Reconnect Austin proposal calls for removing the decks and tunneling I-35

[TexasTowelie]

[div style="width:50%;"]
Reconnect Austin proposal calls for removing the decks and
tunneling I 35. Photo: Black + Vernooy.

The Austin City Council will review a radical solution to I-35 traffic called “cut and cap.”

-snip-

The Reconnect Austin design calls for the upper decks to be taken down and the roadway tunneled all the way to River Street.

I-35 has long served as a barrier that has divided Austin both racially and economically. Removing it and replacing it with tree lined streets might go a long way in resolving the whole East-West thing. Old neighborhoods would reconnect, and new development opportunities would arise.

-snip-

The only problem is that tunneling I-35 under the Reconnect Austin design and proposal would cost over half a billion dollars ($550 million proposed).

The complete story at http://digitaltexan.net/2013/austin-local-news/reconnect-austin-proposal-calls-removing-decks-tunneling-i35/article54889/ .

[font color=green]The current design of I-35 is flawed in my opinion because the express lanes are elevated and are the outside lanes. The inside lanes with access to the city streets are submerged. Because of that design, it creates a situation where taking the express lanes on the upper deck requires motorists to move from the faster lanes nearest the center of the highway to the lanes on the outside. For local traffic the opposite occurs where traffic that would normally be on the right must move towards the center. Thus accidents occur at both ends of the elevated ramps as drivers are changing lanes and having to look in their rear-view mirrors instead of focusing on the traffic in front of them.

If the lifespan of the elevated ramps is coming to an end, then this is a great opportunity to correct the engineering design error made decades ago to improve traffic flow through the central business district, UT area and northward towards the US 290/RM 2222/I-35 junction. In addition it opens up additional land for development and reunites neighborhoods that were destroyed by the I-35 barrier.

While retrofitting the area would require significant financial investment, the ability to improve traffic flow, add another traffic lane along the central business district in the submerged portion, reduce traffic accidents/injuries, possibly include a ground level biking lane or providing right-of-way for the Lone Star Rail District, and reunite the neighborhoods that were segregated decades ago offsets the initial investment.[/font]

[Ian David]

1. OMG, SOCIALISM!!! n/t

[bluedigger]

2. Only half a billion, eh?

The Big Dig was the most expensive highway project in the U.S. and was plagued by escalating costs, scheduling overruns, leaks, design flaws, charges of poor execution and use of substandard materials, criminal arrests,[2][3] and even one death.[4] The project was originally scheduled to be completed in 1998[5] at an estimated cost of $2.8 billion (in 1982 dollars, US$6.0 billion adjusted for inflation as of 2006).[6] However, the project was completed only in December 2007, at a cost of over $14.6 billion ($8.08 billion in 1982 dollars, meaning a cost overrun of about 190%)[6] as of 2006.[7] The Boston Globe estimated that the project will ultimately cost $22 billion, including interest, and that it will not be paid off until 2038.[8]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Dig

Good luck with that.

[msongs]

3. so first they shut down the current freeway. where does all that traffic go for the many years it

takes to wreck and remove existing roadway, then dig and create new roadway, then cap it. what happens to all that traffic in those intervening years?

[Still Sensible]

4. A construction clusterfuck in the planning stages

If you think Mopac is also unbearable now.... just wait!

[MADem]

5. We did that in Boston.

But we called it "depressing the Central Artery" AKA the Big Dig.

Warning--it ain't cheap, it's subject to graft, fraud, waste, and abuse, and don't be skinflinty with the follow-on inspections like Mitt RMoney was.

[hobbit709]

6. They came up with this idea before.

The real questions are 1. Where's the money coming from?
2. what's the traffic supposed to do in the meantime?

The racial/economic divide was there long before I-35 came about when the street there was East Avenue.


What's behind this idea? The operative words are found here " In addition it opens up additional land for development" and this part is just BS "reunites neighborhoods that were destroyed by the I-35 barrier".

[They_Live]

7. You're absolutely right

and by their logic every major street "divides neighborhoods" and should be banished underground (which means digging through limestone here).

And that section of I-35 is the worst traffic area, too.

[Melissa G]

8. Architect and educator, Sinclair Black has been championing this for years.

You are right about it being about development. Urban design is what Sinclair does. Tunneling 35 will allow the developers to extend downtown and reunite Travis Heights. The land values in East Austin and Rainey Street will soar and gentrification can proceed.

The developers don't see a problem with this, but the neighborhoods might. The reuniting is not BS, but an intrinsic part of the development (read gentrification) plan.

[Javaman]

10. +1. nt

[WolverineDG]

9. Oh God, I remember driving through Austin before the elevated express lanes

absolute freaking nightmare! (I was a kid in the back seat. I can't tell you how many times we almost got in a wreck in Austin.)

If they go ahead with this & shut down I 35, I'm going to have to remember all the routes my dad used to take to avoid Austin.

[NoPasaran]

11. If you don't mind a toll road

130 is open from somewhere east of Seguin to north of Georgetown. And apparently you can drive as fast as you dare on it.

[hobbit709]

13. I refuse to give Rick cronies money.

Much less the fact of why should I drive 10 miles east of town to go north and then drive 10 miles back west. 20 miles worth of extra gas and pay for the privilege.

[kentauros]

12. Personally, I'd like to see them do this in Houston.

We could save the tunneling costs due to freeways that are already "submerged" :






Just put a concrete roof over them, bigger pumps in the submerged portions, and we're ready to go for a fraction of the costs