Austin's vote on multi-million-dollar I-35 capping program delayed

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Austin City Council will no longer vote this week on a potential commitment to spend hundreds of millions of dollars capping Interstate 35, based on a council memo shared on Thursday.

The Texas Department of Transportation had originally set a Dec. 12 meeting deadline for council to decide on its funding commitments for its Our Future 35 initiative. That program is centered around adding deck plazas over the highway and community amenities on top.

Now, Austin City Council has until March 2025 to vote on those funding commitments — in turn solidifying the breadth of the capped I-35 program. That extended deadline is due to delays in TxDOT's pump station contract award, per the memo.

During a Nov. 19 Austin City Council work session, city leaders outlined eight possible cap and stitch locations on the table, which would amount to more than 26 acres of community space. Those locations include:

• Holly Street stitch: 0.96 acres
• Cesar Chavez Street stitch: 0.27 acres
• Cesar Chavez to Fourth Streets cap: 5.37 acres
• Fourth to Seventh Streets cap: 3.28 acres
• 11th to 12th Streets cap: 2.17 acres
• 38 1/2 to 41st Streets cap: 5.2 acres
• 41st Street to Red Line cap: 4.76 acres
• Red Line to Airport Boulevard cap: 4.24 acres

However, executing the full program comes with a heavy sticker price. The cost of all eight locations' roadway elements (which are required to implement early in TxDOT's I-35 Capital Express Central project) would cost an estimated $284 million. The cap structures alone would range closer to $600 million, meaning it would cost roughly $900 million for the roadway and cap structures — not including any of the community amenities on top of the highway.

While council will no longer vote this Thursday on those pricier investments, a handful of smaller Our Future 35 items remain on the agenda. Those include accepting and appropriating a $41 million State Infrastructure Bank loan from TxDOT for the program, as well as executing an agreement with the U.S. Department of Transportation's Access and Equity grant program for a $105.2 million allocation to the Cesar Chavez to Fourth Streets cap.

For that $41 million SIB loan, a spokesperson for Austin's Financial Services Department confirmed it'll be repaid over a 20-year term, featuring a one-year deferral. Funding to pay of

As the city faces an extended deadline to fine-tune those financial commitments, city officials detailed several scenario cost options, depending on the totality of cap and stitch locations chosen. New to the discussion was a "Scenario 6" option, which would include three full-sized caps downtown (Cesar Chavez to Fourth Streets, Fourth to Seventh Streets and 11th to 12th Streets) along with two full-sized caps between 38th 1/2 Street and the Red Line rail crossing.

Under that sixth option, it would remove the Holly stitch, Cesar Chavez stitch and a cap north of the Red Line — all components that aren't expected to bring as much economic revenue generation opportunities compared to the other elements, city financial leaders said in November.

That sixth scenario would cost $1.1 billion in its entirety; when considering the federal grant money and the State Infrastructure Bank loan already acquired, the city would still need to come up with the remaining $982 million, should they pursue this option.

Included in the draft Our Future 35 vision plan discussed by council in November was a proposed East Avenue Trail, named for the roadway that later became I-35 in the mid-20th century. East Avenue marked the entry into east Austin during a time when the city's segregation practices led to concentrations of Black and brown communities on the eastside — neighborhoods later displaced and disrupted by the interstate's construction.

Council members asked in November how minimizing the number of caps could potentially impact the proposed trail.

"If Council recommends reducing or eliminating caps along the corridor, this could impact the expanded width for the proposed East Avenue Trail in locations where there is not enough TxDOT right-of-way for the desired 24- foot pathway and adjacent shade trees, as the caps provide space to accommodate the widened facility where TxDOT right-of-way is constrained," the memo read.

City staff will work with TxDOT on design elements for the proposed trail early next year; as design work on the caps advance, city leaders will consider if additional funds are needed (courtesy Austin sidewalk and/or urban trail bond funds available) to widen the right-of-way as needed.