At $4.9 billion, the central segment of the I-35 Capital Express project is the most expensive of the Texas Department of Transportation’s proposed three projects in Austin on the interstate.
Thus far, TxDOT has offered three designs for the 8-mile project, which runs from Hwy. 290 to Hwy. 71. Each of those designs proposes to tear down the decks that run from Airport Boulevard to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard as well as lower the lanes from Lady Bird Lake to Airport.
The project has drawn significant interest from the Austin community, with multiple groups calling for a different approach to highway design, including proposals to cap-and-stitch to create better east-to-west connectivity.
In a letter addressed to TxDOT in April, Assistant City Manager Gina Fiandaca stated the city of Austin’s top mobility objectives from the project, which included “reconnect[ing] East and West Austin by lowering the highway, constructing wide bridges and lids where possible, and acknowledging the role the existing I-35 facility played in reinforcing the racist land-use policies established by the city of Austin as part of our 1920s comprehensive plan.”
