Austin City Council begins search for funding for city’s share of I-35 expansion costs

AUSTIN, Texas — The Austin City Council is starting to feel the economic pressures of the city participating in a plan to expand I-35 through downtown Austin. At their Tuesday work session, the council discussed some of the dollar signs associated with the plan. Bottom line is the city will need to come up with millions before year’s end.

TXDOT’s plan to improve traffic on I-35 is to lower much of the expanded roadway and cap it off with new real estate to link East Austin to downtown. But council members today learned much of the cost of those caps would land on the city’s shoulders.

TxDOT is proposing stitching the two sides of the expanded interstate together with new wider bridges over I-35 downtown.

Richard Mendoza, director of public works for the City of Austin told council members, “They do provide shared use paths, shade structures, landscaping, as well as pedestrian lighting and potential public art.”

Opponents of the project rallied over the weekend saying expanding the roadway would worsen the divide between downtown and East Austin. Now hopes that TxDOT would pitch in to bring the two sides together are fading.

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District 10 Council Member Alison Alter says, “We’re widening the highway so much, we’re just furthering the divide if we don’t have these caps. And it seems to all be falling on us to do that.” Alter also says she believes TxDOT has requirements to address inequities as it moves forward with the project.

TxDOT counters that it is pitching in… In its own way. Austin district Engineer Tucker Ferguson explains, “Many, many folks believe that the elevated sections and the upper decks (of I-35) have been a dividing line between East and West Austin for many years. We agreed early on that we were lowering all of that from the upper decks and the downtown section.”

If the city is going to want the larger caps over I-35, Austin needs to make a down payment of at least $184 million by December 2024. That amount would cover $19 million for a second payment on the project design and $165 million so TxDOT can begin making the necessary changes so the lowered roadway can handle the load of the caps Austin wants.

But a more immediate problem is the first payment on the project design. TxDOT wants that $15 million payment by next month.

“It’s not like we can just print money,” quips District 6 Council Member Mackenzie Kelly adding, “So, I’d like to see some of the ways that we can potentially maybe reallocate or come up with that as a good faith effort to show TxDOT we are interested in this project.”