Houston Strategies

In 2025 Harris County Commissioner Lesley Briones announced she secured funding for a $2.5 million feasibility study for deck park(s) above the depressed section of Interstate 10 in the Heights, between Patterson Street and Washington Avenue. This potential deck park location is in addition to three potential zones of large deck parks in the North Houston Highway Improvement Project (NHHIP): Midtown, Eado and North Main.

Parks on decks above trenched freeways became trendy after the opening of Klyde Warren Park in Dallas in 2012 and its success. In TxDOT lingo, parks above freeways are called caps, and extra wide bridges with amenities along the sidewalks are called stitches.

But there's a harsh reality about freeway caps: they are very, very expensive, and local entities pay most or all of the cost. The minimum cost is around $50 million per acre, and costs rapidly escalate into the hundreds of millions for a single park and over $1 billion for ambitious plans like NHHIP. Cap park sponsors struggle for years, even 10 years or more, to arrange funding, even with phased implementations.

Let's take a look at cap projects in Dallas and plans in Austin to get an understanding of the costs and difficulties involved. Then I'll assess each of the proposed cap park zones in Houston for cost, benefit and feasibility.

Dallas

While freeway caps have been around since the 1970s, with well-known parks in Seattle (1976), Phoenix (1992) and San Diego (2001), the recent interest was sparked by Klyde Warren Park in Dallas, which opened in October 2012. Dallas had long envisioned a park above the Spur 366 Woodall Rodgers Freeway, which opened in 1983 and is situated between the north side of downtown and the booming, upscale "Uptown" district. Downtown interests began efforts to build the park in 2002 and secured $77 million by 2009 when construction began. Dallas was either smart or lucky in its timing, because the 2008 Great Recession lowered construction costs and made stimulus funds available. A 2012 donation from Kelcy Warren, who received naming rights and named the park for his son, helped close the remaining funding gap. The structural deck cost was $44.5 million, and total cost for the 5.2-acre park and all improvements was $110 million, $170 million in 2026 dollars.

The park was a huge success, with their website proclaiming, "From the moment the Park opened in 2012, we have welcomed more guests than we ever thought possible, representing every neighborhood in Dallas and beyond, as well as international visitors from around the world." Plans for phase 2, a small 1.7 acre extension to the west, were prepared in 2018. Then the trouble began.

The entire cost of phase 2 was estimated to be $76 million. In January 2022 bids were opened for the structural deck, and it was a budget-buster. The estimated cost was $47.2 million, but the low bid was $95.0 million, 101% above the estimate. The project could not proceed at that cost and was suspended. After a four-and-a-half year pause, the project is finally poised to receive bids for the structural deck in June. The estimated deck cost is $98.4 million. The overall cost including park amenities is $121 million, $71 million per acre. The elapsed time between the park opening and scheduled completion of phase 2 is 17 years.

This event building is part of Klyde Warren Park phase 2.

This lawn in Klyde Warren Park phase 2 will accommodate events, including an ice rink in winter.

On May 9 Dallas will open phase 1 of its second cap park, Halperin Park above I-35E alongside the Dallas Zoo in south Dallas. Named for the Halperin Foundation which donated $23 million, the park was planned in conjuction with the widening of I-35E south of downtown, which opened in 2022. The Dallas Morning News reports the 2.5-acre phase 1 is estimated to cost $122 million. The estimated total cost for phases 1 and 2 is reported to be $300 million for a total of 5.0 acres, which includes a $10 operating reserve fund.

Halperin Park nearing completion before its May 9, 2026 opening.

Dallas has used a mix of funding sources, with heavy reliance on private, philanthropic funding. Arranging funding has been a long struggle for each project, typically taking years. For the original Klyde Warren park, funding sources included around $27 million from donors, $20 million from the City of Dallas, $20 million from TxDOT and $17 million in stimulus funds. Funding for Halperin Park includes at least $62 million from private donors, $40 million from the North Central Texas Council of Governments (their equivalent to H-GAC) and $8 million from the City of Dallas.

Austin

The $4.5 billion project to modernize Interstate 35 through central Austin will lower the freeway into a trench for 3.7 miles. The City of Austin and the University of Texas at Austin have been developing plans independently to build parks over the freeway. Together, these two programs are probably the most ambitious cap building effort in the country which will start construction in the next few years.

In November 2024 the City of Austin released a vision plan which includes options for up to 26.3 acres of cap parks. Below is a map of potential cap locations.

Artist depiction of proposed cap park in downtown Austin, Cesar Chavez to 4th Street.

This article has a good summary and graphic (shown below) of the seven scenarios which were considered. The cost estimates are between $53 and $56 million per acre, resulting in a $1.395 billion cost for the 26.3-acre full vision plan. For the full vision, the article states "it would cost roughly $900 million for the roadway and cap structures — not including any of the community amenities on top of the highway."

*: acres was not readily determined from data

The full vision is far more than Austin can afford, and in May 2025 City of Austin staff recommended the least expensive scenario #1, estimated at $401 million including two caps, from Cesar Chavez to Fourth Street and between 11th and 12th streets. Austin Council approved a plan for the two caps with the addition of two smaller stitches in north Austin, and committed $104 million to build structural foundations during TxDOT's construction. In March 2026 Austin Council deferred any further financial commitments beyond the necessary structural elements, meaning that the actual decks would not be built as part of the TxDOT project and would be done later.

In March 2026, the cost estimate was $604 million for a total of 13.98 acres of caps and stitches, $43.2 million per acre. Annual operations and maintenance is estimated at $9 million per year. City of Austin staff raised alarms about the cost and urged City Council to pause plans.

Financially, the City of Austin is trying to fund its deck parks single-handedly, and discovering that it is a huge challenge, and perhaps not financially feasible. This is in contrast to Dallas and other cities which get only a small contribution from the city and rely heavily on private funding. In March 2026 the leading cap proponent on Austin City Council recognized the need for private funding participation, "What we’re trying to make sure over the next 4-5 years, is not only can we afford to build it, afford to maintain it, but how can we get the philanthropic, the business community to take a role."

Separately, the University of Texas at Austin will build a 10- to 12-acre cap in the campus area, from the MLK Jr. Blvd. to Dean Keeton. In May 2024 a preliminary estimate of $394 million was provided, subject to change depending on cap size and amenities, with annual operation and maintenance $10 million. In December 2024 UT-Austin committed $106 million for work which must be done in conjunction with construction, including design and (presumably) structural foundations. Information is limited because "UT has largely kept its I-35 plans private".

Houston: around $1.4 billion for all NHHIP caps

So what does this all mean for freeway caps in Houston? Let's apply a $50 million per acre cost to the potential caps in NHHIP. Potential cap areas are shown in NHHIP schematic maps, but acreage is not provided so I made an estimate based on the maps. The area for the caps in Midtown over I-69 (section 3A) is still under review and an expansion to fill a gap between Fannin and San Jacinto is being studied. The Midtown cap has many irregular shapes due to angular cross streets. TxDOT may need to build decks to support the sharply angled streets, which would reduce incremental cost to build a park. A similar situation exists at North Main: TxDOT may need to build a deck to accommodate the surface frontage roads. For consistency I'll use $50 million per acre for all parks.

* A document on the Downtown Redevelopment Authority site (page 49) reports the cap size at 30 acres. My estimate of 17.7 acres is based on potential cap area indicated in schematics, excluding adjacent land areas, cross streets and cap sections which TxDOT must build, for example east of GRB to accommodate Hamilton Street.

This rough estimate is $1.39 billion for all potential caps in NHHIP, and $1.45 billion including the Fannin-San Jacinto section in Midtown. Obviously that's not going to happen in the lifetime of anyone reading this. But only a small percentage of this total cap acreage can be justified from cost-benefit considerations, and one or two small caps could be all that we need.

For Eado, the potential cap area is 10 blocks from Lamar Street (approximately in the middle of GRB) north to Commerce Street. For each block the cap area varies between 1.5 and 1.8 acres. Using an average of 1.65 acres, each block of cap can be estimated at $83 million.

Eado Caps receive attention from advocates

The Downtown Houston Redevelopment Authority (DHRA) is being proactive and appears to have the maximum possible ambition for the Eado cap. Depictions in board meeting documents in February 2024 (page 54) and March 2025 (page 49) show a cap over the entire 10-block section where a cap can be built, from Lamar to Commerce. Board meeting documents in April (page 24) and May (page 23) 2024 report that Mayor Whitmire initiated efforts to coordinate cap planning among all stakeholders and potential funders. However, I cannot find any mention of this effort on the Mayor's or City of Houston (CoH) web site.

This view is from the DHRA February 2024 board meeting information packet (page 54).

This view is from the DHRA February 2024 board meeting information packet (page 55).

The March 2025 slide mentions a "30-acre area for assembly, destinations, events". I estimate the actual physical cap area suitable for parks to be 17.7 acres, which excludes caps TxDOT must build for Hamilton Street (which will be built over the freeway) and excludes adjacent land areas which would be included in cap parks.

This view is from the DHRA March 2025 board meeting information packet (page 49).

Building Eado caps will likely be a multi-decade effort, but a very important decision deadline will occur soon (perhaps within 3 years) when the Eado freeway design is finalized and construction plans are prepared for the scheduled (project 3D-1) construction between 2031 and 2037. The structural foundations for all future caps need to be incorporated into the design, which means the desired ultimate size of the cap needs to be decided. This decision will also require financial commitments for local project sponsors to start paying incremental additional costs for the cap foundations. In Austin, this deadline has been a big difficulty, because they have struggled to determine the size of cap they can ultimately afford to build, and also struggled to make advance payments required by TxDOT.

While the DHRA depiction is surely very preliminary and will be refined in the future, it suggests that most of the cap area would have minimal amenities, and would instead be open areas. This raises some questions in my mind.

Is there really a need for 30 acres of caps? I don't think so. After all, the area already has Discovery Green. It's better to have a small area of high-quality, highly attended parks, instead of a large area of mediocre, poorly attended parks. There's still an abundance of parking lots in east downtown and Eado which could become parks at a much lower cost than $50-million-per-acre caps.

How do you prevent the homeless sector from compromising such a huge area of cap parks? My view is that caps should be full of amenities including private businesses and family attractions because they will be stakeholders who will be highly motivated to keep the area desirable. Klyde Warren and Halperin Parks are packed with amenities. Building parks with mostly empty space will be cheaper, but could backfire if they are most suitable for the homeless sector. Realistically, it will be difficult to fill 18 acres of caps (or 30 acres of overall parks) with amenities.

How do they plan to pay for this? I estimate a 10-block buildout with full amenities on 18 acres to cost $885 million. Based on data from Austin, where structural caps (without surface improvements) are estimated to cost $900 million for 26.3 acres ($34 million per acre), the structural caps alone for a full 10-block buildout would cost $613 million. DHRA documents list the total area at 30 acres, which would likely be much more expensive than my estimate. The March 2024 meeting document (page 48) has a grant application for $12.0 million "to complete a Planning and Design Study to determine the additional structural support necessary for TxDOT to construct a thirty-acre deck across a below-grade segment of the highway project – The EaDo Cap Connector – sufficient to bear the load of future infrastructure improvements identified by the Downtown District, adjacent communities, and key partners." It appears the application was not selected to receive funding. This funding would be the first step in the process, and it already is quite costly, and all subsequent costs will be much higher.

How do park improvements get done in Houston?

Major park improvements are generally managed and financed by entities separate from CoH, with a heavy reliance on private donors, particularly the Kinder Foundation. For example, the Memorial Park Conservancy was formed in 2000 and absorbed into the Uptown District in 2013. Its web site says its 10-year plan launched in 2018 has a cost over $200 million, with funding sources including a $70 million gift from the Kinder Foundation. The Buffalo Bayou Partership manages improvements to parks along the bayou, relying heavily on gifts from the Kinder Foundation including $30 million in 2010 and $100 million 2022. The Hermann Park Conservancy web site reports that it has completed $121 million in improvements, and its annual reports include a listing of private donors who finance the work.

With its ongoing budget deficits and expensive union contracts, CoH can be expected to provide only a token financial contribution to the cost of freeway cap parks. The financial heavy lifting for cap parks will need to be done by private donors and management districts, with smaller amounts of support coming from various sources such as federal grants and contributions from local agencies like H-GAC, Harris County and CoH. To be successful, cap parks need a private entity managing the park, which is an ongoing expense.

• East of Caroline, the area is not suitable for businesses that attract crowds, such as bars, restaurants and concert venues, because it is mostly a neighborhood of homes with minimal parking.
• It is near the notorious Red Line Wheeler station, a longtime favorite hangout for the homeless community, and the area around Fannin and Main is a local hub for the homeless sector.
• There is currently negligible non-homeless pedestrian activity
• No attractions in the immediate area
• Minimal offices in the area (only the Ion)
• East of Caroline, the area will be difficult to redevelop with high-value assets because properties are homes on small lots

• The Ion innovation district, backed by Rice University, is immediately adjacent to a potential cap site and is expected to grow in the future.
• Within walking distance of the Red Line Wheeler station

• Removing the elevated freeway and replacing it with a below-ground freeway is already a big benefit to the area
• There is an existing community park, Peggy Park, immediately adjacent to the freeway at Almeda Road. The recently approved cap expansion at Cleburne will effectively extend Peggy Park.

• Established attractions already exist in the area
• Stadiums create heavy pedestrian traffic
• The area is suitable for all types of attractions, including nightlife
• Redevelopment of adjacent areas is generally easy
• The area is served by the Purple/Green Line Eado-Stadium station

• A large park, Discovery Green, already exists nearby. A cap park could dilute the attraction of Discovery Green.
• The north area near Commerce Street is a local homeless hub

• A cap park would be an incremental improvement to the area, not a transformative feature
• There is plenty of vacant and redevelopable land in the area. At this time, there is no need for a large area of expensive cap space.

• No attractions, offices or pedestrian traffic in the area. (White Oak Music Hall is 0.4 miles away.)
• The area is not suitable for businesses which attract crowds, such as bars, restaurants and concert venues, because it is near a neighborhood of homes with minimal parking.
• The eastern boundary is a cemetery, which cannot be redeveloped.
• All adjacent areas have low potential for redevelopment

• The locally-covered cost for the 2.5-acre section between North Main and Cottage is likely to be less than $50 million per acre.

• Metro has long-term plans to build an elevated bus line between the eastbound frontage road and main lanes. Planning is on hold at this time. This would be incompatible with a cap park.
• TxDOT has plans to build four managed lanes to connect the existing Katy Freeway managed lanes with the NHHIP managed lanes. The most recent public meeting showed two options, elevated lanes in the middle of the freeway and lanes at freeway level, which require substantial new right-of-way. Elevated lanes in the middle of the freeway would be incompatible with a cap park.
• There are no attractions, pedestrian traffic or high density developments in the immediate area.
• There is no obvious location for a park on this long section. Any park location on this 1-mile section is equally weak.
• Any park on this section is not convenient for most people living in the Heights.

• There is already a community park, Cottage Grove Park, along the freeway. It could be enhanced at a far lower cost.
• The White Oak Bayou trails and MKT pedestrian trail already exist nearby.
• Memorial Park is within walking distance of housing near the west end of this section.
• While the Katy Freeway is already below ground level, it may not be low enough for a park at ground level. Existing street bridges are thin (cast-in-place, not using usual thick prefabricated beams) because of the shallow depth of the freeway, and also have below-standard vertical clearance (around 15'3"). A cap with thick prefabricated beams, space for ventilation fans and vertical clearance meeting modern TxDOT freight corridor standards (18'6") will likely need to be raised well above ground level. The feasibility study will surely consider this problem.