Update: Per city officials, after conducting a feasibility study, city staff recommended shifting a planned shared-use path from West Park Street to Buttercup Creek Boulevard.
- Timeline: TBD
- Cost: TBD
- Funding source: design funding Type B sales tax; construction funding TBD
Austin’s I-35 cap-and-stitch vision faces uncertain funding futureThe outlook for Austin's ambitious plans to cover stretches of the redesigned I-35 with public amenity decks remains unclear due to the high costs of constructing the project, which city staff advised not to fund as of this spring.
Since outlines for larger caps and smaller stitches were first developed years ago, cost projections climbed while the amount of proposed deck coverage was scaled back. The city also lost a more than $100 million federal grant that was expected to support its largest proposed cap downtown.
Austin officials now hope to see nearly 14 acres of decks added in the future, including:
- A 5.37-acre cap covering Cesar Chavez to Fourth streets
- A 3.28-acre cap covering Fourth to Seventh streets
- A 2.17-acre cap covering 11th-12th streets
- More than 3 acres of stitches to the north between 41st Street and the Red Line
City Council committed last year to pay the Texas Department of Transportation $104 million to add structural supports along I-35, which are needed for any future decks to be built. But no funding has yet been set aside for the development of caps and stitches or public amenities. That main portion now exceeds $600 million, and the structures are also expected to cost about $9 million annually to maintain once they're in place.