Austin’s Infrastructure Transformation, and What It Means for Other Cities in Transition

Nothing can get a Texan complaining like construction on I-35. The interstate runs from Laredo through San Antonio, Austin, and Dallas-Fort Worth on its way to its terminus at Duluth, Minnesota—and the Texas stretch seems interminably in progress, with road crews, orange barrels, and traffic slowdowns that seem more common than Buc-ee’s billboards announcing your next bathroom break.

Anyone who braves a Central Texas road trip will hit the most unpredictable portion: downtown Austin. Although I-35 shoots straight through the city, with views of the Texas Capitol and University of Texas Tower to boot, a little roadwork can extend your quality time with the Austin skyline much longer than you wanted.

As part of a generational infrastructure improvement, TxDOT and the City of Austin are remaking that chokepoint…and while that might spell traffic delays in the short term, the benefits to the city will continue for decades. “Austin is undergoing a major facelift, with five huge infrastructure improvements,” says Paco Guerrero, P.E., Vice President at Pape-Dawson. Two of those—the expansions of Austin-Bergstrom International Airport and Walnut Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant—have little effect on the I-35 corridor. Pape-Dawson is involved in the other three, which will recreate the downtown Austin experience, even if they slow traffic in the coming years:

• I-35 CapEx Central, a project to sink portions of the freeway 50 feet below their current elevation and add vehicle and pedestrian bridges overtop, removing historical barriers between east and west
• Austin Convention Center redevelopment, which will grow facility space and increase engagement with the community
• Project Connect, an initiative to improve public transit options, including light rail and commuter rail service

Those three projects will revitalize the downtown area, providing space and opportunity for tourists and locals alike to enjoy the city as well as connect for business and technological innovation. The ongoing effort has proved to be dynamic as better granularity on engineering requirements and public opinion has driven design changes. For example, community feedback showed strong support for a roadway design that integrates the city from east to west, says Pape-Dawson Practice Leader Stacey Gould, P.E. “They want it to feel like one city from one side to the other, and the depressed main lanes, Cap and Stitch connectivity, and vehicular bridges at grade across the highway will provide a visual continuity to achieve this goal.”

Pape-Dawson’s involvement in these major infrastructure projects is behind the scenes…or, more accurately, under the pavement. “Our role is to find a place for all the water and wastewater utilities that crisscross I-35,” explains Paco. Although originally contracted for just the City of Austin utility design for I-35 CapEx Central, Paco quickly saw the opportunity to include the other two efforts that engage the city center (Austin Convention Center and Project Connect) into a broader effort that planned the relocation of water utilities in a holistic, coordinated way in the downtown area. “To shut down a large transmission main line only once, rather than three times, will save Austin a lot of headaches, time, and money,” says Paco.

That strategic, big-picture approach led to a first-of-its-kind breakthrough. Plunging the new I-35 roadway below its current depth will expose water lines that are now safely underground, requiring their relocation. “That was a problem for wastewater, which is a gravity system,” says Stacey. “We needed to find new places to tie those lines to outside the I-35 corridor, inside the City of Austin right of way.” As a consequence, TxDOT will, for the first time, fund utilities relocation city blocks away from the roadway, a step Stacey sees as necessary for the benefit of downtown overall. “It’s a unique part of the project that came from our schematic design,” she says.

Engineers are driven by practicalities, using proven practices. Austin’s downtown efforts, specifically its Cap and Stitch Project, take cues from previous similar endeavors, including Klyde Warren Park in Dallas. Paco and Stacey have identified several lessons from their work that may be relevant for other cities looking at downtown transformations:

• Secure initial funding. Such projects are expensive, says Paco. “That hasn’t been a problem here, since it’s been a TxDOT priority, but the money you spend in design can save you money during construction.”
• Don’t be in a rush. “This stretch of I-35 hasn’t been touched since the 1950s,” Paco says. “With a pent-up need for redesign, the city knew it would take time to design and build it.” In addition, not all design elements of a project move forward simultaneously. “If the roadway design isn’t complete, then we can’t finish the drainage and utilities design. Any changes in roadway will change those other designs, too,” explains Stacey. Close collaboration is key, and it may not be quick.
• Have a good idea of what’s in the ground. Reliable information about the current environment facilitates solid engineering. “Luckily, Austin has a robust GIS system with lots of information, and TxDOT has done a good job of gathering Subsurface Utility Engineering (SUE), geotechnical, and survey data along the corridor,” says Paco.

Several years of bad traffic are in store for Austin and the motorists who drive through it. If you find yourself there passing mountains of broken pavement and hulking construction equipment, use your idle time to anticipate the wonders to come…and to appreciate the utilities below your tires and blocks away from the highway that allow them.