The latest on Austin Streeet in Seguin

UPDATE: upcoming work involving closures has been pushed until after New Years due to the wet weather forecast. New work schedule will be announced early January.

If you're talking with our guys on the project please don't mention the word inlet - it's become profanity of on this project. Whether the issue be with fabrication or installation, drain inlets have been a single consistent challenge on this project.
Because of some of these challenges on the south end of the project we are going to close - completely - North Austin between Seideman and Railroad. This will allow Curran to reconstruct the road and reposition some of the inlets in the area, correcting the issues causing problems for us right now.
Oh, yeah ... it would be helpful to know the timeframe of that full closure. Well, we plan to take advantage of the school holiday so we won't need to reroute Seguin ISD school buses. Curran will shut things down the morning of Monday, December 18 and will reopen the road by close of business Friday, December 22.
If we tried to do this work without the full closure we'd end up trying to finish it out with weekend closures through the month of January. This more aggressive approach allows us to save some time on the work and get down to business.
Back in October we said we'd be all done with one-way traffic on this job forever. We're still on pace to make good on that promise. Curran is laying asphalt on the northbound side of the road and has just a couple of inches remaining before we can swap lanes over and work on the southbound side.
All told we're eying a completion date in early 2019. Yes, that's about six months after we had initially expected. Delays involving those cursed inlets and some box culverts have pushed work back and contributed to some fairly significant delays on work.
And now ... time for some quick looks at the job:


Paving crews lay asphalt base for the new road. The elevation difference between the old road and new road should be fairly evident; the old road surface is about even with the workers' waistline as they lay asphalt.

This stretch of northbound Austin Street still needs a good two inches of asphalt before it's ready for traffic.

Box culverts and inlets continue to be a challenge on the project, but the challenge is being met by project staff head-on.



Inlet woes continue to plague the job, but TxDOT staff has worked with Curran to develop workable solutions and get this job finished with relative speed.

North Austin project in Seguin picking up steam

Up to now most of the work along North Austin Street (Business 123) in Seguin has been about installing drain systems and moving around utilities. This is the least flashy part of any type of road construction, and often the more disruptive. The specialized crews are often smaller and work is typically done only in a few spots at a time. Despite the appearance of sporadic work it's kept the road to a one-way road since work got started back in 2016.

The good news is all that messy stuff is part of the drawn-out early phases of the project. Curran Contracting is about ready to move into the more visible road construction phases. They do have some storm drains still to install - notably along Seidmann Street just west of North Austin - but are pretty much focusing on the actual road bed. They've already had some dirt crews getting the road bed ready by cutting the dirt down to the right elevation, but weather over the last several weeks has slowed production considerably. When you're trying to work with and stabilize dirt, a good rain pushes work back several days - crews have to wait for the ground to dry out completely to get good work done. As soon as dry weather clears out the moisture in the dirt, Curran will lime treat the subgrade. After the lime treatment is finished, the subgrade will be cement treated. If weather holds all this should be wrapped up right about the time we're all tucked away for our long winter's nap.

About the beginning of 2018 you'll see asphalt on the road. On top of the 18 inches of dirt subgrade we are placing at least eight inches of asphalt. We want this road to last a while! When we start laying asphalt we can open lanes back up to two-way traffic on the new pavement.

Let's say that again, another way.

One-way traffic is expected to be over, forever, in January. We will still have work to do, but your greatest inconveniences will be done. And for those who forgot what this $5.3 million project will look like when we're all done, here you go (click to enlarge):

North Austin Street work slowed

Though dirt hasn't been pushed around much since May 2 work is continuing to progress on the North Austin Street expansion in the city of Seguin. Residents can expect to see more activity along the developing road mid-July.
Overall project scope
This $5.3 million project adds a continuous center left-turn lane, wider shoulders to accommodate bicycle traffic and sidewalks to accommodate pedestrians. We're also upgrading the storm drain system. The overall project should wrap up by next fall (2018). Our contractor is the Curran Contracting Company of Converse, and the project is overseen by CP&Y in Austin.

A quick look at the final product ... click on the image to enlarge.

The hold-up(s)

Curran didn't expect to see a duct bank
encased in concrete like this under the road.

Several weeks ago our contractor unexpectedly ran into a duct bank with 16 conduits encased within. As part of the project we're working on the roadway elevation is dropping, and the duct bank interferes with the foundation of what will be the new roadway. The duct bank was removed May 2 and utilities are being relocated. This work is primarily taking place on weekends due to required closures to make this happen. Later this month we should be able to start working through the week as well as the major closures will no longer be required.

The subbase course of the road sets on the
subgrade which needed additional chemical
stabilization along Austin Street.

Our consultant (CP&Y) also discovered a different chemical makeup than planned for in the dirt under the road bed. Our engineers have been redesigning the roadway foundation mix (called subgrade) to accommodate. That work is being finalized in our labs and drawing rooms.
Finally, some issues surrounding the storm drain structures we are installing cropped up. The good news is we caught them early in the project and quickly got a solution; the bad news is the manufacturer making the storm drain boxes has a backlog of orders and we are six weeks from having the storm drain structures on site.


Getting started again
Rest assured we are not allowing work to go undone. We are pushing hard to get the administrative work done while the field work is resting. When the storm drain materials arrive in July we expect work to move rapidly. Curran has worked on similar projects in town before - some very recently - and has good experience advancing the project rapidly.
We do not take the inconvenience this important project imposes on residents, particularly those living along this busy corridor, or others in the community lightly. We are exerting all efforts to minimizing and eliminating additional burdens where we can. We're also looking at the work schedule to identify ways we can accelerate this project to deliver the project without delays despite the hiccup we're encountering today.

North Austin Street - a Seguin project

Last month we started a road expansion project in the city of Seguin. If you're in San Antonio, this project probably won't impact you a ton - which is why you've not heard about it much.

But if you're in Seguin ... well, wow.

It's a $5.3 million projct being done by Curran Contracting - a contractor that's relatively new to the San Antonio region (they're working on UTSA Boulevard in San Antonio). So, what are we doing?

We're widening N. Austin Street (Business 123) between the railroad crossing and I-10 to have a continuous center left-turn lane, shoulders fit for bicycles, sidewalks and a storm drain system. We held public meetings on the project and event sent out direct mailers to those living along the project directly, but we're still getting asked a few questions.
Among the most basic: what will it look like. Well, here you go (click on the image to make it bigger):

Again, we got started last month (August) and will wrap up spring of 2018 - that's just shy of two years of construction here. Closures will be announced to local media or posted right here on the blog. The first portion of the project - installing the storm drains and realigning utilities - is by far the most invasive. Hopefully we'll see the strain on local drivers relax as the project pushes forward.

Occasionally we'll need to cross some driveways. We're committed to maintaining access for folks, so we'll coordinate with business owners or residents these crossings to meet that commitment. If you have any questions during construction, please just let us know!