AUSTIN (Talk1370.com) -- Austin city leaders voted Thursday to move forward with funding roadway elements for future caps over Interstate 35, committing millions of dollars towards the upcoming highway rebuild through much of downtown and central Austin.
The final package approved by City Council on an 8-2 vote will greenlight TxDOT to include support structures for caps stretching from Cesar Chavez to 4th Street, from 4th Street to 7th Street, and from 11th Street to 12th Street. North of the University of Texas campus, support structures for two smaller stitches, or pedestrian bridges, near the Red Line crossing at Airport Boulevard are also included.
Council members Krista Laine and Marc Duchen voted against the proposal; Mike Siegel abstained.
For what Council approved Thursday, the initial price tag for just the support structures is $104 million; council will later need to determine what the actual cap structures to be built on top of the supporting elements will look like. That decision can be delayed until November of 2026, according to city staff and TxDOT. Council voted to indefinitely postpone that decision Thursday.
The original proposal - which called for more caps than Council approved Thursday - was estimated to cost at least $1.4 billion, including both support elements and the actual cap structures. Council members had debated several alternatives, including a reduced version that only featured two caps in the downtown area.