SAN ANTONIO – One of the flashiest features of Project Marvel remains in limbo amid current leadership in Washington D.C., city leaders said at an event earlier this week.
Funding for the proposed land bridge connecting Hemisfair and the new Spurs arena over Interstate 37 is still unclear, according to documents related to the proposal.
However, recent statements made by Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones and City Manager Erik Walsh suggest the bridge may be delayed, or even scrapped, amid uncertainty surrounding Biden-era federal grants.
“I’d call somebody, but there’s no one there because of the shutdown,” Jones said during a panel at CityFest on Tuesday. “That’s part of the uncertainty, right?”
Last June, KSAT 12 reported the known price tag for Project Marvel had reached $3.3 billion, but estimates for the land bridge and improvements to the Alamodome remained unknown.
Sources of possible funding identified for the land bridge project included city capital as well as federal and state governments, according to a document shared during a June city council meeting by Chief of Financial and Administrative Services Ben Gorzell.
Pape-Dawson Engineers stated goals for Project Marvel during the June presentation, including ensuring “the district and surrounding neighborhoods are safe and walkable.”
At the time, the firm said it had talked with both the Texas Department of Transportation and the U.S. Department of Transportation about funding options.
During the Joe Biden administration, Congress passed a large infrastructure bill, which included a new grant established by the U.S. Department of Transportation: the Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program.
According to the department’s website, the primary goal was to “reconnect communities harmed by past transportation infrastructure decisions, through community-supported planning activities and capital construction projects.”
The program issued grants to communities in fiscal years 2022, 2023 and 2024. San Antonio was the recipient of two grants concentrated on planning projects for east downtown, totaling $5.96 million.
City Manager Walsh said Kansas City, Missouri, Austin, Texas and Cincinnati were all pursuing these grants to build connections over highways — before talking about the “cyclical” style of government, at CityFest on Thursday.
Funding for grants was supposed to continue until 2026 under the bill, according to nonprofit Transportation for America, but no new funding has been issued since Trump’s inauguration.
Walsh said there was a possibility to revisit the land bridge in the future, but that it would require coordination with state and federal transportation authorities.
Architectural firm Populous said on Nov. 21 that planning on the bridge could start in 2028, with construction beginning in late 2029.
The June presentation later seemed to revise the timeline toward six to 15 years after construction on the district began.
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