The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is moving forward with two segments of the historic $4.5 billion Interstate 35 Capital Express Central (I-35 CapEx) Project. State officials are estimating construction for the Downtown and University stretches to begin in 2027.
The I-35 CapEx initiative will overhaul eight miles of the city’s main highway corridor, instituting transportation improvements to support connectivity, create shared-use paths and reconstruct critical roadways. Planned to take place over the course of a decade, the department will soon release bidding opportunities for the Downtown and University segments of the initiative.
The Downtown portion will extend from Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to Holly Street. The project calls for lowering the mainlanes by removing the upper decks and building two high-occupancy-vehicle (HOV) managed lanes in each direction of the highway. Additional work will involve building boulevard-style frontage roads through the downtown area.
TxDOT will build a new Holly Street bridge as part of the work, pedestrian-only bridges at 3rd, 4th and 15th streets and new and any remaining bicycle and pedestrian shared-use paths along the I-35 corridor. Plans include completing the CapMetro Red Line rail bridge and the northbound I-35 frontage road from Lambie Street to Flores Street. Finally, the department will reconstruct a series of east-west crossings from Cesar Chavez Street to 12th Street.
The University segment – stretching from US 290 to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard – will follow similar design principles to the Downtown portion. The project will add two HOV lanes in each direction along I-35, remove the upper decks and lower the mainlanes. Additional work will include reconstructing six east-west crossings between 38 1/2 Street and Dean Keeton Street.
TxDOT plans to build bicycle and pedestrian paths along the corridor and US 290 East, as well as widen the bridges along these routes. The department will also build pedestrian-only bridges at Capital Plaza, 21st Street and complete the CapMetro Red Line rail bridge at Airport Boulevard. Additional work will consist of building a U-turn bridge at 51st Street, boulevard-style frontage roads and a 21-foot-tall noise wall along the northbound frontage road.
Photo by Larry D. Moore, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, from Wikimedia Commons
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