The City Council could vote to borrow millions from TxDOT as Austin seeks to raise up to $900 million or more to cover the highway.
The main lanes of I-35 will be lowered 30 to 40 feet through downtown as the highway's footprint is widened. The City of Austin wants to cover the lowered highway with caps that cost hundreds of millions of dollars, but TxDOT won't pay for it.
Austin is getting closer to raising the money it needs to put I-35 in a partial tunnel after Texas lowers the main lanes 30 to 40 feet from Holly Street to Airport Boulevard. The city justthat includes tearing down the upper decks and adding four high-occupancy vehicle lanes along an 8-mile stretch from Ben White Boulevard to U.S. 290 East.
TxDOT won't pay to cover the lowered lanes, but will install so-called caps over the trenched highway if the City of Austin andfoot the bill. The city could also add mini-caps, so-called stitches, that stick out of bridges to create more public space.Under the most expensive plan, I-35 would be covered from Cesar Chavez to Seventh Street, from 11th to 12th Streets, from 15th Street to Dean Keeton and from 38 1/2 Street to Airport Boulevard.
Other options under consideration to pay for construction include selling naming rights to a cap or a stitch. A bond election, asking voters to fund the caps with property tax revenue, is also on the table. Austin already paid TxDOT $15 million late last year to start designing the caps and stitches. Another $19 million is due by December to finish the blueprints. The city could have to start paying for construction of the caps as soon as 2026.Nathan Bernier is the transportation reporter at KUT. He covers the big projects that are reshaping how we get around Austin, like the. He also focuses on the daily changes that affect how we walk, bike and drive around the city.
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