eclipse/issues/1406)
+  - sed -i.bak -e 's|https://nexus.codehaus.org/snapshots/|https://oss.sonatype.org/content/repositories/codehaus-snapshots/|g' ~/.m2/settings.xml
 install: 
   # use 3.3.9 to ensure faulty test exit states fail the build (#1276)
   - mvn -N io.takari:maven:wrapper -Dmaven=3.3.9