Southwest Austin | Dripping Springs - December 2024

BY HALEY MCLEOD

The breakdown

Looking ahead

Regardless of which configuration receives approval, the city will likely need to bring forward a bond election in 2026, Deputy Chief Financial Officer Kim Olivares told council members. The next phase of financing must be committed for constructing the first deck covering the interstate from Cesar Chavez to Fourth Street. For the average Austin homeowner, each $100 million in bonds adds $13.78 annually to their property tax bill. According to city documents, a proposed $600 million bond program in 2026 would raise the annual tax bill by roughly $82.71. The newest proposed scenario presented to council is projected to need $1 billion in bonds and cost homeowners $137.86 per year. Road construction along the entire I-35 corridor in Austin is not expected to be completed until 2032, but TxDOT officials say commuters may see the upper decks torn down as early as 2027. City staff will continue to look for funding opportunities, as there are still millions of dollars needed for remaining phases of the project that will need to be secured by 2032. “We are looking at federal grants, but we are also looking at things like philanthropic strategy—that’s how the Dallas cap program got a lot of its funding,” said Brianna Frey, an urban planner overseeing the Austin project.

Full-size cap City staff outlined options to reduce costs in a Dec. 5 memo. Phase one of funding needs to be committed by March 2025. Reduced cap size by 25%

Scenario

Full build

Cesar Chavez -4th St.

Number of caps

Cesar Chavez -4th St.

All 8 caps & stitches

Cesar Chavez -4th St.

4th-7th St.

11th-12th St.

11th-12th St. 11th-12th St. 11th-12th St.

11th-12th St.

38th.-41st St. 38th- 41st St.

38th-41st St. 41st St. -Red Line

38th-41st St.

Phase 1 cost Total cost of project

$55M $86M $109M $124M $133M $138M $203M

$401M $569M $569M $666M $772M $1.1B $1.4B

SOURCE: CITY OF AUSTIN/COMMUNITY IMPACT

Some context

interstate in 50 years. Though the project has received criticism for years, officials broke ground on the project running between Hwy. 71 to the south and US 290 to the north Oct. 30. The project connects with two ongoing local corridor improvement projects focused on the northern and southern sections of I-35 in Austin. The entire I-35 face-lift is expected to widen the corridor from 11-18 lanes up to 17-22 lanes.

Over the next decade, TxDOT will be expanding the 8-mile stretch of I-35 that runs through the center of the city, which prompted local authorities’ initial proposal of the cap and stitch initiative. TxDOT’s $4.5 billion Capital Express Central project will remove I-35’s raised lanes, sink the roadway, add new lanes, and improve east-west highway crossings for vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists—representing the agency’s first significant infrastructure improvements made to the area’s

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