How I-35 construction will impact CapMetro operations

Editor's Note: The above video is from KXAN's Oct. 31, 2024 coverage of the groundbreaking ceremony for the Interstate 35 Capital Express Central Project.

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- The Texas Department of Transportation celebrated the start of construction on its Interstate 35 Capital Express Central Project on Wednesday, a $4.5 billion, eight-mile overhaul of the corridor near downtown Austin. Included in it are elements designed to improve CapMetro's mass transit services -- but with that will come some service readjustments during the construction phase, CapMetro President and CEO Dottie Watkins confirmed.

CapMetro and TxDOT regularly work together on projects to ensure an "interconnected network of transportation options" across the Central Texas area, Watkins said. Included in those is the I-35 expansion, which features the addition of two managed, non-tolled high-occupancy-vehicle (HOV) lanes in each direction.

Those lanes are designed to support carpooling, mass transit and other forms of non-single vehicle travel. When it comes to CapMetro bus operations, she said this design element will likely improve frequency along the transit authority's routes that cross the interstate.

"It includes a lot of infrastructure that will be supportive to CapMetro -- most excitingly, the managed lanes down the middle of the highway," she said. "We have seen on other highways in the region that when we get a high-occupancy vehicle or managed lane, it makes our buses much more reliable, and that makes it a much better experience for our riders. So we're very excited about that infrastructure."

In the meantime, there will be various road closures throughout the near-decade-long construction period along the project corridor. TxDOT officials have committed to keeping three lanes open in each direction as possible, but Watkins noted travelers in the region will need patience and flexibility in the process.

Some of those routes include those near the Tech Ridge Park & Ride in north Austin, along with express buses heading into town.

"As we expand the interstate and as we work on the system, there will obviously be road closures. CapMetro has been working closely with TxDOT and many other regional partners to make sure we're prepared to communication information about those road closures, as well as how you can use other options to be able to get you where you need to go -- whether that be ride the bus, whether that be join a CapMetro Van Pool, work from home, carpool with a friend," she said. "There's all sorts of options other than driving in your vehicle alone on the highway, and especially while the highway is under construction, it's going to be really important that we help our community think outside the box in how they move."

Soon, she said CapMetro will release information about new web addresses and mobile apps riders can track to know about roadway impacts and potential travel effects.

Alongside the managed lanes comes enhancements to bike and pedestrian infrastructure incorporated into the project. The expansion will tackle rebuilding connections between the interstate and CapMetro's Red Line rail services at Fourth Street and near the Hancock Center in central Austin; TxDOT will also be constructing an intersection at Riverside Drive for Project Connect's future light rail line.

"Both of those [Red Line] locations need to be rebuilt and will be fully grade separated from the frontage roads and the main lane of the highway. Today, the frontage roads still have to stop for the trains to come through, and that just isn't the best way to run a transportation system," she said. "This project also, at Riverside Drive, will incorporate the infrastructure necessary to support the light rail that is being built under Project Connect. So that's also been an important piece of the design of this project."