Plans are starting to come together for the $4.9 billion I-35 Cap and Stitch Project. The City of Austin and the Downtown Austin Alliance are looking for the community's feedback after releasing the first look at the designs on Wednesday.

The interstate we know that travels right through Austin has a back story and Michael Trimble knows it all too well.

"I'm a third-generation Austinite. My grandparents grew up in East Austin," Trimble said.

Trimble is the Director of the City of Austin's Corridor Program Office working to bridge the divide between east and west Austin. I-35 was constructed in 1950. It displaced people from their homes and businesses creating a barrier in-between the city.

"It's been a symbolic and physical barrier between east and west really dividing our community," Trimble said.

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The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is preparing to begin construction to expand I-35 in 2025. TxDOT’s proposed I-35 Capital Express Central Project would lower I-35 through downtown adding two non-tolled managed lanes. While that's happening, the City of Austin wants to construct caps and stitches above.

"TxDOT is willing to include that into the highway project if we can secure funding and so we'll be working on that funding strategy really over that first part of 2022," Trimble said.

A cap is a large deck plaza over a highway. A stitch will add more space on either side of a bridge.

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Several locations have been identified for caps and stitches along I-35. They would start at Cesar Chavez and go all the way down 15th Street. The city has been looking at how Atlanta, Columbus, Ohio, and Dallas created caps and stitches.

"We don't want to presuppose that that will work for Austin. We want to make sure that whatever we do in Austin is uniquely of and for Austin," Trimble said.

The designs are not final. The city will be taking community feedback until Jan. 15.