AUSTIN (Talk1370.com) -- More than 100 commercial, residential, and other properties could be displaced by plans to improve Interstate 35 through downtown Austin, according to new documents published last week.
Texas Department of Transportation officials published a draft version of the Environmental Impact Statement for the Interstate 35 Capital Express Central project, an 8-mile corridor that will stretch from Highway 290 East on the north end to State Highway 71 on the southern end.
The agency's "Modified Build Alternative 3" would call for two lowered high-occupancy vehicle managed lanes and lowered mainlanes to be built between Airport Boulevard and Cesar Chavez Street, as well as between Riverside Drive and Oltorf Street.
The preferred plan would also create single point urban interchanges at Airport Boulevard and Riverside Drive, a pedestrian/bicycle-only bridge at Woodland Avenue, and accommodations for CapMetro's Blue Line at Riverside Drive. Improvements to bicycle and pedestrian paths and reconstruction of bridges are also included in the proposal.
The plan would require an additional 41.7 acres of right of way, resulting in impacts to 107 properties - 69 of which are commercial properties, 26 residential, and 12 that are currently vacant.
TxDOT has scheduled a public hearing on the draft proposal for Thursday, Feb. 9, from 5-7 p.m. at the Millennium Youth Entertainment Complex at 1156 Hargrave Street. A virtual public hearing will also be open from Thursday, Feb. 9, through Tuesday, March 7.
Officials say the preferred plan would cost $4.5 billion to build, with an estimated construction start in 2025.