SOS vs TxDOT: I-35 Expansion

I-35 Expansion / Won't Work: In August 2023, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) self-approved its own environmental analysis and compliance with federal laws for a proposed expansion of I-35 through Central Austin. This 8-mile stretch of highway would expand the number of lanes to over 20 lanes in some sections, displacing over 100 residences and businesses. The highway expansion will increase the accumulation of air toxins within neighborhoods along the corridor, already suffering from 62 years of proximity to the highway. And, as part of its final design, TxDOT will divert the polluted highway runoff through East Austin and dump undertreated runoff into the pristine waters of the free-flowing section of the Colorado River, east of Longhorn Dam.

The Save Our Springs Alliance, in partnership with Rethink35, PODER, the Austin Justice Coalition, and several environmental and neighborhood organizations have filed a suit against TxDOT challenging the sufficiency of TxDOT’s environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act. If this lawsuit is successful, TxDOT would be forced to reconsider the environmental impacts of the proposed highway and hopefully reconsider some of the community-supported alternatives that would better heal the damage that the current highway has done to Austin’s communities for the last half century.

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