I-35 expansion project: Rethink35, community partners announce lawsuit against TxDOT

AUSTIN, Texas - Community activists are suing TxDOT over a plan to expand I-35. 

The I-35 Capital Express Central project would impact an 8-mile area between US 290 East and SH 71/Ben White Boulevard. The project’s design includes removing upper decks, lowering lanes through downtown and adding HOV lanes. It would also create boulevard-like frontage roads and allow for deck plazas, if funded.

"The severing of this community for I-35 is increasingly acknowledged as a mistake, and in at least 14 other Texas towns and cities, the interstate goes around the town and not straight through the heart of its community," said Adam Greenfield, board president of Rethink35, at a press conference on Monday. "I have been inspired by so many voices that have said we could do so much better than having an interstate highway go through our community, and we can certainly do so much better than widening the highway and making a problem even worse than it is."

One concern is the history of the freeway, which separates East Austin from downtown and West Austin.

"I’m referring to the racist monument that is I-35," said Misael Ramos, board president of the Blackland Community Development Corporation.

Other concerns surrounding the project include environmental impacts and displacement.

"East Austin residents would be displaced. Neighborhoods would be destroyed. Estates and businesses will be gone," said Bertha Rendon Delgado, president of the East Town Lake Citizen Neighborhood Association. 

"Through our lawsuit, we've demonstrated that TxDOT has failed to properly account for all of these environmental impacts, and it's critical that we go back to the drawing board fully, calculate the impacts to public health and thoroughly explore alternatives," said Luke Metzger, executive director of Environment Texas. "This is a boondoggle that will cost billions of dollars, that will close down and slow down the highway for ten years with construction, and, ultimately, won't even make traffic any better."

Responding to the lawsuit, TxDOT Executive Director Marc Williams said it is TxDOT’s duty to mitigate congestion as Austin grows. 

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"This is a project designed with the community and for the community. We have carefully followed and even exceeded the environmental and legal requirements to advance this project. We don’t believe that the actions of these opponents have merit," said Williams. "TxDOT design and environmental teams undertook the most rigorous environmental process to ensure we put forward the best plan that meets safety and mobility needs while keeping community values a priority. The selected alternative is the result of hard work and a painstaking effort to reduce adverse impacts." 

Alternative solutions proposed by Rethink35 include making SH-130 the new "I-35", turning I-35 into an urban boulevard, and investing in public transportation. 

"Austin's done a great job investing in bike lanes, but our train system and our bus system need a lot of TLC," said Lindsey Holmes, outreach director for the Save Our Springs Alliance. "There's so much money behind this I-35 expansion, I can just imagine what the possibilities of investing in higher quality public transportation would do for the city."

Construction on the I-35 Capital Express Central project is expected to start in spring or summer 2024.

To learn more about the project and TxDOT’s process of environmental analysis and community engagement, click here.

To learn more about Rethink 35 and sign the petition against I-35 expansion plans, click here.