I-35 Central Austin expansion retains place in CAMPO planning documents

A Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO) committee reaffirmed the agency’s support for the Interstate 35 Capital Express-Central expansion with an April 25 recommendation to include the project in CAMPO’s 2023-2026 Transportation Improvement Program (TIP).

The advisory Committee advised the CAMPO policy board to program more than $4.6 billion in federal and state funding for the I-35 Capital Express-Central project in the TIP.

The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), which is the project sponsor, plans to add northbound and southbound non-tolled managed lanes, reconstruct ramps, improve frontage road and freight movements, and add auxiliary lanes to an 8-mile section of I-35 from U.S. 290E to U.S. 290W/SH 71 through Austin’s downtown.

.

TxDOT divided the Central expansion into two applications for funding – one for fiscal year 2025 for $2.61 billion and the other for fiscal year 2026 for $2 billion in funding.

Every two years, CAMPO sets priorities for implementing projects listed in the TIP, a planning document for transportation projects in Bastrop, Burnet, Caldwell, Hays, Travis, and Williamson counties. For a project to be in the TIP, it must have funding and be ready to begin construction in the four-year TIP timeframe.

CAMPO’s Transportation Policy Board is set to act on the TIP at its May 9 meeting.

Source: Strategic Partnerships