TxDOT poised to secure $4.3B for I-35 improvements in Central Austin

A proposal to improve I-35 through Central Austin may come a step closer to reality Feb. 27.

The Texas Transportation Commission, a board that governs the Texas Department of Transportation, will be considering a plan at its Feb. 27 meeting to add an additional $4.3 billion in state dollars to fund a project through the heart of the city known as the Capital Express Central project.

According to a TxDOT media release, the injection of new funds will allow the state agency to add two nontolled managed lanes along an approximately 8-mile stretch of I-35 from US 290 East to SH 71.

“Additional auxiliary lanes in various places and frontage roads would also be built,” the release said.

In 2017, TxDOT announced a plan to add tolled lanes on I-35, but shortly afterward, Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said they would not support certain state taxes going toward tolled projects. Nontolled managed lanes include high-occupancy vehicle, or carpool lanes.

“Our hope is with the HOV lanes, we will encourage carpooling [and using] transit, and that will help add the capacity we need [by freeing up the main lanes],” TxDOT My35 project manager Susan Fraser told Community Impact Newspaper in November.

You can read more about the project in Community Impact Newspaper’s November 2019 front page story.