Austin Leaders May Seek Bond Election For Intracity Roadways

This last week Corridor News reported that Austin-area State Sen. Kirk Watson advocated a plan that would remake the portion of Interstate 35 that runs through the capital city without using bond money. The city’s mayor, Steve Adler, followed that proposition with a proposal to hold a bond election in November that would fund mobility improvements to Austin’s major intracity corridors.

City staffers have brought forward five options for potential bond packages, ranging in price from $250 million to $720 million. Adler said he is in favor of the largest of those amounts. “My hope is that we go big or we go home,” the mayor said.

The projects would remake six major thoroughfares in Austin: Lamar Boulevard, Airport Boulevard, Guadalupe Street, Riverside Drive, Burnet Road, and Martin Luther King Boulevard East. Though all of those streets are within the city limits, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) actually has responsibility for their maintenance and repair. The city could take that responsibility, according to the proposal, freeing up TxDOT funding to be used on the I-35 improvements.

The corridor projects would add turn lanes and protected bike paths, create pullout bus stops that would not disrupt traffic and install smart traffic lights that offer dynamic signaling that changes according to traffic patterns.

The city council discussed the proposal at this week’s meeting but did not decide one way or the other on the bond election. Members would need to decide by the end of June, according to Adler, in order to be prepared for a November election.