Urban Transportation Commission criticizes I-35 frontage road plan

The Urban Transportation Commission on March 4 unanimously passed a resolution strenuously recommending against the Texas Department of Transportation’s plan to widen Interstate 35 frontage roads downtown.

The resolution specifically addressed the Central Austin project, which covers an 8-mile section of the interstate highway between U.S. Highway 290 in the north and State Highway 71 in the south. As part of that plan, TxDOT plans to widen frontage roads to up to eight total travel lanes.

The Austin Monitor previously published an in-depth guide to the I-35 expansion plan as part of an ongoing reporting partnership with KUT.

The commission’s draft resolution noted that this would include areas slated for the cap-and-stitch project, which would build “caps” over parts of I-35 that are or will be sunk below street level with the goal of reconnecting areas of the city that were divided decades ago when the highway was constructed.

The total costs for the cap-and-stitch project were estimated at $1.4 billion as of late 2024, up 61 percent from the initial figure when the project was proposed.

In the “Whereas” clauses of the resolution, commissioners said the plan would impose “physical and mental barriers” to pedestrians attempting to cross the frontage roads, as well as a broader barrier to achieving the primary purpose of the cap-and-stitch project.

Commissioner David Kavelman described the proposed plans for the frontage roads as “horrible” and said that he believes they would need a “massive amount of improvement to be anywhere close to acceptable.”

“I can’t imagine pushing a stroller across eight lanes of 45-mile-an-hour road,” he added.

The UTC urged TxDOT to approach the frontage roads as city streets and apply a bullet-point list of principles to any redevelopment, including 30 mph speed limits, no more than two travel lanes in each direction, narrow lanes and the inclusion of street trees and parking.

UTC Chair Susan Somers noted at the meeting that the commission has made similar, and escalating, recommendations in the past, with seemingly minimal impact on the plan.

“We had a series of recommendations that were increasingly extreme to the point where at the end we just said ‘please don’t do this, just please stop your planning, start over, just stop,’” Somers said. “Obviously, that has not been heeded and the project seems to be going forward with, you know, demolition and different things happening.”

Adam Greenfield spoke in favor of the UTC’s resolution at the meeting on behalf of advocacy group Safe Streets Austin, echoing many of the commission’s points.

“We should absolutely be insisting on city streets next to this highway, not another highway next to the highway,” Greenfield said.

The commission unanimously passed one amendment to the resolution during the meeting to place slightly less emphasis on the cap-and-stitch project. Somers stressed that the commission’s intention is to make a more general recommendation for the frontage roads.

“Even in areas where we don’t build caps or if we build no caps at all, I think these are still good principles for frontage roads because people still need to transit between each side of the highway,” Somers said. “And unfortunately, there’s going to be a highway.”

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