I-35 Goes Down to One Lane at Night All Week: Nightly Closures Between Ben White and SH 45 SE Run Sunday Through Thursday, 8 p.m. to 5 a.m.
The Capital Express South work takes the south end of I-35 apart at night this week — varying lane closures, ramps shut, and one lane open in places. Daytime is untouched; after 8 p.m., plan the frontage road or another route.
Drivers on the south end of Interstate 35 face a week of night work starting tonight. A TxDOT traffic alert carried Sunday sets varying nightly lane closures on northbound and southbound I-35 between SH 71/Ben White Boulevard and SH 45 Southeast from Sunday, November 1 through Thursday, November 5, from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. each night — with I-35 reduced to one lane in some areas and multiple entrance and exit ramps closed.
The work is the I-35 Capital Express South project, which is adding two high-occupancy-vehicle managed lanes in each direction between Ben White and SH 45 Southeast, including elevated lanes from Ben White to Slaughter Lane. Separately on the same corridor, TxDOT's project page notes that the eastbound and westbound SH 71 flyovers to southbound I-35 continue to close intermittently at night through late 2026, from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., for bridge column work — eastbound drivers detour via the S. Congress Avenue exit and frontage road, westbound drivers via the Burleson Road/Woodward Street exit.
The practical shape of the week: nothing changes for the morning or evening commute, and everything changes after 8 p.m. Night drivers between downtown and Buda should expect single-lane stretches and closed ramps, follow the signed detours, and allow extra time — or use S. Congress Avenue, Menchaca Road or East Riverside Drive as the parallel escape. The Capital Express South project is scheduled for completion in late 2028.
