Nathan Bernier
@KUTnathan
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Transportation reporter at Austin's @NPR station @KUT 90.5 FM. DM news tips or send to nathan @kut .org
Austin, Texas
Joined March 2009
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NEW: Austin Energy is doubling rebates for customers who buy electric bicycles. Starting January 1, 2023:
🚲 $500-$999 e-bike = $200 rebate
🚲 $1,000-$1,999 e-bike = $400 rebate
🚲 $2,000+ e-bike = $600 rebate
Electric scooters/electric mopeds are included.
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H-E-B says this guy drove a big rig 4-million miles without a single accident. Took almost 40 years. (Props to whoever wrote this press release for getting his CB handle in there.)
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MEMO: Barton Springs Road to be reduced to one car lane in each direction from South Lamar west to Azie Morton Road to “calm motor vehicle speeds and reduce the risk of severe collisions.”
Wider bike lanes. More pedestrian crossings. 12 month pilot.
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BREAKING: Five new light-rail options are being unveiled to Austin right now. The plans are significantly scaled back from the 28-mile map shown to voters before the November 2020 election.
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Would you have a picnic on I-35?
Austin and UT are planning to build parks on I-35 after TxDOT lowers the main lanes. What would that look like? I wondered.
So I went to Dallas, where a park named after a billionaire's son could be a model for Austin. 🧵
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A rally against the I-35 is expansion in Austin is happening now at Sanchez Elementary school. Featured speakers include council members Zo Qadri, José Velásquez and Mayor Pro Tem Paige Ellis.
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CapMetro is waiving fares on Election Day not just for buses, trains and Pickup but also for MetroBike. You can use the promo code BIKETOVOTE2022.
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TxDOT is arguing in federal court that I-35 didn't cause discrimination against Black or Latino Austinites, contradicting the state agency's own historical assessments of the highway that opened in 1962.
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Interesting audio/public health story out of Canada. This "Windsor hum" would drive me crazy.
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BREAKING: The Austin Transit Partnership (ATP) is throwing its weight behind a 9.8 mile on-street light-rail system. This is the formal recommendation after a six-week public input process.
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A long-planned 'wishbone' pedestrian bridge at the eastern edge of the 10-mile trail around Lady Bird Lake can finally go ahead.
The project was over budget, but a new $4 million federal grant is bridging the gap, so the city can start hiring builders.
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This is what CapMetro/Project Connect is looking at as a concept for light-rail vehicles. They want five passenger doorways per side.
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The city of Austin now says three story buildings on I-35 caps are "unlikely to be feasible" because they would require additional engineering and cost. So now, they're working on the assumption that buildings would be two stories max.
Here's a new rendering.
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Here's some drone video of the new Austin to Manor Trail.
The missing link in a 5.5-mile trail from Austin to Manor is now complete, connecting the fast-growing suburb with Austin's expansive network of public paths.
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1/ The mess at
@AUStinAirport
this morning was the result of a region outgrowing its airport. A $4 billion airport expansion is going to take years. So now, the growing pains are really starting to show. And it could get worse before it gets better.
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A bustling half-mile stretch of Barton Springs Road will go from having two car lanes in each direction to one. Bike lanes will be widened. Construction has already begun.
Here's a walkthrough of what to expect between South Lamar and Azie Morton.
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1/ Austin would get six subway stations under the current light-rail plans. Here's what they would look like.
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Council members Natasha Harper-Madison and Zo Qadri slam the racist legacy of I-35 and say the highway still divides the city.
Qadri: “We are currently standing in the literal shadow of one of the greatest mistakes in the city’s history.”
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I just noticed TxDOT posted new renderings of the I-35 expansion through Central Austin. Construction is expected to start in less than a year.
Let's take a look starting with I-35 at Oltorf Street. The schematic doesn't show much changes, but the rendering suggests art walls.
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"The key to happiness in Austin is to never, ever drive on I-35." — Molly Ivins
I have heard this quote so many times. But where did she say it?
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Austin's city council will vote today on this new 10-mile light-rail map — a crucial step toward a final vote Tuesday by council, CapMetro and ATP.
More details keep trickling out about the plans that will have impacts for decades to come.
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TxDOT plans to SEIZE 1.2 ACRES of Waller Beach Park at Lady Bird Lake and use the land as a construction staging area for at least six years. This will require a detour of the Ann and Roy Butler Hike and Bike Trail.
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1/ Austin's city council just approved a resolution demanding changes to TxDOT's I-35 expansion plan. Their requests include:
- adding crossings every quarter mile
- trying to shift more truck traffic to SH 130
- minimizing property seizures
- filtering I-35 storm runoff
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BREAKING: Elon Musk announces Tesla is moving its headquarters to Austin, Texas.
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1/ WHAT HAPPENED TO THE ZILKER PARK MINI-TRAIN? It's been almost four-years since heavy rains washed out the tracks, making this the longest Zilker Park has been without a miniature train since the Austin Eagle began chugging along in 1961.
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I-35 is a helluva drug.
Why was it built in Austin? How did it affect our housing market? If you've ever wondered, I think you'll love this new podcast I made with
@AKMcGlinchy
and
@mattlargey
.
But first, let's travel back through time to the 1940s.
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A Texas bill that would have established minimum distances for cars to pass bicycles has died in the Texas legislature. HB 421 was defeated this month 65 yeas to 73 nays.
Fear of being hit by a car is the most common reason people don't ride bikes.
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A new concourse at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport should open around 2030. Concourse B will open with perhaps six or ten gates and then gradually be expanded to 20. The facility will eventually be able to hold 40 gates, more than in the Barbara Jordan Terminal.
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A lot going on with the expansion of Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. Some updates: 🧵
A new concourse connected to the Barbara Jordan Terminal could now open with 30 gates "if we can afford that," Deputy Chief Officer Lyn Estabrook said. Will still open with at least 20
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Construction starts today on a "wishbone" pedestrian bridge that will stitch together the biggest gap in the Ann and Roy Butler Hike-and-Bike Trail around Lady Bird Lake.
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TxDOT is studying whether to build a four-lane highway along the same stretch of land where Austin is planning to break ground next year on a 12-foot-wide concrete trail.
Let's go through some aerial photography and maps to take a closer look. 🧵
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An iconic Austin video rental store is coming back. I Luv Video was open for 36 years. Now, it will be a nonprofit called We Luv Video (
@weluvvideoatx
).
They have a soft opening this Saturday at 6 pm with drinks donated by Good Night Vodka and Waterloo.
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The University of Texas wants to cover I-35 from 15th Street to Dean Keeton after TxDOT lowers the highway, creating 17 acres of real estate. Cost is upwards of $400 million.
This week, UT's Board of Regents approved $13.5 million for early designs.
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I-35 at 4th Street is getting a traffic light for pedestrians/cyclists trying to cross the frontage road. Should be active this spring.
CapMetro's board today approved almost half-a-million dollars to ensure their railroad signal coordinates with the traffic signal.
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The Texas Department of Transportation overlooked a 70-unit affordable housing complex when tallying how many homes could be destroyed by a move to widen Interstate 35 through Central Austin.
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NEW: About a third of Austin’s traffic signals are offline, according to ATD. The city’s traffic monitoring HQ lost communication with them and blames power outages as the likely culprit.
Around half the city’s signals have batteries that last 4-6 hrs. After that, lights out.
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BREAKING: Former ABIA director Jacqueline Yaft violated city conflict of interest rules by approving $550,000 in contracts for her previous employer while overseeing Austin’s airport, according to a new city audit.
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If you've read this far, thank you for joining me on what I think is the longest Twitter thread I've ever made. I'm very interested to hear your reaction to the five plans!
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Hundreds of people are sweltering in triple digit heat at Pan American Neighborhood Park in East Austin waiting for a Beto O’Rourke rally that has also become a gathering in support of abortion rights.
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Some of TxDOT's aesthetic proposals for the I-35 bridge over Lady Bird Lake. These were unveiled at a public meeting last night.
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A groundbreaking ceremony for McKalla MetroRail Station at Q2 Stadium is planned for 6 pm Monday.
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After months of refusing to answer questions, UT Austin is breaking its silence on plans for covering I-35 with giant decks from 15th Street to Dean Keeton and adding 17 acres to the campus.
They wanna do it but it could cost $400 million.
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NEW: CapMetro says McKalla Station at Q2 Stadium is now scheduled to open Saturday, February 24.
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NEW: Wheatsville Co-Op plans to close the Guadalupe Street store that opened in 1981.
The co-op's general manager largely blamed Project Connect, but admitted the Guadalupe Street store has financial problems and the building needs major repairs.
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Austin-Bergstrom International Airport is gearing up to add at least 20 new gates, expanding capacity at the overcrowded airport as it struggles to serve millions more passengers each year than it was designed to handle.
It's just gonna take a while.
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Today was Austin's biggest Bike To Work Day yet with 45 stations around the city offering breakfast tacos, waffles, orange juice, bike lights, tune-ups and a lot of encouragement.
But 99% of Austin workers don't commute by bike.
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The missing link in a 5.5-mile trail from Austin to Manor is now complete, connecting the fast-growing suburb with Austin's expansive network of public paths.
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Capital Metro is slamming the brakes on the ambitious goal of transitioning to an all-electric bus fleet — a Project Connect promise — because of problems with the range and reliability of electric buses.
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Austin voted for light-rail more than three years ago. What's happening now?
Fresh details are emerging as transit designers float big questions about station locations, a new bridge over the lake and a pedestrian path down the middle of Riverside Drive.
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Long-awaited traffic signals have been installed at I-35 and Fourth Street — one of the most popular ways to walk from one side of the highway to the other — and are scheduled to be activated this month.
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Our
@KUT
photojournalist Gabriel Perez caught the moment explosives ended an era of the I-35 northbound flyover to U.S 183
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✈️ Biggest cities you can't fly to from Austin? These are the Top 10 markets in the U.S. and worldwide without nonstop service from ABIA, according to the city's Aviation Department.
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The city of Austin used bond money to help buy apartments and keep them affordable. One building was even renamed after former Mayor Adler.
But weeks before each building was sold, rents went up by as much as 25%. Why?
Great story by
@AKMcGlinchy
:
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Acclaimed Austin artist Jim Franklin turns 80 today.
His show posters helped define an era of Austin music. Now, he’s struggling to get by.
"Every month, I'm f***ing broke,” he said.
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Outside TxDOT’s downtown headquarters right now, a news conference by people suing to stop the I-35 expansion in Central Austin. They’re also filing a civil rights complaint with the Federal Highway Administration. Background:
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EXCLUSIVE: E-mails show Austin Mayor Kirk Watson discussed renaming Austin's airport after President Lyndon Baines Johnson. Watson privately told the LBJ Foundation's CEO he liked the idea. But this process is young and would require public involvement.
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It's so hot that CapMetro train tracks are warping.
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BREAKING: Austin is ordered to pay ABIA South Terminal operator Lonestar Airport Holdings $90 MILLION in eminent domain dispute.
That’s almost 50 TIMES what the city had offered. Story coming.….
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ULTIMATE I-35 WALKTHROUGH: Ever wonder exactly how TxDOT is planning to beef up the highway that runs through the middle of Austin? Here's a section-by-section guide. Brace yourself: construction is scheduled to start this year and last up to a decade.
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Leander voters choose to keep Capital Metro service, affirming for the fourth time since 1985 the city's partnership with the regional transit agency. With almost all votes in, Leander's Prop A is leading 59% to 41%
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Get ready for five years of construction on I-35 in North Austin. A $606 million expansion project is getting underway now from U.S. 290 East to SH45 in Round Rock.
Let's take a closer look at what's going on here.
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The Austin Chronicle has moved out of its historic headquarters so the building can be demolished for the I-35 expansion. On Friday/Saturday, they'll be selling a bunch of leftover stuff. Here's a story about them being forced out:
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The city of Austin is putting out a help wanted sign for artists.
The job? Using art to help "generate excitement" about the plan to cover I-35 with deck parks after TxDOT lowers the main lanes.
The salary? $70K for about 20 months' work.
Application:
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1/ Curious what underground light-rail could look like in downtown Austin by 2029? Take a little trip with me here in this thread as we navigate early designs of the $7 billion transit expansion approved by voters last November.
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At event marking start of construction on I-35 south expansion,
@TxDOTCommission
chair Bruce Bugg says the extra lanes are needed to manage congestion. In the background, attendees can hear
@rethink35
protestors chant: “More cars, more pollution, more lanes is not the solution.”
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Austin light-rail news: The Federal Transit Administration published this notice Friday that an in-depth environmental review — required for the hoped-for federal funding to cover half the ~$5 billion cost of the system — is moving ahead.
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NEW: ATP's board of directors just unanimously approved the 10-mile light-rail plan recommended by staff of ATP, CapMetro and city of Austin. The plan now heads to CapMetro and Austin City Council for a vote.
Background:
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I'm on an ERCOT media call now. I'll post some of the stuff they say here. ERCOT CEO Bill Magness says they're still working with power generators to get them back online. In the meantime, they need to keep intentionally cutting power to avoid catastrophic blackout of Texas grid.
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Behind the scenes, changes are being made to the I-35 expansion through Central Austin. We're only finding out about the latest tweaks because council members
@chitovela3
,
@ryanalter
and
@ZoForAustin
published a two-week old letter from Mayor Kirk Watson.
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Virgin Atlantic is trying to lure UK residents on a new non-stop flight to Austin with the promise of "BBQ like no other" using this stock image of steaks on a grill.
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Small win for transparency. The Texas AG says TxDOT must release to
@KUT
budget documents related to the I-35 expansion in Austin. TxDOT argued the docs were exempted from release by a part of the Texas open records law dealing with pending litigation.
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The legacy of Austin's I Luv Video has been reborn with the Saturday opening of We Luv Video (
@weluvvideoatx
). The new non-profit is drawing from I Luv Video's trove of 130,000 DVDs and VHS tapes.
Opening day images by KUT's brilliant
@limpatricia97
:
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1/ For only the second time in its history, Capital Metro is canceling all regular service tomorrow. Up to 20 buses will be on the roads (mix of regular and paratransit vehicles) to provide emergency service like getting MetroAccess customers to dialysis treatments.
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50 years ago today, Lady Bird Johnson started digging a hole to plant a crepe myrtle tree and launch a beautification project that led to the Ann and Roy Butler Hike and Bike Trail. The Trail Foundation is marking that this morning. There is also a giant “50” made of balloons.
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Austin's plans for a 10-mile light-rail system could be dealt a "fatal" blow after a hearing this week in a Guadalupe Street courtroom.
The legal showdown involves the mind-numbing intricacies of state law and public finance.
Here's the simple version:
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CapMetro's launch letdown: new $60 million train station debuts at Q2 Stadium to slow service and frustrated fans on Austin FC's opening day.
The trains were packed tonight & for some of y’all we didn’t come through as planned. We’re working hard to get everyone to the match as quickly as we can & we’ll do the same to get everyone home tonight.
We apologize for the delays & we are using every available train to move
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Travis County is saving over $1 million a year on utilities alone by letting almost half its 5,000 employees work from home, according to a report by the National Association of Counties.
#TravisCounty
has won a National Association of Counties (
@NACoTweets
) Achievement Award for our remote work initiative! 🏆
Since 2020, this program has...
- Improved employee morale
- Boosted recruiting dramatically
- Reduced greenhouse gas emissions
- Saved money on utilities
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Austin's shift to electric buses has been plagued by vehicle glitches and now the bankruptcy of a company selling million-dollar battery buses to CapMetro.
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Flights from Austin to Montreal started today on Air Canada. The seasonal service runs four times a week on an Airbus A220-300.
The flight is about 4 hours and looks like prices start around $900 round trip.
Air Canada began nonstop Austin to Vancouver flights on Wednesday.
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Narrower lanes are coming to I-35 in Austin.
TxDOT is shrinking the width of the highway lanes from 12-feet to 11-feet as part of the effort to pack in more traffic.
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In a wooded area east of MoPac straddling Austin and Sunset Valley, a missing link is being built on a trail that eventually will link Barton Springs Pool with the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.
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NEW: Austin's city council approved an $88 million settlement with Lonestar Airport Holdings, clearing a path for the demolition of the South Terminal at ABIA to make room for a new concourse with 10 to 40 gates.
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About 100-150 people on the South Mall at UT-Austin right now. A mix of pro-Palestinian, pro-Israel, media and curious onlookers. Someone brought a bunch of pizzas.
UTPD officers are standing by with zip ties.
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McKalla Station on the Red Line appears on track to open early next year.
Meanwhile, Broadmoor station at Uptown ATX — whose Jan. 2022 groundbreaking was six months before McKalla’s — “is still in the permitting phase,” CapMetro says. Broadmoor had been expected to open in 2024
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At Riverside Drive, TxDOT plans to put a type of intersection called a "single-point urban interchange." This rendering shows very light traffic and a light-rail train crossing the interstate.
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Starting Wednesday at ABIA: TSA PreCheck and Clear will only be available at Checkpoint 2 West. I circled it in red below near the American Airlines ticket counter.
Until then, Checkpoint 1 has Clear and TSA PreCheck. Checkpoint 2 East has TSA PreCheck.
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NEW: CapMetro is getting $65 MILLION from the federal government that will pay for about two-thirds the cost of building new high-frequency bus lines scheduled to start running in 2025.
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NEW: TxDOT is updating the design of the I-35 interchange at Airport Boulevard to a traditional intersection. This addresses some concerns of neighborhood groups in the area.
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BREAKING: The CapMetro board of directors is expected to name Dottie Watkins as the agency’s president and CEO. The vote is Monday. Watkins is currently serving as interim CEO. She’s has been with the agency since 1994. Started as a bus driver and rose though the ranks.
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BREAKING: ABIA announces $88 million settlement to end two lawsuits over the privately-run South Terminal.
Lonestar Airport Holdings will transfer management to ABIA this fall.
Slated for destruction in 2025 to make way for expansion.
Press release:
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TxDOT believes a map of the MoKan Corridor (among other documents) is exempt from public information requests.
Instead of citing a specific exemption in law, TxDOT cited 57 sections of the Government Code, including one protecting the confidentiality of crime scene images.
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Such a great story by
@AKMcGlinchy
about Austin’s 1,600 miles of missing sidewalks — a length of concrete that could stretch from here to Winnipeg, Canada.
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These plans were so appealing that during a pandemic, with local transit ridership down by more than half, a majority of Austin voters signed up to raise their city property taxes by ~20%.
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Austin's $7 billion Project Connect transit expansion includes a LIGHT-RAIL BRIDGE over Lady Bird Lake (for the Blue Line from the airport to Republic Square Park). The city's Urban Transportation Commission has big questions about it.
@ATP_org
is going to try to answer them now.
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The expansion of I-35 through Central Austin will bring MORE NOISE to many locations along the eight-mile route.
Let's take a tour from Ben White Boulevard to U.S. 290 East to see what's coming.
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The I-35 expansion will force out the beloved Spanish-immersion daycare Escuelita Del Alma, scrambling plans for 200 kids and their parents.
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NEW: Republican state lawmakers filed bills today in the Texas House and Senate targeting Austin's Project Connect transit expansion. The bills would require a citywide election before the Austin Transit Partnership, which is building two light-rail lines, could issue debt.
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