A looming decision over parks above I-35 is forcing Austin City Council members to weigh two risky paths forward, and elected officials are beginning to split over which direction the city should take.
This fork in the road centers on a deceptively simple question: Which highway decks should the city commit to paying for?
Council members broadly face two options. They could agree now to building the full set of caps the city has planned, effectively locking them into the massive I-35 expansion project as it moves forward. Or they could hold off, leaving the door open to adding caps later, but at a significantly higher cost.
Either way, most of the payments wouldn’t be due until the early 2030s. But the answer will shape how much the project ultimately costs and could determine whether large sections of I-35 ever get capped at all.
Council members split on what to do
The general footprint of the city’s “Cap and Stitch” project was already set in May. A divided City Council agreed to spend $104 million in future years on the support columns and foundations needed to hold the decks over I-35 after the Texas Department of Transportation sinks the main lanes.
Under that plan, the largest sequence of caps would span I-35 from Cesar Chavez Street to Seventh Street, potentially creating one of the most prominent parks in Central Austin…