Barton Springs Road to Riverside Drive

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Created and last updated August 9, 2001

The Barton Springs/Riverside corridor is the only east-west route south of the Colorado River (the Ben White Freeway about 4 miles to the south.) It certainly has its problems as an east-west crossing. Connections to northbound Loop 1 are very poor and inconvenient. Drivers must pass through the Zilker Park and "restarant row", which can be congested, especially on weekends. Drivers must also negotiate congested intersections at South 1st, Congress, and Riverside. Finally, getting through the intersection at Interstate 35 can take a long time.

The east section of Riverside, from just east of Congress to Pleasant Valley, was once planned to be a freeway. In fact, the only evidence of plans for any of Austin's cancelled freeways can be found on Riverside at Pleasant Valley, where there is a wide right-of-way set aside on Riverside. It appears that the plans for the Riverside Freeway were cancelled by 1969, since The 1969 Expressway and Major Arterial Plan was amended to designate this section of the Riverside Expressway as "remove". See details of the 1969 freeway plan.