Veterans Parade Closes Congress Avenue on Saturday Morning: Closures Run 5 a.m. to 1 p.m., With CapMetro Detours

Downtown drivers get a parade morning on Saturday. The Austin Veterans Parade runs Saturday, November 7, from 9:00 to 10:00 a.m. up Congress Avenue, and the City of Austin's official closure map puts the day's street closures at 5:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. — four hours before the first marcher steps off and three hours after the parade ends.

The core closure is the parade route itself: South Congress Avenue is closed from Cesar Chavez Street to 11th Street, with the map's window for that stretch running 6:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Around the route, 11th Street is closed with local access only, and Barton Springs Road is closed from South Congress Avenue toward Riverside Drive from 5:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. The city's event page warns that neighborhood no-parking restrictions are in effect and that signed no-parking areas are actively enforced on event day.

Bus riders are on detours for the same window. CapMetro's service alert says the parade will disrupt downtown service from the start of service until the end of the parade, around 1 p.m., with Congress closed from the Anne Richards Bridge to 11th Street. Routes 2, 4, 5, 7, 10 and 837 run on detour, and riders may board at any CapMetro stop along the detoured route; the agency's Customer Service GO Line is 512-474-1200.

The parade itself is only the first hour of the morning's program: a veterans resource fair follows on the Capitol's south steps from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m., with the Veterans Day ceremony at 11:11 a.m. Anyone headed downtown Saturday morning — for the parade, the festival crowds, or ordinary errands — should plan around a closed Congress Avenue until early afternoon and use Lamar, Guadalupe or the frontage roads instead.