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The Texas Department of Transportation plans to increase the capacity of Interstate 35 between Ben White Boulevard and US 290 East, which, according to an analysis by TxDOT, would displace more than 140 commercial and residential properties.
The report didn’t name the specific properties the plans would affect, but they will likely force long-standing mainstays like the Austin Chronicle and Star Cafe to move out of their current locations. They would also bring the freeway uncomfortably closer to a few houses in the Cherrywood neighborhood.
“I think it would be lazy, actually,” said Shannon Sedwick, co-owner of the decade-old Stars Cafe restaurant on I-35, off East 31st Street. “We really don’t have an alternate side. It would surely be the death of stars.”
Gabriel C. Perez
Shannon Sedgwick, co-owner of Stars Cafe, a restaurant in the Cherrywood neighborhood that would be forced to move from its current location due to TxDOT’s plans to expand Interstate 35.
TxDOT has stated that it is open to change its plans for the interstate and the public has until September 8th to get involved. But the agency may not be ready to stray too far from its current direction. TxDOT has announced that it will not start its designs from scratch.
Residents of the properties can try to negotiate the terms of their departure before construction is due to begin in late 2025.
Narrow down the plans
TxDOT this month unveiled three proposals for a multi-billion dollar highway extension along an eight-mile stretch through downtown Austin. The section of I-35 from Ben White Boulevard in South Austin to US 290 East in North Austin has repeatedly been referred to as the most congested street in the state. TxDOT would like to increase the capacity of the motorway in order to be able to accommodate larger volumes of traffic.
“There will be a big improvement in the traffic jams we’re seeing downtown,” said TxDOT spokeswoman Diann Hodges, adding that the downtown section of I-35 has not seen any significant improvement since the downtown upper decks were added Early 1970s.
All three of TxDOT’s proposals were to remove the upper decks and add two lanes of traffic for vehicles with high loads in each direction. HOV lanes could be used by vehicles with two or more occupants.
The first of the three options – lowering the main freeway lanes and tunneling under four HOV lanes – has already been discarded by TxDOT for a number of reasons, including the $ 8 billion price tag. The plan would have resulted in fewer homes being relocated compared to the other proposals.
Texas Department of Transportation
This cross-section shows what TxDOT’s first proposal to revise I-35 would have looked like in the area where the upper decks of the motorway are now. It called for the main lanes of the autobahn to be lowered and for four high-traffic lanes to be tunnelled underneath. The proposal was rejected for a number of reasons, including the fact that the other two alternatives were more than twice as expensive.
The other two alternatives would cost about half as much to design and build – around $ 4 billion each. However, they would require the demolition of 142 and 147 properties respectively.
Texas Department of Transportation
A cross-section of TxDOT’s second proposal to revise I-35. The highway would take up more space than the agency’s first plan, but it would cost half as much to implement.
A streak of businesses is displaced
A close examination of TxDOT’s schematic maps, published online as part of the month-long public submission process, shows the areas that would be included in an expanded freeway.
Texas Department of Transportation
TxDOT’s I-35 schematics, which went online this month, indicate right-of-way with an orange line. The newly expanded limits are suggested with a blue line.
TxDOT’s proposals would extend the freeway outward to encompass areas occupied by homes and businesses. The major break-ins of the I-35 right-of-way into adjacent properties would be between Dean Keeton and 51st Street.
Near East 40th Street, for example, schemes show I-35 swelling west to encase the headquarters of the alternative weekly Austin Chronicle. According to a TxDOT database, the structure is suitable for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places.
Texas Department of Transportation
This TxDOT schematic shows how the I-35 would devour the Austin Chronicle. Existing right of way is shown with an orange line. The new right of way is suggested with a blue line.
When TxDOT purchases land for transport projects, the agency tries to negotiate a deal with the landowners. If the parties cannot agree, TxDOT can expropriate the property with outstanding domain powers and offer the owner a “fair market value” plus the relocation costs. Relocation assistance is also offered when renting apartments or renting business premises.
For some businesses in the area, moving is a burden that they would rather not have to bear.
“I’d be curious what other options besides evicting us,” said Imran Acosta, owner of the Texas Gamers Lounge video arcade on I-35 Front Street near Concordia Avenue. “We’ve spent countless hours and money modernizing the old building we’re in, and it’s hard to imagine doing it all over again.”
Other properties that would cede or take over land from the Autobahn include:
- The Avalon Apartments
- School Of Alma Spanish Immersion Daycare
- Taqueria Los Altos
- Hector the barber
- Mexican restaurant Hornitos
- Dreamer DVD
- the Red one
- Strip club for pretty girls
- Check mark next to typesetting
- The former Days Inn Hotel, which is now used as a homeless shelter in the city
- Austin Bail Bonds
- Wendys
- Bank of America
- Sleeve
“It amazes me, it really does,” said Ben Growden, manager of Zebra Smoke Shop, one of the companies whose property would be devoured by the extended right of way.
“We just went through a global pandemic and people are holding onto a thread. That won’t help,” he said. “There has to be something better.”
A seven-acre cemetery eligible for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places, Mount Calvary, would cede a strip of land adjacent to I-35 that amounts to about a quarter of an acre. The TxDOT report states, “A recent ground penetrating radar study has shown that no burial sites are affected.”
Encroachment on the neighborhood
In addition to eliminating front-street apartment complexes like Avalon, widening I-35 would also push the freeway further into residential neighborhoods like Cherrywood, creating a freeway in residents’ backyards along Robinson Street.
Gabriel C. Perez
Robinson Street in the Cherrywood neighborhood is one block off I-35. A planned expansion of the motorway would bring them to the backyards of some residents.
“You haven’t considered the impact on the community enough,” said Beth Stevens of Robinson Street as she stood in her front yard. “It would be a fundamental change in our neighborhood and the people and places we are enjoying right now.”
The Cherrywood Neighborhood Association reached out directly to senior TxDOT officials to raise safety and noise concerns and to express their support for local businesses along the Front Street.
“Everyone here knows they chose to live near a freeway,” said Jim Walker, president of the Cherrywood Neighborhood Association. “But that only increases their interest in it being done well.”
Nathan Bernier
An aerial view of the Cherrywood neighborhood near Interstate 35.
Walker welcomed TxDOT’s plan to eliminate the upper decks and urged the agency to consider a creative alternative to the expansion options on the table, even if more money had to be spent on it.
“We’re one of the largest cities in the country, one of the most vibrant cities in Texas, so it’s worth doing an above-average job here, a little more effort, a little more cost,” he said.
Community-based alternatives
Three Austin groups have offered alternatives to TxDOT’s proposals that would reduce the space taken up by I-35 and allow more plots to be added, either by significantly shrinking the freeway, sinking and covering the freeway to make it one Transforming tunnels, or by relocating the front roads inward to overhang the main lanes.
Rethink 35
ReThink35 proposes removing Interstate 35 and replacing it with an urban boulevard friendly to cyclists and pedestrians with easy access to public transportation.
However, a separate analysis by TxDOT’s academic partners at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute largely rejected the projects as impracticable, either because they did not meet the state’s desire for increased road capacity or because they contained millions of dollars that TxDOT would not fund.
“TxDOT is a freeway upgrade agency, and that’s exactly what their latest plans are suggesting,” said Adam Greenfield, co-founder of Rethink35, a local residents campaign to turn I-35 into a boulevard. “It’s not a surprise.”
A TxDOT public comment period now runs through September 8th to help TxDOT select a plan that will be submitted for public feedback in the fall of 2022. A final decision is expected in summer 2023. Construction is expected to start at the end of 2025.
Nathan Bernier
A shopping strip along Frontstrasse I-35 that would be among the displaced persons evicted under TxDOT’s proposed expansion plans.
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