March 5, 2024

Reconnect Austin was co-founded by Sinclair Black, Heyden Black Walker, and community leaders in 2012. Our organization has spent the past 11 years advocating for an improved I-35 corridor through central Austin. In that time we have engaged with multiple TxDOT proposals for the corridor, recognizing that the existing corridor is flawed and dangerous but pushing back against the one-size-fits-all proposal of expansion. TxDOT has proposed a rebuild and expansion of I-35 several times in the last decades, and each time Reconnect Austin has pushed back on the proposal and advocated for a more community-centric approach. Our advocacy has resulted in TxDOT’s commitment to remove the upper decks, to lower the main lanes of I-35 below grade, and to enter into negotiations with the City of Austin to develop caps over the main lanes in order to create new space for people. TxDOT began the federally mandated NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) process for the current iteration of the project in 2020, and Reconnect Austin has been present and engaged every step of the way. We have not yielded in our ask for an improved I-35 corridor and genuine, bottom-up community engagement. Our full feedback on the project and our recommendations to TxDOT moving forward are publicly available on our website at reconnectaustin.com.

The current proposal for I-35 by TxDOT and the proposal for caps & stitches by the City of Austin and Downtown Austin Alliance differ from Reconnect Austin’s original vision for this corridor. While we recognize that with numerous stakeholders involved in this project, any one vision was unlikely to come to fruition exactly as originally proposed, we are disappointed to see that the current plans will destroy existing homes and businesses and will provide limited economic return to help pay the costs of capping. We do appreciate that the current project has improved since its first announcement to the public and that there is a potential future with caps over I-35 upon which new community spaces can be built. Getting to that future is now the responsibility of TxDOT, the City of Austin, the Downtown Austin Alliance, and the University of Texas at Austin. We are encouraged by the potential for 30 acres of capping downtown and 40 acres of capping at UT and wish the best to those organizations who will continue working to finalize the project and bring it to construction.

Multiple concerns persist regarding TxDOT’s actions with this project and the impacts it will have on the people of Austin, including but not limited to impacts to environmental justice populations, air pollution, water pollution, congestion relief, car dependency, induced demand, induced sprawl, and climate change. Reconnect Austin remains firm in our belief that an expansion of this highway is not the best possible solution to its existing problems. Our full thoughts are outlined here. In light of these ongoing issues, a number of community groups filed a lawsuit against TxDOT and FHWA. Reconnect Austin is not a plaintiff in this lawsuit nor are we involved with separate legal action against TxDOT, but we recognize the merit of its concerns and appreciate the ongoing commitment of the groups involved to the betterment of this project.

Reconnect Austin will remain committed to the people of Austin and will continue our work to improve the I-35 corridor through Central Austin.