Woodland Avenue I-35 Closure in Travis Heights: Fall Routes

"I'm not happy about it. I'm not happy about a lot of things," a resident told KUT in January. The resident had lived near Woodland Avenue for five years and was out walking her dog on the Wednesday morning after TxDOT closed the street's crossing under I-35 for good.

The closure happened on the evening of Monday, January 19, 2026, and it was permanent. KUT described it as one of the biggest pain points so far in the I-35 expansion, with thousands of drivers losing a crossing that had been in place for decades. Most of the coverage stopped at the car traffic. For anyone living on the east side of Travis Heights, the more useful story is that Woodland is being rebuilt as a crossing for walkers and cyclists only. Those same people have the longest detours right now, and they will keep them the longest.

How a Car Crossing Became a Footbridge Plan

The South River City Citizens Neighborhood Association represents residents on both sides of the highway. It began opposing a Woodland closure when the idea first came up in 2013, warning that removing the car crossing would slow police, fire, and EMS response times. In a 2023 vote protesting the expansion, the Austin City Council said the closure "creates a division in the city of more than a mile between the Riverside Drive and Oltorf Street crossings."

TxDOT said it chose this design so it would not have to demolish the Aria Grand Apartments, a 70-unit affordable housing complex at Woodland and I-35 that opened in 2019. To replace the street crossing, TxDOT's segment plan calls for a pedestrian-only bridge at Woodland Avenue. The City Council looked at spending at least $15 million on a 300-foot-wide bridge there and decided against it. TxDOT will pay for a 75-foot-wide bridge instead. TxDOT's illustration shows benches, a shade structure, and room for a stroller.

Local input has already changed where the bridge goes. The Austin Monitor reported that TxDOT moved the bridge closer to Woodland Avenue after residents and the City complained. On January 20, 2026, the day after the street closed, Austin's Bicycle Advisory Council voted 9-0 to recommend that the bridge's main entrance face Woodland. If that recommendation holds, the permanent crossing will land roughly where the old one was, for people who arrive on foot or by bike.

Six Changes on Different Timelines

The east edge of the neighborhood is now dealing with several separate construction changes, each with its own end date. TxDOT expects to finish the whole Lady Bird Lake segment in 2033, weather permitting, with Balfour Beatty as the contractor.

The two sources disagree on the east-side lake crossing. The Trail Conservancy expects that closure to last about a year from February. TxDOT's page lists the existing east pedestrian path as closed through 2029. Until one of them updates, both pages are worth checking before you plan a route around it.

On Foot and by Bike, the Worst Part Came First

KUT reported that the recommended walking detour, uphill to Oltorf Street and back down to Woodland, is more than a mile long. That is the gap the Council pointed to in 2023, and now it shows up in daily walks. In January, one of the two sidewalks under the highway at Woodland was still open, and KUT reported that it would eventually close too. TxDOT's current access map sends people walking across I-35 at Woodland to the Oltorf Street bridge.

Getting to the lake from the neighborhood's northeast corner has also changed. At Riverside Drive, TxDOT has added temporary pedestrian signals and routes people to the south sidewalk, because the north sidewalk on Riverside is closed. People crossing Lady Bird Lake are directed to the west sidewalk on the southbound frontage road bridge. Two temporary signals, at Manlove Street and Edgecliff Terrace, carry the detour across Riverside.

The next closure is coming up soon. Starting as early as Sunday, October 18, crews will close the south-shore boardwalk at I-35 for one week to build a pedestrian bridge east of the highway. After that, part of the boardwalk will have limited access through early 2027, and trail users can still pass under the I-35 bridge. The Trail Conservancy says it will post more details later in October. Until then, these are the posted options for reaching the lake from the east side of Travis Heights:

1. The Riverside staircase to the boardwalk. The Conservancy says it stays open except for intermittent construction closures. The ramp beside it is closed through 2029.
2. South Lakeshore Boulevard, east of I-35. This is one of the access points the Conservancy lists during the boardwalk closure.
3. The trail entrance west of I-35. This is the other listed access point, and it is the closer one for most of the neighborhood.
4. South Congress or the Wishbone Bridge at Pleasant Valley. The Conservancy suggests these for crossing between the north and south shores while the east-side crossing at I-35 is closed.

TxDOT limits continuous trail and waterway closures near the bridge to three a year, each lasting no more than a week. Shorter closures for construction can happen as needed, along with nightly closures. On the water, paddlers have a 75-foot-wide passage under the I-35 bridge through 2033.

Drivers Got U-Turns That Will Eventually Go Away

Drivers have more options than walkers right now, though theirs are temporary as well. TxDOT's map shows U-turns open on the frontage roads at Riverside Drive and Oltorf Street, and drivers headed east or west on Woodland are routed through them. KUT reported that drivers approaching from Woodland itself cannot use the temporary U-turns at the underpass, and that all of these U-turns will be removed once TxDOT lowers the I-35 mainlanes.

Riverside is also being rebuilt. Crews started reconstructing the Riverside Drive bridge on July 15. Southbound frontage road traffic now uses a bypass lane, and a temporary signal handles turns onto Riverside. Getting onto the northbound frontage road from Riverside takes a loop. Drivers take the southbound frontage road, make a U-turn at Woodland, and then use the Riverside bypass lane. That pattern is posted through 2029.

In February, KXAN talked with Riverside residents about the detours. One Riverside resident described them as difficult, and another Riverside resident called them "a nightmare on the daily." The other resident also said some drivers were ignoring the signs and making prohibited turns where lanes had been reduced.

What Might Shorten the Wait

So far the bridge has no opening date. KUT's corrected timeline says only that construction could begin as soon as 2029. At a City Council Mobility Committee meeting on May 14, 2026, Vice Chair Qadri asked whether a temporary pedestrian bridge could open sooner. He said a constituent was finding it hard to bike with his child since the closure. TxDOT's representative said he did not know the date, would look into it, and thought bicycles might also be allowed. In SRCC's February 17 general meeting minutes, Mobility Chair Mark Thompson reported on his efforts to restore a traffic signal at Woodland.

For the next few weeks, the simplest walk in the neighborhood doesn't involve the highway. The 24th annual Travis Heights Art Trail runs November 7 and 8 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Organizers describe it as the only neighborhood art show run by the participating artists. Their map covers the area between Riverside and Live Oak and between I-35 and Congress, so the whole route is on the near side of the construction. The event is free.

If you're weighing how the Woodland closure and the years of I-35 work affect your own block, your daily routes, or your plans for a home on the east side of Travis Heights, Matt Richard is glad to go through it with you, using the current TxDOT timelines. Let's Connect.