The city’s Transportation Department is circulating the latest plans for a southern expansion of Red River Street, which would create a new thoroughfare through the Rainey Street neighborhood to address growing traffic concerns. While the heaviest public comment on the proposed plan will take place this fall, department officials have started discussing the project with […]
Roads
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TxDOT and critics at loggerheads over plan to widen I-35
At Friday’s special meeting of the City Council Mobility Committee, residents aired their concerns to a quorum of City Council members about a controversial TxDOT plan to significantly widen the portion of Interstate 35 that runs through Austin. The complaints come as a wave of advocates across the state call on the transportation department to […]
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TxDOT halts tree-clearing in Oak Hill, pending court hearing
In light of a federal judge’s concerns over the state’s planned removal of nearly 200 trees to make way for a 12-lane road project through Oak Hill, the Texas Department of Transportation last week agreed to temporarily halt its tree-clearing work in southwest Austin. U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman will make a final determination on […]
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Living Streets petition urges city to allow resident-led streetscape changes
Earlier this year, neighbors living along the city’s Healthy Streets – a program that blocked through traffic and slowed cars on selected streets – had an idea: Why not use paint, barrels, picnic tables, and other materials to invite people to gather and play in the street? What followed was “amazing,” Adam Greenfield, president of […]
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TxDOT wants to add four lanes to I-35, but a citizen work group is pushing ‘BAC’
At the April 5 joint meeting of the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory councils (BAC and PAC), members reviewed a Google doc detailing their recommendations to the Texas Department of Transportation regarding the I-35 Capital Express Project. The massive highway project proposes adding two managed lanes, in an attempt to relieve congestion, to each side of Interstate 35, […]
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Commissioners approve Road and Bridge Division’s 2021 work plan
Following a brief presentation from Assistant Public Works Director David P. Hunter, the Travis County Commissioners Court unanimously passed the request to approve the Road and Bridge Division’s work plan for the 2021 fiscal year. Hunter’s presentation detailed the wide assortment of responsibilities and systems overseen by Road and Bridge, in addition to spotlighting the […]
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Tolls or no tolls? City and state preferences differ for new I-35 lanes
The city of Austin, among other local stakeholders, is at odds with the Texas Department of Transportation and state leaders like Gov. Greg Abbott over the type of managed lanes in TxDOT’s I-35 Capital Express Project. Despite lobbying by the city for variable toll lanes like those on MoPac Expressway, TxDOT remains intent on non-tolled […]
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City Council critiques TxDOT’s I-35 plans
City Council last Thursday made clear what the city’s goals are for the Texas Department of Transportation’s Interstate 35 expansion, passing a resolution critiquing – though not outright opposing – the preliminary plans presented so far. The resolution together with letters from the mayor, Council members and city staff urge TxDOT to prioritize safety and […]
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Updated: Reversible lanes may be coming to South First
The Austin Transportation Department’s plans to install reversible travel lanes on South First Street, in order to decrease travel delays on one of Austin’s busiest commuter thoroughfares, are being studied. The project area surrounds a new development at the former Hooters site called RiverSouth, which is currently under construction. It is located at the intersection […]
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Mobility Commission hears plea not to widen I-35
“BE IT RESOLVED,” read Urban Transportation Commission Chair Mario Champion, “the UTC urges TxDOT in the strongest possible way not to widen I-35.” This recommendation, along with many others from the Urban Transportation Commission, amounts to the city’s first official rebuke of the Texas Department of Transportation’s plans to widen Interstate 35 through Austin. At […]
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Despite fewer drivers, more people died on Austin roads in 2020 than in the past five years
The first traffic death on Aug. 26 happened just before 7 a.m. A man was making a left-hand turn out of an apartment complex in West Austin; he was killed after his car collided with a Jeep Cherokee. Later that day a bicyclist ran a red light and collided with a driver heading south on […]
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Urban Transportation Commission creates working group to form I-35 recommendations
A Texas A&M Transportation Institute report recently ranked the segment of Interstate 35 that goes through Austin the most congested roadway in the state. This congestion is one of the reasons behind the I-35 Capital Express Project, a multiyear, multibillion-dollar transportation initiative that will add two non-tolled managed lanes in each direction along I-35 from […]