SAN ANTONIO – An East Side nonprofit has received a federal planning grant to explore connectivity around four community highways, including potentially establishing greenspaces or pedestrian-friendly corridors over the highways.
San Antonio for Growth on the Eastside (SAGE), an economic development organization, was awarded $2 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation to prepare a planning grant to explore the feasibility of such a project, according to a USDOT news release.
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The announcement came last Friday during a spate of transportation and infrastructure funding announcements during the final days of the Biden-Harris Administration and tenure of U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
Grants across seven programs funded through Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law received funding.
SAGE’s grant comes through the Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program (RCP), established to “help reconnect communities previously cut off from economic opportunities by transportation infrastructure,” according to an RCP project page.
SAGE’s grant will fund a planning study exploring the burying, capping and connecting of four areas along Interstates 10, 35 and 37 across the East Side.
“The Project aims to undo long-standing barriers to economic development, improve connectivity, and restore cohesion among historically divided neighborhoods,” SAGE said in a news release Wednesday.
The grant’s next steps include SAGE identifying potential partners and issuing a request for proposals to firms to prepare for community discussion, according to the Wednesday release.
SAGE estimates the project’s total cost to be closer to $2.5 million; the subsequent $500,000 would be matched through a combination of public and private contributions, according to their release.
Congressman Greg Casar, who worked alongside Congressman Joaquin Castro to secure the USDOT funding, called the grant “big news for the people of San Antonio.”
“Capping the highways and creating new green spaces would benefit families from across the city,” Casar said. I’m excited to see what SAGE and the community comes up with."
San Antonio saw similar funding awarded in March last year through the RCP program.
A federal grant will support funding a conceptual design and planning study to examine the physical barriers and social impacts of I-37.
District 2 Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez, who has stayed vocal on crossings functioning as barriers in his district, expressed interest in the project moving forward and addressing infrastructure issues.
“The community wants investment, and they want the city to use all avenues ... to secure funding and to show a clear intention to improve the lives of those who live on the East Side,” he said.
McKee-Rodriguez did not return a request seeking comment for this story.
When looking at real-world examples of a project at this scale, SAGE CEO James Nortey pointed to work in Dallas around Klyde Warren Park; the five-acre project is suspended directly over State Highway 366.
City officials in Austin are also looking to Dallas for inspiration on a similar project over I-35 to reconnect the city’s East Side to downtown, according to KUT News and the Texas Standard.
Nortey believes both planning grants will likely be part of the larger conversation around mobility and transit happening with Project Marvel.
“All of these projects are interrelated,” he said in a phone call with KSAT on Thursday. “We know the goal is to have a reliable form of rapid transit (and) if people are going to use this service, they want to have a destination to go to.”
One of those places could be a forthcoming public market complex on the East Side. Last year, SAGE received a $150,000 award from the Department of Health and Human Services for developing a multi-pronged development package to begin planning the project.
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