TxDOT plan adds I-35 lanes on upper deck, through downtown

Interstate 35 through the middle of Austin would get an additional free lane in each direction, including adding a lane to each side of the upper decks, as well a toll lane on both sides as part of the Texas Department of Transportation’s $4.3 billion, 10-year plan for the expressway as it passes through three Central Texas counties.

That plan in its revised form, to be unveiled Monday in a speech by state Sen. Kirk Watson to Austin business leaders, includes depressing I-35 about 25 feet below the frontage road level throughout its downtown Austin stretch, from south of Cesar Chavez Street to north of 15th Street.

TxDOT wouldn’t cap the depressed section to create park land, as some community activists have proposed. But it would be built in such a way that, if and when the city of Austin comes up with the funding, I-35 could have caps installed between Cesar Chavez and Eighth streets, and between 11th and 12th streets, officials said.

TxDOT officials had previously said that the upper deck bridges, which opened in 1974 and currently have two lanes in each direction, didn’t have the structural strength to support a third lane of traffic. But consultants who have been working on the master plan for I-35 for several years said Friday that, with about $50 million of modifications, the upper decks could safely accommodate the additional lanes.

Read more: http://www.mystatesman.com/news/news/local/txdot-plan-adds-i-35-lanes-on-upper-deck-through-d/nmcw4/#b5326ee5.3594764.735764