Tuesdays are filled with project status meetings along the west and northwest of San Antonio, and today we jumped from project to project to get the latest on what's happening.
I-10 Leon Springs
Texas Sterling Construction has a few hot spots of work remaining, and the most visible (painful?) is the little bridge over Leon Creek on the westbound side. You know, that bridge over by Rudy's - the one that's a two-way bridge but we've got it cut to a single lane, westbound only.
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| Texas Sterling Construction prepares to set beams on the Leon Creek bridge near Rudy's. |
The bridge was limited to a single lane back in February with the aim to reconstruct it to meet current design standards. Initially we had some issues with some utility conflicts and weren't able to actually begin construction until late April. Since then Texas Sterling has been able to get the first half of the bridge done and have made the second half a priority work item.
Yes, we said we hoped to have the bridge reopened to two-way traffic in time for the school year. Clearly that hasn't happened. Our current target is Halloween. The next major item on the bridge will be setting bridge support beams, and that happens the week of September 9. (Peek behind the curtain of operations ... The beams were slated to be set this week, but rains made the work impossible. Trucks couldn't be scheduled again until September, pushing this back more than just a few days.)
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| Work on the eastbound frontage road will cross several driveways the next two months |
Texas Sterling also has crews working on the eastbound frontage road between Boerne Stage Road and Dominion Drive, running across a series of driveways. Access to businesses will be maintained while this work is done, but crews will be hitting these driveways one-at-a-time through September.
Overall project completion is currently on pace for the end of this year - only five months behind the original schedule, despite several months' impact from utility delays and an onslaught of rain storms since the project began.
I-10 Fair Oaks Ranch
UTSA Boulevard
Curran is about to wrap up work on the first phase of work, which expands UTSA Boulevard to the south a bit and adds a meandering sidewalk as a hike and bike trail. They're looking for some ways to shave off some time from the overall schedule (they're currently looking at finishing by the end of 2017), but their plan has a lot of factors to be considered. Once we have a solid feel for the implications of what they're proposing we'll discuss details - including how it would impact your personal commute through this thoroughfare.
Remember we're not the only ones working out here ... the city has its own expansion project on UTSA Boulevard, stretching from Babcock Road to Ximenes Avenue.
1604 Northwest
This project is finished! Well, you'll see some occasional workers doing some small tasks to tidy up the work area, but we're done with this project. A quick heads-up, though: we are set to begin segments two (Culebra to Potranco) and three (Potranco to US 90) of the expressway expansion this fall. Those projects will both take a little more than two years to complete.
1604-151
Rather than read a long post, here's a video that answers several questions that've come in to us of late:
US 90
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| The new bridge over Medio Creek is open on the westbound side. |
Hunter Industries opened up the westbound frontage road bridge over Medio Creek earlier this summer, relieving considerable traffic strain for the folks headed to Kriewald Road. With that done, they've started focusing efforts on the widening work along the main lanes on both sides of the highway. Well, that and completing the west-to-east turnaround at Loop 1604.
The turnaround is the priority work item on the project right now, and Hunter is hoping to have it ready to open up by early October. Crews are working on some concrete features now, and asphalt crews are getting ready to get their work on at that west end of the project.
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| Crews work on concrete facing on the new turnaround at Lp 1604 |
First those paving crews will hit the new outside lanes of the main lanes, which were primed for asphalt last week. Once the asphalt on the main lanes is down traffic will be shifted to allow for continued work along the project area. That shift will open up traffic on the westbound side to three lanes - two through and one auxiliary - between Hunt Lane and Loop 1604.
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| The westbound main lanes are almost ready to be shifted to allow a short third lane. |
Traffic on the eastbound side will remain two lanes for now. Road crews still have a considerable amount of work around Medio Creek before we can get that extra lane open there. The entrance and exit ramps along this side are set to be rebuilt in the upcoming weeks as well. Some of this work won't be finished until early 2017, which will allow Hunter to work on the inside lanes of the Medio Creek main lanes bridge.
One other change upcoming is on the westbound frontage road at Hunt Lane, where the frontage road will be straightened out and the irregular sweep to the right at that spot will be taken out. That little bit of work should come early in September.
The overall project, which adds an auxiliary lane to the main lanes in each direction, constructs a turnaround at Loop 1604 and converts the frontage roads to one-way, is scheduled to wrap up by the end of summer 2017.
151-410
This is another project, like I-10 Fair Oaks Ranch, that's simply progressing. No major traffic shifts are planned for the immediate (next couple of months) future, and we don't have any major closures scheduled.