{"id":4417,"date":"2025-10-15T07:05:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T07:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/4417\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T07:05:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T07:05:06","slug":"21-foot-sound-barriers-approved-along-i-35-for-central-austin-neighborhood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/4417\/","title":{"rendered":"21-foot sound barriers approved along I-35 for Central Austin neighborhood"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\tA 21-foot-tall noise wall will be built along the northbound I-35 frontage road between 30th Street and 38 1\/2 Street after residents in the Cherrywood neighborhood voted in favor of the project, according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.txdot.gov\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Texas Department of Transportation<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The big picture<\/p>\n<p>TxDOT said 64% of eligible property owners returned ballots, with 92% voting in support of the wall\u2019s construction. The barrier will be included in the upcoming University Segment of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.txdot.gov\/mymobility35\/projects\/capex-central.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">I-35 Capital Express Central Project,<\/a> which stretches from Hwy. 290 to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and is expected to begin construction in mid-2026.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;&gt;<\/p>\n<p>Sound barriers are typically installed when traffic sound levels reach 66 decibels or higher\u2014roughly the volume of a normal conversation\u2014or when future traffic is projected to double current noise levels, according to TxDOT <a href=\"https:\/\/ftp.txdot.gov\/pub\/txdot-info\/env\/toolkit\/730-01-bro.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">documents<\/a>. For comparison, a vacuum cleaner registers around 70 decibels, a whistle 80, and a blender 90.<\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/highways.dot.gov\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Federal Highway Administration<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fhwa.dot.gov\/environment\/noise\/noise_barriers\/design_construction\/keepdown.cfm\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">regulations<\/a>, a noise wall should lower traffic sounds by about 5 decibels once it\u2019s tall enough to block the direct view between the road and nearby homes. For every extra meter the wall is made taller after that, it can reduce noise by roughly another 1.5 decibels.<\/p>\n<p>Some context<\/p>\n<p>The work falls under the ongoing <a href=\"https:\/\/communityimpact.com\/austin\/south-central-austin\/transportation\/2024\/11\/04\/buckle-up-austinites-txdot-breaks-ground-on-next-decade-of-construction-along-i-35\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">I-35 overhaul<\/a>, which includes two new high-occupancy vehicle lanes in each direction, reconstructed east-west crossings and a new pedestrian bridge at Capital Plaza in this area. Construction is expected to wrap up in 2032.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" height=\"506\" src=\"https:\/\/communityimpact.com\/uploads\/images\/2025\/10\/14\/390223.jpg\" class=\"include_body\" onerror=\"this.src=\" width=\"900\"\/>Under the Texas Department of Transportation&#8217;s I-35 overhaul, several east-west crossings, like Dean Keeton Street, will be reconstructed. (Courtesy Texas Department of Transportation)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 21-foot-tall noise wall will be built along the northbound I-35 frontage road between 30th Street and 38&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4418,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,4777,3759,1494,4782,4779,4785,4775,4781,4776,4783,4780,4784,271,4778],"class_list":["post-4417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-cherrywood-neighborhood","tag-city-of-austin","tag-construction","tag-construction-updates","tag-dell-med","tag-highway-noise","tag-i-35","tag-i-35-overhaul","tag-noise-wall","tag-property-acquisition","tag-road-work","tag-sound-barrier","tag-txdot","tag-ut"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}