The Austin Board of Realtors hosted its Central Texas growth forum Jan. 28, bringing in a panel of officials from key Austin transportation entities to discuss how major ongoing projects such as Austin Transit Partnership’s light rail system, expansions and improvements at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport and Texas Department of Transportation’s work along I-35 could impact local Realtors.
The panel featured Lindsay Wood, executive vice president of engineering and construction at ATP; Sam Haynes, deputy chief in strategy and stakeholder relations at ABIA; and Tucker Ferguson, district engineer at TxDOT’s Austin District. The panel was moderated by Taylor Smith, ABoR deputy director of government affairs.
What is the single biggest risk related to the projects you’re working on, and how are you working through those?
Wood: Large, complex transportation projects, especially in dense urban environments, are continually costing more and taking longer than they historically did. We are attacking that head on, and we’re bringing our contractor on board as early as possible into that process to help us align our design with the way it will be built, and to make sure that it is designed with our budget and schedule in mind.
Haynes: We are building a new airport on top of our existing airport … while we continuing to operate as a 24/7 critical facility. … Some of the things that we’ve done to mitigate for that is really having to do with the construction sequencing, … pairing up our design teams with our construction teams. … All of the construction for the most part that you can see at the airport today, that’s not the big project. Those are smaller, near-term projects aimed at getting us as much space for the passenger and for our airport tenants as soon as we can before we start the big, disruptive project. One of our big pieces of our focal point for how we’re going to manage this risk is really improving the airport right now, and then improving it all over again.
Ferguson: We’re not the only gang in town as far as the public sector goes, between ATP and the airport, and Travis County and Williamson County, and TxDOT and the city of Austin and [Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority]. … We’re looking probably at $25 billion-$30 billion worth of work that we are all going to be trying to accomplish in the next decade, and as automated and technologically advanced as we become in construction, we still need people to build these projects. We are entering in partnerships with the city and some of our local partners to develop academies where we can just attract more workforce to build these projects, and that’s not even considering the materials we need to build these projects. … We are resource stretched and that’s a big risk for us, and that drives prices higher and takes longer to do projects.
[ATP] have crossed a number of hurdles recently, particularly with the environmental design. What are the next steps for the light rail and what are some of meaningful signs that we should be on the lookout to actually see it?
Wood: We are so excited that just this month, we received approval from the federal government on our environmental process that allows us to move forward into the next phases of work. … That immediate next step is awarding our final design and construction contract that lets us begin the process of obtaining the necessary permits we need to build, and developing the design in coordination with our community. That’s a key aspect of our this year ahead, is as we advance that design, making sure that we’re doing so in a way that meets Austin’s needs.
A journey with [ABIA] is a multiyear modernization project. … From a [passenger’s] perspective, what specific changes should we be expecting? Are there any pain points? What should we be on the lookout for?
Haynes: If you come to the airport today you can see a lot of construction, and the good news is that the majority of the projects that you can see construction walls and cranes for, those are all opening this year. … But the big pain points are going to be in the years to come, and that’s really once we start building that new arrivals and departures hall. … Our humble request to our community and to our customers is just know that you’re seeing a lot of visual construction at the airport, but it hasn’t yet actually changed the way that you get into the terminal. It hasn’t changed the way that you move through parking to get to those terminal front doors. But it will starting later this year and into 2027 through the early 2030s when we finally get to open that new terminal.
The I-35 central expansion is one of the largest infrastructure projects in the country, and it will take about a decade to complete. What should Central Texas prepare for over the coming years, and how should Realtors and real estate agents respond to their clients?
Ferguson: We know inconvenient construction can be inconvenient, and our engineers go to great lengths to put together traffic control plans [and] phasing plans to make sure access points are as accessible as possible. But there will be times when certain access points will be altered, but will always—whether it’s a business or housing development or a home—will always have access. It just may be a little bit of a longer way to get to that access. One of the things we can always do … is communicate those closures, those impacts, and not just our projects but ATP and CapMetro and the city. … I’ll ask today for patience and forgiveness and grace, as I-35 construction will be difficult.
These transportation projects represent significant investments in Central Texas, but also significant returns that we’ll eventually see coming down the pipeline, including jobs, business relocations and expansions, and attracting attracting new investments to our regions. Help our members understand how your individual projects will help influence … long-term economic growth for Central Texas.
Haynes: The latest industry stats for airports in North America is such that every $1 million dedicated for new airport infrastructure yields 3.4 jobs in construction, architecture, engineering, just to build that new infrastructure. … Our expansion program is $5 billion, and that’s just to build these new facilities. Once those facilities are open, every additional 1,000 departing passengers per day yields 2.1 permanent on-airport jobs and about $290,000 of tourism spent in the community each year. … For context, our airport sees anywhere from 25,000-30,000 people flying out each day. So if we are essentially doubling the size of the airport, we’re serving about 21 million-22 million people annually, [and] we aim to get to a more comfortable 35 million-37 million people.
Ferguson: One of the cool things about I-35 … is the opportunity for the deck classes, the capping and stitching as you hear in the news. … It’s a unique opportunity as we lower I-35 to stitch together the community, and there are economic benefits as related to that that are off the chart when you compare when that’s been done in other parts of the country and other parts of the state. … It is multiples of benefit beyond the investment that are made in those caps and stitches. … That can really create an economic driver for downtown.
Wood: [Austin Light Rail] will connect riders to more than 200,000 jobs along the alignment, which also benefits our local businesses by providing reliable, affordable commutes for their employees. It will create thousands of jobs, and not just the obvious ones for construction and designers and artists associated with building the system, but it has a large ripple effect to our economic climate and creating work for everyone, from title companies to Realtors, that will be created from the growth along the alignment. It increases spending; it helps connect people to their favorite venues and restaurants and stores that boosts spending all around the city.
If you could correct one common misconception related to your project, what is that and what’s the truth behind it?
Wood: I think the most important myth buster is just that light rail is happening. Yes, it’s a long process and we’re making our way through and have hit every single one of those milestones, one of the most critical that I mentioned we just got through this month of getting the federal government’s approval on our environmental process. We’ll keep hitting every one of those milestones, and you’ll start to see construction next year.
Haynes: One comment that I often see on the airport social media accounts is, “Why did the airport wait to build all this infrastructure? Why are they so far behind?” I can tell you that on day one of our expansion program, we were behind. We were five years behind, and that’s because the airport experienced five years worth of passenger activity over the course of less than 12 months right after the pandemic. So the number of people that are using our facility today, … back in 2019 and early 2020, we did not expect to reach that level of passenger activity until 2027. So in a way, yes we are behind, but trust that it is not because we were waiting for the passenger levels to get here or were dragging our feet.
Ferguson: TxDOT listens. We listen to public feedback and incorporate changes into our project, and I-35 is a perfect example of that. We’ve received over the years tens of thousands of comments and suggestions on what we should do with I-35 and how it’s looking. We’ve made a ton of changes to incorporate public feedback. We can’t do everything; there are some things that are just outside of our scope, but we’ve made a lot of changes to our design and implementation … based on public input.