Austin Gets Federal Funding to Cover I-35 With Public-Access Land

Caps are large decks that can be used as park space or even include buildings. Stitches are widened bridges with landscaping and pedestrian access. (diagrams courtesy of Downtown Austin alliance)

Since the Texas Department of Transportation’s massively unpopular I-35 expansion became inevitable, City Council has been scrambling on a tight timeline to find a way to mitigate its worst effects in Austin. One of the best ways to do that is to build caps and stitches – land bridges – over the highway, so that people can walk and bike over it. Unfortunately, that would cost upward of $800 million. TxDOT refuses to pay for those improvements, but will build them if the city finalizes its plans by December 2024. Council has floated many ideas to fund the project – asking voters to pass a bond using property taxes, taking the money from past bonds – but the best path forward is federal funds, $105 million of which U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett helped secure for Austin last week.

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Neighborhood Access and Equity Grant Program, funded by the Inflation Reduction Act, will be used to construct a 5.3-acre cap over I-35 between Cesar Chavez and Fourth Street. Council will put up a $45 million local match and coordinate with TxDOT on the engineering and design of the cap. They also expect a public engagement process to determine the amenities that will go on top of it once constructed (those could range from benches and pocket parks to actual buildings). The location was chosen to connect the East Cesar Chavez neighborhood to Downtown, as it’s currently bisected by the highway. The rest of the caps, if funded, would stretch from Cesar Chavez to Seventh Street, 11th to 12th, and 38th ½ Street to Airport Boulevard. Stitches – widened bridges with landscaping for biking and pedestrians – would be installed at Holly Street, 32nd Street, and 51st Street. Altogether, they would create around 27 acres of public space across and atop the highway.

“A primary goal of pushing and pushing to get I-35 lowered was so that we could have the potential for not only reducing the divide it created and continues to perpetuate, but so that we might have caps and stitches that allow for far better connections,” Mayor Kirk Watson said in a press release about the grant last week. Though this is a significant step in that direction, several hundred million more is still needed to fund the rest of the improvements. At its meeting this week, Council will consider applying for a $193 million loan from the State Infrastructure Bank, a fund managed by TxDOT. And two recently completed regional climate plans – CAMPO’s Regional Mobile Emission Reduction Plan and the Austin MSA Climate Plan – could make the region eligible for $4.3 billion in federal Climate Pollution Reduction grants in 2024. Those applications must be submitted by April 1.

For now, Doggett described these funds as “a very hopeful development regarding a troubling highway expansion. These are the first three blocks of what could eventually be additional benefits through additional capping along I-35 with help from UT, the city and other interested parties.”