The Austin City Council on Thursday voted to ask that funding be delayed for the Texas Department of Transportation’s planned I-35 Capital Express Central project. The multi-billion-dollar overhaul would span the distance between Ben White and Highway 290.
Much of the concern from the council centered around environmental issues.
TxDOT officials reacted with frustration over the council vote.
“Today’s resolution to delay by the Austin City Council is not indicative of the partnership TxDOT has cultivated with the city,” said Engineer Tucker Ferguson. “We acted in good faith to bring our partners into the planning of this critical safety and mobility project. Delaying all the great work so many have done getting to this point is unwarranted and only delays the benefits that will be realized and would be fiscally irresponsible as construction costs will only continue to rise.”
Many requests made by the city and other agency partners were incorporated into the design, TxDOT said, including:
- Eliminating the visual and physical barrier between east and west Austin by removing the upper decks and lowering the mainlanes through the project corridor.
- Constructing substantial drainage upgrades.
- Providing opportunity for the inclusion of more than 30 acres of caps and stitches.
- Constructing frontage roads in a boulevard concept through downtown to create opportunities for urban design that supports multi-modal options.
- Lowering the speed limit along the downtown frontage roads to 35 mph.
- Constructing a new 5th Street east/west connection for all users.
- Enhancing bicycle/pedestrian connections at Lady Bird Lake.
- Constructing multiple pedestrian bridges.
- Constructing more than a dozen widened east-west crossings.
- Constructing an innovative intersection at Riverside Drive to best accommodate the Project Connect future light rail.
- Separating the CapMetro Red Line crossings from frontage road traffic at 4th Street and south of Airport Boulevard.
- Providing construction mitigation by building a T-ramp at the CapMetro Tech Ridge Park and Ride to provide direct access for buses to promote mode shift during and after construction.
District 4 Councilman Chito Vela expressed skepticism over whether TxDOT would agree to the delay. He made it clear he does not believe the expansion is the right remedy for Austin.
“I disagree with the fundamental premise of highway expansions, especially through the hearts of cities.” he said. “Larger and larger highways carrying more and more and more cars and trucks are not the future. High-quality mass transit and multimodal transportation that promotes walking and biking is the future.”
Councilmembers Mackenzie Kelly and Leslie Pool voted against the request for a funding delay, as did Mayor Kirk Watson.
