AUSTIN, Texas — The multi-billion dollar Interstate 35 expansion project may be hitting another speed bump again, thanks to a resolution the Austin City Council passed on Thursday.
The council asked the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) to halt the project’s funding until it can complete additional climate strategy plans.
"We all have to do our part together to get everything we can to make this generational project as good as it possibly can be,” Mayor Pro Tem Paige Ellis (District 8) said. “We really have to think about the future."
A main concern of activists stems from the idea that the expansion will continue to contribute harmful greenhouse gas emissions.
"They need to be mitigating that, and reducing it, removing urban highways. And yet here we are expanding, adding way more harm to the original harm that was done,” said Bill Bunch with the Save Our Springs Alliance.
Ellis said with all the extreme weather events Austin has been experiencing, the council is in need of more comprehensive climate plans before they can move forward with the project. They will be waiting on the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO) to complete their Regional Mobile Emission Reduction Plan.
Mayor Kirk Watson, Councilmember Leslie Pool (District 7) and Councilmember Mackenzie Kelly (District 6) voted against Ellis’ resolution. But the council members who voted in favor praised the call for more sustainability efforts.
"The project is moving forward, and I'm not aware of any legal or political strategy that will stop it, and if that is a reality, we must do everything we can to mitigate the negative effects,” Councilmember José "Chito" Vela (District 4) said.
Some longtime supporters of the project don't share the same sentiment.
"Our sense is that these groups are trying every angle that they can to slow down the project,” said Dewitt Peart, the CEO of Downtown Austin Alliance. “Slowing down the project adds costs, adds frustration, puts the project at risk to move the money to other projects that are ready to go."
The expansion project is expected to take about eight years, but it's not yet clear how long implementation of these two climate strategy plans would take, and if the timeline will continue to fluctuate.
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