TxDOT Shares Radical New Look For $8B Expansion To I-35

The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) gave Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO) officials a glimpse of a possible $8 billion expansion to Interstate 35 on Monday night that adds proposed lanes to every section of the highway in Austin and two subterranean tunnels close to The University of Texas-Austin.

TxDOT representatives delivered a presentation and video to CAMPO board members that showed one managed lane both northbound and southbound from U.S. 290 East to Texas 45 South and two tunnels that would go from Airport Boulevard to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. 

The preliminary plan is likely to undergo multiple revisions in the years to come as outreach efforts collect public feedback, TxDOT officials said.

CAMPO members voted to inject $400 million to boost the project higher up state and federal funding priority lists.

Construction on the project, which CAMPO board members voted to include in their regional transportation plan, could begin as early as 2022 with completion wrapping up after 2027 should funding be secured.

CAMPO board members also earmarked $75 million for access roads on U.S. 183-A from RM 1431 to Avery Ranch Boulevard and $25 million in upgrades to the RM 620-Anderson Mill Road intersection.

This story originally published by Strategic Partnerships, Inc.