The Texas Transportation Commission has approved a plan to fund the $7.5-billion expansion of Interstate 35 through downtown Austin. Although construction is likely several years away, numerous ideas have already been proposed for accommodating the continued spiraling growth of local and through traffic through the state’s capital, while also eliminating what many perceived as a barrier that has long isolated many of the city’s minority neighborhoods.
Spurred in large part by a growing technology industry, metropolitan Austin’s population has soared in recent years to surpass 2 million residents. However, I-35 was last modified in the 1970s with the addition of upper-deck travel lanes in the downtown area. As a result, the highway regularly bogs down with more than 200,000 vehicles a day. Forecasts call for that volume to increase by another 116,000 vehicles over the next 20 years.