How I-35 Plans Affect the Chronicle Property at 40th Street

As it happens, the Chronicle office is one of the 150 or so properties that lie within the construction footprint of the I-35 highway expansion, as planned in both of the build Alternatives still under consideration for the Capital Express Central corridor. As you can (sort of) see in the map below, the new right-of-way would take up just about all of our office building on 40th Street; over on the east side of the highway, it would extend to within a few feet of the Fiesta Mart.

As I detail in Public Notice this week, we have no complaints (yet) about the process as it pertains to us: There's been a robust outreach program to affected property owners, and ample information available online (see capexcentral.mobility35openhouse.com), and the gist of it is that TxDOT will announce their decision in the summer of 2023, and assuming they decide to build, construction will begin in 2025.

So that's the timeline the whole city's on at this point: We're in the final window for public input, now through Sept. 24. And at that point TxDOT begins a lengthy process in which "Alternatives 2 and 3, and the No Build Alternative, will be further analyzed, including a detailed analysis of biological and water resources, community impacts, cultural resources, air quality and traffic noise impacts, hazardous materials, and other impacts." And we and the city as a whole will get the word within a couple of years, and then have a couple more to prepare for the bulldozers. At least, unlike Arthur Dent, we won't be able to say we didn't get the demolition notices.