Comal County round-up

Lots going on in and around Comal County in terms of highway projects ... here's a look:

Seguin Avenue

Last week (Wednesday) we formally and ceremoniously celebrated the completion of the Seguin Avenue underpass. On hand were representatives of Austin Bridge & Road, the contractor who built this project. As you may recall, this is the same contractor who built the original project back in 1935.

The event was hosted by the city of New Braunfels, and Mayor Barron Casteel reminded folks just how long the project had been in the making - at least since he was still in school, referring to his college days. He thanked Rep. Doug Miller, who helped secure the funds for the project through the Texas Proposition 12 grant from the Texas State Legislature.

With other civic leaders - those from the Daughters of the American Revolution, the New Braunfels Chamber of Commerce and others - around, the underpass was toasted. TxDOT District Engineer Mario Jorge lauded some of the engineering of the new underpass - including the nearly 800,000-pound steel structure that now carries rail traffic safely over Seguin Avenue and the 140,000 gallon detention pond under the roadway that will store stormwater to keep the road open through all conditions.

The Loop

Hunter Industries will close portions of the intersection of Loop 337 and Altgelt Lane over the next two weekends. These closures will keep one lane going in each direction, but will squeeze traffic quite a bit. Folks are advised to find alternate routes where they can.

This will allow road builders to reconstruct the intersection. Once this work is complete (mid-September) traffic on Loop 337 between I-35 and Altgelt will shift onto the new asphalt on the south side of the road. Crews will only need a few weeks to rebuild the road on the north side of the road, and work should be ready to wrap up before Halloween.

FM 306

Another Hunter Industries project, this one hit a snag a few weeks ago in waiting for some utilities to be moved. AT&T has been on site regularly, and report they should have their work finished by mid-September. Once that work is finished, Hunter's bridge crews will go to work on the drain structures at the Hunter Road overpass.

While Hunter waits for AT&T to get out of the way, they are working on embankments and structures for the future eastbound lanes of the bridge. They've also got the turnarounds nearly complete at Coleman and at Goodwin Lane, and local traffic may begin using those immediately. This should be helping traffic move through the project a little more smoothly.

If it weren't for the utility adjustments, this project may be finished in time for the holidays. Instead, we're still on pace to be finished early in the new year - which is still ahead of our initial schedule.

U.S. 281 Spring Branch

The temporary (and, by temporary, we mean at least 2-3 years) fix for the U.S. Post Office problem is underway. Hunter Industries (yes, those guys again) is building a "detour" around the building; the northbound lanes of U.S. 281 will simply scoot left, then right again around the building.

Crews are also finishing up work north of the post office, completing the future northbound lanes of the highway. If all goes according to plan, we'll be moving northbound traffic onto the northbound lanes at the Coyote Ridge area and up through to FM 306. As the southbound lanes are finished - traffic in both directions are using the southbound side for most of the project - this will effectively split traffic to its final path.

To be clear: we won't have two lanes in each direction until work is complete (end of the year). Until then, we'll have a single lane each way, but those lanes will be on the final location of the roadway.

On the south end of the project (more or less from FM 311 south to the river) we're hoping to have traffic moved over nearly as quick; we have a few utilities to adjust and some finishing touches to some bridge structures to wrap up.

Again, all told ... we're hoping to be finished with this project around the end of the year.

Upcoming projects

• The Walnut Avenue expansion - we're calling it the "Walnut Hill" job - should start up this fall (likely late fall, like November). Right now we're still getting utilities cleared out of the way.
• The I-35 Conrads/Kohlenberg project - which will realign the entrance and exit ramps between FM 306 and Conrads/Kohlenberg on the northeast end of the county - could start as early as October.
• FM 1101 between Hwy 46 and FM 36 is getting a continuous center turn lane, sidewalks and some space for bikes (handy with three schools along the route). Though the project can start in November, we're expecting the start date to perhaps push back to January. Right now utilities are being moved.

Project updates - Comal County

I-35 Selma

This project wrapped up about a week ago, and all that's left is paperwork and what we call a "punch list". For the purposes of those routinely driving through the area, the project is complete and finished. We're glad to have that extra lane on I-35 between FM 3009 and Loop 1604; it seems to be doing its job thus far!

Loop 337

Hunter Industries has removed some of the overhang materials from the overpass and their electrical subcontractor is nearly finished with the new signal poles at I-35 and Rueckle Road. That means most of the work on the bridge itself - we removed a bridge rail and a center median - is wrapping up. We have plenty of paving work left to do, though, with an entire half of a roadway left to be built.

That road work should begin in the next week or two, with traffic shifting over onto the new asphalt to allow the room to do what needs to be done.

Right now we're on pace to finish up by Halloween - roughly three months ahead of schedule.

Seguin Avenue

Next week - August 27 - we will join the city of New Braunfels and the New Braunfels Chamber of Commerce to christen the newly completed underpass expansion on Seguin Avenue.

This is a project that's taken nearly 30 years to complete. Most of that time was spent planning and coordinating between agencies, and just under two years was spent in actual construction. The old underpass, built in the 1930s under the Works Progress Administration plan to fund road projects in order to provide local jobs to those struggling through the Great Depression, was just two lanes wide. Growth over the last 70 years has made the expansion of the underpass a must, and local leaders saw the need as early as the 1980s.

In an ironic twist of fate, the same company contracted to build the original underpass in 1935 was hired to construct the new one. Austin Bridge Company preserved the stone that made up the hand-set retaining walls in order to use that stone as a facade on the new retaining walls, keeping the historic feel of the original project.

In addition to the historic feel, the new underpass features four lanes, a drastically improved drain structure and sidewalks for folks traveling by foot or by bicycle. All features were opened up earlier this month.

U.S. Highway 281

Comal County roundup

It's been a few weeks since we've looked at the projects in and around Comal County ... time to get everyone updated and up-to-speed. We'll try to keep things to the point....

I-35 Selma

This project is winding down, and should be complete - totally complete - by the end of July. Representatives of Dan Williams Company have indicated they'll have crews working on the turnarounds at FM 3009 over the next two weeks and hope to have it in play by mid-July. Right now their focus is squarely on the main lanes of I-35, which are being resurfaced and striped with overnight work.

The turnaround at FM 1518 also remains, but should be built along with the turnaround at FM 3009.

Questions have abounded about the timing on this project. We are examining the impacts of events beyond the control of the contractor (including design issues and weather-related delays), and may credit that time to the contractor as appropriate. Given the circumstances, TxDOT engineers doing these reviews indicate they may conclude the contractor was able to successfully perform the work within the allotted time (adjusted for these delays).

That's a round-about, technical way of saying the project is still running on time.

Loop 337

Mark your calendars for July 7. It's that date that Hunter Industries has set aside to close the driveway for the truck stop on Loop 337 so they can rebuild the road in that area. The closure should last only a few short weeks, and when that work is done the contractor plans to move traffic onto the new asphalt. The current asphalt will be torn up to allow the road to be rebuilt.

All told, Hunter is aiming at having the road reconstruction finished somewhere around the end of August or early September. If that happens, the whole project (which expands the overpass bridge at Loop 337 and I-35 to handle the added capacity brought, in part, by the truck stop) could be done as early as October. That would be at least three months earlier than anticipated.

There are factors that could knock that goal back a bit, but for right now that's the target.

Seguin Avenue

The rock face facade on the retaining walls has taken a little longer than anticipated. Austin Bridge Company hoped to be finished with the project last week, but they are looking now at being done by the end of July. That's not just an optimistic aim, either. With most of the infrastructure finished up - as well as the last pieces of the retaining wall facade being put in place - all that will remain by the end of next week is a final layer of asphalt and pavement markings. Well, that and a few other adjustments.

Bottom line: this project will be complete by the end of July.

FM 306

Most are well aware of the overpasses at the two railroad crossings. Hunter Industries has also tweaked the traffic signals at Common Street, optimizing traffic flow.

We're dealing with some conflicts with AT&T in the area still, and that's slowing the pace a bit. Even still, the folks at Hunter are aiming for early 2015 to be finished with everything. That still looks extremely doable.

FM 1101

This project was just awarded to Hunter Industries, and expands FM 1101 between Hwy 46 and the extension of FM 306 on the north side of New Braunfels.

We're aiming at early fall to begin work. This will go through two - two - school zones, so folks commuting to those schools should be aware of changing conditions as we begin work.

U.S. 281 Comal

The biggest question here is how we're going to get around the U.S. Post Office in Spring Branch. Once that question is answered, the project will be able to wrap up pretty quickly. In fact, we're eyeing a completion date of this fall - something like nine months earlier than we had planned at the start of the project.

That said, we still need to figure out the Post Office issue. We've got a couple of ideas on the table, but we need to iron out the costs associated with these plans. We're doing so with the constant reminder these solutions are temporary. When the USPS is able to vacate the building, we'll go back and finish the job as it was originally planned.

U.S. 281 and Hwy 46

Those out in Bulverde know of the barricades we've got in place for a project that adds turnarounds on U.S. 281 at Hwy 46. CRG - that's the name of the contractor - has halted work for a while because they're trying to renegotiate the way the project is constructed. We're doing our best to work with them and get them working as quickly as possible.

Because work could resume any day now, we can't remove the barricades that were put in place and restripe the roadway. That would cost us quite a bit of money, and could have to be undone in a simple matter of days. We know it's frustrating to see the barricades without much going on, but for now we're a bit stuck.

Walnut Avenue

Back to New Braunfels for a moment....

The Walnut Avenue job is still in the middle of a 180-day delay to allow for utilities to be adjusted. We're aiming right now at getting work going early 2015. Between now and then, folks may see utilities crews out there adjusting lines as appropriate. At least, we hope that's seen by folks.

I-35 at FM 306

Another new project to be awarded is a project that will realign the exit and entrance ramps along I-35 between FM 306 and Conrads/Kohlenberg north of New Braunfels. This project has been awarded to The Dan Williams Company, and is slated to begin (most likely) early 2015. We've got a bit of a delay built into the project for utility adjustments. The project is pretty straight-forward, and should take less than a year to construct.

Development beyond San Antonio

*photos will be posted tomorrow

The biggest disadvantage to being the sole poster for an organizational blog like this is when that sole poster is out of town (or state) for a period of time, the posts stop altogether.

So, apologies for going dark over the last three weeks. To get us back up and running, and to get everyone on the same page again, we'll start with a (really long) post about projects beyond the city of San Antonio. So, if you're here to read about projects in Kendall, Guadalupe or Comal county, enjoy.

FM 1101

The Texas Transportation Commission in April approved funds for a contract to expand FM 1101 on the northeast side of New Braunfels.

Hunter Industries - who is building three other major projects we'll discuss in a bit - won the project with a bid of $6,154,722.50. That was nearly 6 percent under our own engineers' estimate of the construction costs for this project. (Total project cost is expected to be around $8 million.)

So ... what are we doing? We're expanding the road to include a continuous left-turn lane. We're also adding bike lanes and sidewalks. Now, this will stretch between Hwy 46 and FM 306, essentially. Work will begin this summer, and we'll certainly be working in the school zones through the school year.

Those are the facts right now; the goal right now is just to let folks know this project is coming. More details will be available when the project gets underway.

FM 306

This is another Hunter Industries project (including FM 1101, this is 2 of 4).

The contractor opened the bridge at Goodwin late last month. The bridge at Hunter Lane was opened earlier this week. Moving forward, this means traffic on this portion of FM 306 will never have to stop to wait for a train again. That's a thing completely of the past. Granted, it's only one lane each way. But that's because we've only got the westbound bridges built, and for now we're using them for two-way traffic. Work on the eastbound bridges started earlier this week.

Now, this shift to the overpasses has been accompanied by a few headaches, particularly at Common Street. We're working with the city of New Braunfels to adjust the traffic signals at Common to allow for optimal traffic flow.

That said, we did get a left turn lane open for westbound traffic at Hunter Road. That means folks headed to Gruene are able to get there by turning left at Hunter. The contractor is working on getting the section of road between I-35 and Lifehouse opened up to four lanes (two each way).

Overall completion is still on target for January 2015.

Loop 337 (Rueckle Road)

Seguin Avenue

Trains are using the new bridge and the shoo-fly detour has been removed. We are still having occasional overnight closures of Seguin Avenue at the UPRR crossing while painters touch up the bridge; previous paint work has been spoiled a bit by the rains during recent weeks.

The contractor, Austin Bridge and Road - the same company that built the original railroad underpass in the 1930s - is is busily working on the sidewalks and driveways on the west side of the underpass while stone masons place the rock face for the retaining walls. Remember: these stones for the wall face are the same stones that comprised the original retaining wall.

If all goes well, the latest ABR schedule shows work to be finished at the end of this month.

U.S. 281 Comal

Representatives with the U.S. Post Office held a public meeting this week to discuss potential new locations for the Spring Branch Post Office, which is sitting in the middle of what will eventually be the northbound main lanes of U.S. Highway 281.

The property the post office sits on belongs to the Texas Department of Transportation, as it was acquired through the normal right-of-way acquisition process. Since then, the USPS has been working with the folks at TxDOT to develop an agreeable solution to the problem; that is, our road is supposed to go where their building is currently sitting.

Among the solutions - all temporary, until the Post Office can be moved to another location - is a plan that would create a small "detour" for the northbound lanes through (or near) the west parking lot of the Post Office. This is a detour that will remain in place until the originally planned roadway can be built.

To be absolutely clear: this project is not delayed at this point. In fact, the project is running ahead of schedule. Credit Hunter Industries for that. Even with the situation around the Post Office, this project should finish well ahead of the scheduled completion date.

That said, local folks should note we'll finish with the detour in place, and we'll have to come back with a separate project to build the originally planned northbound lanes.

Questions about the relocation of the USPS building should be directed to Sandra A. Rybicki, Real Estate Specialist for the U.S. Postal Service. Her email address is sandra.a.rybicki@usps.gov.

Hwy 39 Ingram

About two weeks ago, our area engineer in Kerrville reported to the Ingram City Council regarding the progress Relmco Construction is making on Highway 39. Here are his notes from that report:

Material is being removed from the Loop Road. No more material will be stockpiled in this area.

We have stepped up dust control along the project. Water truck is on project and is shooting water to help with dust. (This is an issue we deal with on each of our projects, and it's often difficult to balance the need to keep dust down with the need to conserve water in the middle of a major drought....)

We are going to install some temporary paving on the Loop to improve aesthetics and help with dust and tracking of material. 

Last month was the first month for a while the contractor did not fall further behind schedule. We are looking at hurrying along some of the paving work west of the Johnson Creek Bridge to get this area done before school and the arts and crafts fair.

I-10 frontage road - Seguin

This is a project that is entirely funded - that's 100 percent! - by non-TxDOT funds. A private developer fronted some money, as did the economic development group in Seguin, to build a frontage road between Hwy 46 and FM 464 on the west end of Seguin.

The project continues to move forward on schedule, and should wrap up by the end of summer.

Upcoming traffic switches: a rundown of what to expect

We're hitting a point in the year where many of our projects are preparing for major traffic switches, and it's important everybody be on the same page, er, in the same lane. So ... here's a look at what to expect over the next month or so:

I-10 Huebner

Perhaps the most major traffic shift upcoming is on I-10 near DeZavala Road. Webber Construction is planning to shift all lanes over onto the current westbound side of the DeZavala overpass bridge in June. This will mean going from three lanes each way plus the auxiliary lane to just three lanes each way. That means traffic entering the highway will do so directly into an active lane; entering and exiting traffic won't have its own lane. The six lanes that will remain active will be narrower than what's out there now - about 11 feet wide each.

This shift will last for about a year, though at the six-month mark the six active lanes will be scooted over onto a new bridge structure making up the future eastbound lanes.

Fred-Med

Next week Texas Sterling Construction will begin phase two of their work, requiring a major traffic shift. This shift won't really impact daily commuters a whole lot in terms of drive time, and we're not reducing traffic lanes beyond what's already reduced on Medical Drive. The lane positions will change, though, and traffic will begin driving on the future westbound approaches to Fredericksburg Road.

I-35 SAMMC

Though not major, cutting out turnarounds is a pretty significant change in traffic patterns at some locations. This week Lane Construction dropped the north-to-south turnaround of I-35 at Rittiman Road, and they'll follow up by taking the south-to-north turnaround in about three weeks. These turnarounds will be closed at least three months.

Wurzbach Parkway

While we don't have a traffic shift planned immediately on the parkway itself, we do have one coming soon related to work on the parkway. The good news is this shift will open up traffic a bit, reflecting a near-complete product.

On Jones-Maltsberger, Texas Sterling Construction is preparing to open up traffic to four lanes - two lanes each way - at the Wurzbach Parkway overpass. We've had J-M limited to a single lane each way for about two years now, a necessary traffic change designed to help crews build the new intersection with the parkway.

Oh, yeah ... this is scheduled to happen next week, if all goes well.

Loop 1604

Leslie Road - a north-south parallel road running between Shaenfield and Culebra roads - will be converted to a one-way frontage road beginning May 19. This change will be permanent. (Leslie Road actually extends north all the way to New Guilbeau, but only the segment between Shaenfield and Culebra will be converted ... for now....)

Williams Brothers Construction is building the northbound frontage road on undeveloped land right now; the development of these frontage roads are the first major steps in the extension of the Loop 1604 expressway (that means we're building overpasses) between Bandera and Culebra roads.

FM 306

Before the end of the month, Hunter Industries is hoping to have new overpasses ready for use, allowing traffic to permanently bypass the Union Pacific Railroad crossings on the north end of New Braunfels. These bridges will only feature one lane in each direction (both structures are intended to be the future westbound bridges; the eastbound bridges will be built once traffic is moved out of the way), but should provide immediate relief for traffic in the area.

Additionally, Hunter is working to open up FM 306 to a four-lane roadway between I-35 and Goodwin Road. This will help those accessing the local businesses quite a bit, and we're excited to be so far along on this project already!

Seguin Ave (New Braunfels)

In June, Austin Bridge and Road is hoping to have the remaining lanes of Seguin Avenue under the new UPRR crossing complete and ready for use. This will allow crews to open the road to four lanes (two lanes each way), offering relief to a pinch point that squeezes everyone into a single lane each way. This should help those headed to New Braunfels for summertime activities reach their destination unencumbered.

Little of this, little of that....

Apologies for the dearth of posts over the last week. Fair warning: next week will be similarly sparse. There's a single contributor to these posts, and he was out of the office much of this week and will likewise be out next week.

In that vein, Happy Opening Day, everyone! Well, an early wish, anyway.

But you came here to read about roads, not baseball. With that, here's a brief run-down on the latest concerning our most major projects:

I-10 Huebner

Concerted efforts continue to finish retaining walls along the expanded edges of main lanes between UTSA Boulevard and Huebner Road. This will allow the contractor to build the wider roadway and shift traffic for the upcoming milestone at the DeZavala overpass bridge. That's also why we're knocking out the center median barrier near DeZavala; to facilitate the shift.

When we reach the milestone (no specific date has been set yet) we'll shift traffic over to one side of the bridge, leaving the other side free for work. This shift will last six months, then we'll shift over to the other side to finish the work. All told, expect traffic to be squeezed onto one side or the other of that bridge for a total of about one year.

Only regular nightime closures and the occasional daytime frontage road closures we've had the last several weeks are disrupting traffic today.

Ralph Fair Road bridge

The project that will widen the Ralph Fair Road bridge has begun. No major closures yet; just be aware the area is an active construction zone and we'll have constantly changing landscape for the next year and a half.

Most of the work for the next couple of weeks will involve some simple excavation and some culvert work.

Main Street Boerne

We're hoping to get the Cibolo Creek bridge finished on Main Street (U.S. Hwy 87) in Boerne soon. Relmco Construction has been on that project, and they're planning to close the bridge overnight a few nights in April - April 8 and 9, to be exact - to finish the bridge deck surface. Ths should be near the last work we've got left on this project, and we should be clear of the area by the end of April.

Hwy 39 Ingram

Another Relmco project, we're now about two full months into the second phase of expanding Hwy 39 through Ingram. We're working on some of the more difficult portions of the underground drain system, which is often about 12 feet deep with large structures. A lot of this is slow-going work, particularly with the abundance of rain we've had in the region lately. As we continue through this big, deep stuff, folks will start seeing more of the fruits of our work as the culverts and retaining walls are more visible.

With the widening on the south side of the Johnson Creek Bridge continuing, we should have all the "bones" of the bridge in place by the end of April. That will allow the full expansion of the bridge before summer, with sidewalks on the bridge reopening soon after.

Hwy 281 Comal

The Spring Branch project, worked by Hunter Industries, continues to move at a near unparalleled pace. Hunter says they'll be ready to move traffic onto the remaining southbound lanes - through the old Gass property, just south of Jumbo Evans Park - near the first part of April. This will be much like the earlier switch onto the southbound lanes, near FM 306, with traffic still limited to a single lane in each direction.

On the northbound side, Hunter is hoping to have everything ready to open by July Fourth, when final paving surfaces will be placed.

As for the Post Office, we're actually building around the building rather than hold up the job to build through it as the plans call for. That detour, the little "bubble route" (this is Texas, right? Football terms should work...), will go to the west side of the Post Office. Later, once the right-of-way issues are resolved, the building will be removed and the road will be placed in its intended path.

FM 306

Somewhere around the second week of April, Hunter Industries is hoping to move traffic between Goodwin Lane and I-35 onto the future outside lanes and open up the middle area for work. This is similar to the traffic switch that happened a month or so ago between Common Street and Hunter Lane.

We're still operating with the goal of having both railroad overpasses open and rolling in time for Memorial Day weekend. We should also have the road widened between Goodwin and I-35, providing some extra space for traffic headed to the businesses along that stretch.

Seguin Avenue

Not much more to report here than we're still pushing forward, preparing to open the underpass by April 15. When we open it, we'll only have one lane in each direction open at first; we've still got some work left to do, and will be moving forward on that work as we prepare to be done and out of the way completely by summertime.

I-35 Selma

Those who've driven through the area have noticed Dan Williams Co. have opened everything up - and by everything, I mean all the exit and entrance ramps - between FM 3009 and Loop 1604. Most of the pavement is in place for the widening. Right now resources are being allocated to finish the south-to-north turnarounds at FM 3009 and at FM 1518. We hope to have them functional and open by mid-April.

Once that's done, we'll see the project get final surfaces of asphalt where it's still needed. Then we'll restripe the roadway where needed, and have the extra lane open in each direction. We're still on pace to be out of the way, as promised, by the end of the school year.

I-35 SAMMC

Lane Construction is working hard on portions of the north end, near Windcrest, while maintaining good pace on the south end of the project. Their hope is that, come 2015, we'll be working primarily on the south side of the project (closer to SAMMC) and on the new connector ramp from I-35 to southbound I-410.

Routine overnight closures are still running, but we'll be limiting closures through April for Fiesta. That shouldn't bog down much of this project; there's a lot to do outside the current travel lanes.

I-10 east San Antonio

This is that segment of I-10 near New Braunfels Ave. that's been on hold the last six months. We're back underway, and the contractor should be constructing the "detour" area (an asphalt area onto which we'll switch traffic to create a work zone) over the next few weeks. Expect to see a lot more activity and, by the end of April, a traffic switch. That shouldn't impact traffic more than it's already been impacted. The overall project - an effort to create room between the main lanes and overpass bridges in the area - will finish by fall 2015.

Wurzbach Parkway

The biggest news on this is that the Blanco Road overpass bridge should be opened up and ready for use by next weekend. We had crews scheduled to pave the bridge deck surface earlier this week, but that work was washed out by the rain that blew through the region.

The remaining work should take just 4-5 working days, if weather permits. Crews are scheduled to start that work early next week, and we should finally be able to put that western segment of the Parkway to rest.

A backlog of blogs....

Apologies for failing to log an update last week. Several partial posts were written and left unpublished. Here are the finished versions:

I-35 SAMMC

The big highlight for now is concrete; Lane Construction is pourin all sorts of concrete through the project. Most of the work is on bridge support structures, including columns and column caps that will hold a new bridge to Thousand Oaks from the northbound I-35 frontage road.

The work at Thousand Oaks requires closures on the frontage road and the main lanes Saturday between 5 a.m. and noon to remove the side barrier of some existing structure. The contractor is pushing hard to finish the work in this Thousand Oaks/Windcrest area quickly to allow a concentration of work late in the project in the SAMMC/Rittiman Road area. We're still several months from finishing up on that northern piece, but that's the plan.

So much for the north end of the job. On the south end, the George Beach exit ramp (southbound side) is noticeably unchanged. We're planning to close the current exit and open a temporary exit much closer to George Beach. Well, we had an equipment issue involving the lighting of the planned temporary ramp a bit more than a week ago, causing project supervisors to delay the change. The electrical contractor is working on a fix, and we're waiting on a few administrative answers to determine the viability of proposed solutions. At the moment, we don't have a scheduled date for the switch, but we do know that switch will be on a Sunday night.

Just a friendly reminder the speed limit on I-35 between Georgetown and Thousand Oaks is 55 miles per hour. It's also a work zone, which means traffic fines double.

Column caps are set to be poured for the future bridge to southbound I-410. Several bridge support structures are planned in this area and most are still to be built; still, these structures are being built well ahead of schedule.

Forms are set to build another column cap on the left, like the one on top of the columns at right. Project bosses hope to set beams this summer across northbound I-35 to build this ramp to southbound I-410 near SAMMC.

And that brings us to the big, overarching takeaway for this project: we're four months into a three-year job and we're running just a bit ahead of schedule. Keeping that pace may be tough in April, though, as we're limiting lane closures for Fiesta.

I-35 Selma

If near SAMMC the focus is on concrete, in the Selma-Schertz area the focus is on asphalt. Paving crews have been working on portions of the frontage roads being widened between FM 1518 and Forum Parkway for two weeks at this point, and the work continues. Wrapped in that paving work is the expansion of the northbound Olympia Parkway exit and the completion of the southbound Forum Parkway/Olympia Parkway exit. The northbound ramp remains open for this work, the southbound ramp is closed and will reopen later this month.

This work will mean continued alternating closures on the frontage road - particularly on the southbound side near Evans Road, where crews are rebuilding that southbound exit ramp to Olympia and Forum parkways.

A lot of people ask when the overall completion for this project is coming; work has been ongoing for about a year and a half at this point (the official start date is October 2012). Crews are still on pace for completion by the end of the school year, as promised when the project started.

U.S. 281 Comal

This project is best summed up with the following videos. By the way; this is a project that was initially expected to take more than two years; we're less than a year into work and nearly complete. Credit Hunter Industries for their hard work.

Southbound:

 Northbound:

FM 306

Over the last two weeks a number of people have asked about lane closures announced via our digital message trailers. (Those things are actually called PCMBs, or Portable Changeable Message Boards, but we can call them whatever we want here....)

Well, here's the skinny (and I apologize for the delay):

The road will be totally closed at Goodwin Lane to allow bridge builders to pour concrete to form the bridge deck. We initially thought this concrete pour could happen without any road closures, then Hunter Industries checked out the lay of overhead power lines. With the power lines so nearby, cranes won't have an ability for extra movement - needed extra movement - from up on top of the bridge structures already built. To fix that, we're going to put the crane on the roadway itself. That means traffic on the roadway is a no-go.

FM 306 will close at Goodwin while a crane sets up here to pour concrete on the bridge deck.

The good news is this closure will be both brief and overnight. We had it scheduled Monday night into Tuesday, but it will now happen Wednesday night into Thursday, midnight until 4 a.m.

The second closure is to set beams at the Hunter Road railroad pass. Bridge support beams mark a major step closer to having that bridge built. The road will be closed from 7 p.m. until 6 a.m. Thursday night into Friday morning. Those driving through will follow FM 1102 and Hoffman Road to get around the work.

Crews will hang beams on these support structures Thursday night.

Again, the closures are:
Wednesday night/Thursday morning, March 12-13; midnight until 4 a.m., at Goodwin Lane.
Thursday night/Friday morning, March 13-14; 7 p.m. until 6 a.m., at Hunter Road.

Hunter is still working with the goal to have both bridges in use by Memorial Day and in time for the summer months.

Seguin Avenue

A week and a half ago, masons took a crack at setting some of the old stone along the new retaining wall - creating a facade meant to retain the historic look the UPRR crossing had from its original construction in the 1930s. The test area looks pretty darned good, and masons will continue their work once the remaining bridge work is complete and the area is ready for the dressing.

Masons set stone along a test portion of the retaining wall along Seguin Avenue; they will continue to set stone once the work on the railroad bridge is complete.

As for the railroad overpass there, the bridge beams are in place - they were set a bit more than a week ago. Crews continue to assemble the bridge structure, and hope to have UPRR crews ready to move the tracks from the shoo-fly detour to the permanent bridge in the next week or so (if possible). This would allow for the shoo-fly to be taken down and the road under the railroad bridge to be built.

Project bosses are eying mid-April to open the road up to a single lane in each direction; they hope to have all work finished and be entirely out of the way in time for summer.

I-10 Ralph Fair Road

If this one doesn't seem immediately familiar, it's because the work hasn't yet begun. It will, though - in the next two weeks. Traffic impacts will happen almost immediately, as we set up the work area to replace (and upgrade) the FM 3351 bridge over I-10. We're also converting some of the frontage roads to one-way roads, a start to a two-plus year effort to convert all frontage roads on I-10 between Ralph Fair Road and Loop 1604 to one-way (some are already converted).

The contractor on the project, Sundt, is one of the largest in the nation. They've already found some cost savings in the contract and have helped by giving some $400,000 of the contracted price back to the state.

Updates on Fred-Med, I-10 Huebner and Wurzbach will be posted later this week.

FM 306 and other Comal County projects

FM 306

Work on the FM 306 expansion project, featuring two overpasses seperating road traffic from railroad traffic, began in March 2012 and is running at a pace that would allow the contractor to finish very early.

In fact, if everything works out well enough, the work could finish more than six months ahead of the project's more-than-two-year estimated schedule.

However, crews are running into occasional blocks. They're currently working to get underground AT&T lines out of the way between Lighthouse Drive and I-35. The contractor working with AT&T is trying to keep up with the overall TxDOT schedule, which is outpaced by Hunter Industries.

Another issue contributing to what some might call a delay - again, the project is running on pace to be finished significantly early - is a design issue regarding a detention pond near the Hunter Road railroad overpass. The work we are doing there impacts the way some of the water drains and flows, and the drain structures - like a detention pond there - are critical to minimizing our impacts.

Initially, the Hunter overpass was scheduled to be built first - that is, at the very outset of the project - to allow residents west of the overpass a clar and easy bypass of the railroad in emergency situations. As it stands, the route to I-35 is almost totally blocked for residents near the River Chase subdivision and other developments in that area when a train comes through. Building the western overpass would change that.

Relatively easy alternate routes exist for those seeking to get around the railroad crossing near Goodwin.

When the design issues arose on the western overpass, project supervisors determined to do work at other locations on the project. That's led to the near-completion of the overpass near Goodwin Lane and the quick work of the road expansion between Hunter Road and Common Street and between Goodwin and I-35.

Now that the design issues around the detention pond are resolved, though, work on the western overpass is moving quickly. The project superintendent hopes to be agle to set bridge support beams mid-February. That work will require the total closure of FM 306 at the site, but that closure will be overnight only. We'll be sure to let everyone know what's happening when that time comes.

Here's the big, overall vision for progress: We want to have traffic moving over both overpasses in time for the Easter holiday. That may yet prove difficult, but it's the aim we're working toward. In the meantime, expect a major traffic switch between I-35 and Common Street Thursday. That's January 30.

What we're doing is putting traffic onto the outside lanes, opening up the roadway that's been in use for planned work. We'll still have a single lane in each direction, those lanes will just be seperated by the active working area. This shouldn't impact the daily traffic much, but it will require drivers to be more aware of surroundings. In March we hope to have the median-area work finished and be able to open traffic up a bit more (or at least switch traffic to a more normal-feeling configuration).

Left turns at Hunter Road will remain illegal until the entire intersection is reconstructed - and that should mean late this summer. We'll do what we can to be sure signs are in place to let folks know to take Common Street to reach Historic Gruene.

U.S. 281

We're still working on a solution to the issue revolving around the Post Office in Spring Branch, which is holding up work at that location right now.

Again, while it's holding up work folks should know the contractor is on pace to finish the project in half the time projected by TxDOT. There are no actual delays on the project, just issues hampering the pace Hunter Industries is trying to keep.

Right now, the future northbound lanes have been graded out (meaning the dirt substructure for the road, but not the actual asphalt) to within a few yards of the south wall of the Post Office. On the north side, the road has actually been paved with base layers of asphalt. If the Post Office was removed, traffic would likely be using the new lanes in a few short weeks.

With that issue still being resolved, crews are focusing on a small area at the southern tip of the project. Last week a strip of asphalt tying the future southbound lanes of traffic into the existing lanes near Adobe Village retail center was put in place. This allowed the contractor to remove some of the barrier in the area, which opens some accessibility for the patrons of those businesses.

Work continues at full speed near Gass Ranch and on Coyote Ridge; project bosses are trying to have the road ready for use by the end of the summer, if everything works out favorably. The TxDOT-projected finish date is late 2015.

Seguin Avenue

With most of the detention pond on the east side of the underpass in place, work on the detention pond directly under the railroad overpass has begun. The drain system is being built in three phases, and this marks the second phase.

The biggest milestone on the project - that is, the biggest signal of progress - should be in place mid-February. That's the installation of the new railroad bridge, which will look much like the old bridge. Support structures are nearly finished, allowing the actual bridge to be set in place. The bridge is a single-span steel structure that's been prefabricated off-site.

When the new bridge is built and tied in for rail traffic, the shoo-fly detour will be taken down. Meanwhile, construction of the roadway below will continue marching forward.

To aid that march, last week crews closed the intersection of Seguin Avenue and Nacogdoches - sending traffic through the Faust Road intersection instead - to prepare the intersection to match elevations of the new roadway. What does that mean? It means with the widened road, we're softening the downhill ride through the underpass - which means we had to cut down some of the roadway at the Nacogdoches intersection.

We're still on pace to have the underpass opened up for use again this spring.

Intersection of Nacogdoches Street and Seguin Avenue to close one week

In order to minimize the impact of work between Faust Road and Nacogdoches Road by more than 75 percent, the Texas Department of Transportation has approved a contractor-initiated proposal to close the intersection of Nacogdoches and Seguin Avenue for one week beginning January 20.

This is a proposal proving we’re willing to hear anyone out when an idea to move a project along surfaces. See, road-building may be what we do, but we are hard-pressed to say we have all the answers 100 percent of the time. After all, no absolute mortal has ever been successful at perfection.

TxDOT reviewed the plan with officials from the city of New Braunfels before giving the go-ahead, ensuring the closure doesn’t interfere with the city’s priorities. Austin Bridge and Road has been working on the expansion of Seguin Avenue under the Union Pacific Railroad crossing, which includes widening the main thoroughfare all the way through Faust. The road is being turned to a four-lane facility, with two lanes in each direction and a center left-turn lane. Sidewalks and space for bikes are also being included.

Work at Faust Street is wrapping up this week, and preparing to move to the Nacogdoches Street intersection. Traffic will still be able to reach the businesses between Faust and Nacogdoches, but all traffic headed through the UPRR crossing will take Faust to Comal Avenue before getting back over to Seguin Avenue. Essentially, this moves the current Seguin Avenue detour by just one block, and follows in each direction the same detour most drivers are using headed westbound.

Austin Bridge expects to have the intersection opened back up by Friday, Jan. 24, as long as weather holds up through the week. When the intersection reopens, most of the work between Faust and Nacogdoches will be finished. Crews dedicated to that work would then be allowed to focus on the underpass, potentially speeding up work on the major feature of the project.

 

Overall completion is expected by the end of the current school year.

2013 in review....

When 2013 began three major projects sat in limbo after the financial collapse of one of the department’s most oft-used road builders while a flurry of major projects awaited a start date.

Those three stalled projects – including two segments of Wurzbach Parkway and the I-10 Huebner project – resumed in the spring after being released by a bankruptcy court and new contractors were selected by the projects’ bonding company. Most of the early work done on each project was maintenance – the projects needed to be cleaned up and inventory taken.

Just as the year came to a close, victory! The first segment of Wurzbach Parkway, running from Blanco Road to West Avenue, opened for traffic. Yes, an issue with the bridge deck surface is holding us back from opening the Blanco Road overpass just yet … but we got that segment of the parkway opened and operational. The bridge deck surface issue, by the way, is about ride quality and not structure. We’re trying to provide the best-quality product we can, and this is a major topic of conversation between TxDOT leaders and the responsible bonding company.

Work continues on the eastern segment, also slowed by the Ballenger Construction bankruptcy; we hope to have the stretch from Jones-Maltsberger to Wetmore opened by the end of summer. With major road builder Webber Construction working on the I-10 Huebner project, we’re assured the project should be substantially completed by early 2015 (which is amazingly not far off the original completion target).

With all that said, let’s take a look at a few of the successes enjoyed by TxDOT during 2013.

Traffic signals

In January we turned on McMullen County’s first-ever full traffic signal. The intersection of state Highways 16 and 72 was fitted to a traffic signal that offers protected left-turn lanes and traffic control for two major corridors for the booming Eagle Ford Shale energy traffic.

Later in the year we turned on a new signal at the intersection of state Highway 46 and Rudeloff Road just north of Seguin. More than 21,000 vehicles pass through that intersection each day, with many using Rudeloff Road to reach the local airport. The signal replaces two-way stop signs and has improved safety at that critical intersection – and has improved the gateway to the Guadalupe-Comal community for those who commute via aircraft.

Finally, as part of a major project up in north Comal County, we built and turned on a signal at the intersection of U.S. Highway 281 and Rebecca Creek Road (in Spring Branch). That signal has already added a huge amount of safety to the intersection and will prove critical when our work to convert Highway 281 to a divided highway is finished by the end of 2015.

Finished projects

2013 was a year of continuing efforts. About a dozen projects were completed through the year, each surrounding sidewalk improvements or road resurfacing. The biggest project to wrap up was the “hot-in-place” resurfacing project on I-37 on the south end of Bexar County.

In terms of our most major projects, last year was one of those years where we simply continued that which we started. And, in fairness, we started quite a bit of projects through the year.

Started projects

More than $221 million in contracts were awarded with work starting during 2013. Now, that’s just the actual contract amount, not total project costs (contract amounts do not include design and other costs associated with a project before it even starts). These projects range from adding capacity to the highway to reconstructing frontage roads to landscaping improvements. Here are a few highlights:

Seguin Avenue (New Braunfels): Austin Bridge Company is rebuilding a UPRR bridge and widening the main entryway to downtown New Braunfels. The icing on the cake here is the fact Austin Bridge is the same company that built the original UPRR bridge as part of the Works Progress Administration program back in the 1930s. Work started in January and will wrap up late spring 2014.

U.S. Highway 281 (Spring Branch): Hunter Industries started this 30-month project that turns a country highway into a four-lane divided highway in February and is already about halfway through the work, putting them on pace to potentially finish the work before the end of 2014. There are several factors that may impact that, however, including the fate of the Spring Branch Post Office.

FM 306 (Comal County): Another project by Hunter Industries, this is two-year project that’s also just more than halfway done. It started in March. While building two overpasses to separate the road traffic from UPRR railroad traffic is a major portion of this work, we’re also expanding the road to a four-lane divided highway.

I-35 SAMMC (northeast San Antonio): Thanks in part to a $20 million boost from the Department of Defense, Lane Construction was able to begin work expanding and adjusting I-35 between the two I-410 interchanges, near San Antonio Military Medical Center (SAMMC). Work started in November.

Fred-Med (Medical Center): One of the more anticipated projects in San Antonio is a “grade separation” project at the intersection of Fredericksburg Road and Medical Drive. The project had been initially slated to begin early 2012, but was pushed back by utility adjustments and issues with a previous contractor. This summer the contract was awarded to Texas Sterling Construction, who began work in September. They are on pace to finish the project on time, by early 2015.

I-10 resurface and restripe (near Crossroads): This three-month project flew largely under the radar, but added a lane in each direction for folks driving between I-410 and Wurzbach Road on the northwest side of town. Clark Construction is nearly finished, and should be wrapped up within the next few weeks (weather permitting!).

I-10 Seguin: This conversion of the frontage road along I-10 between Highway 46 and FM 725 is being done by Angel Brothers Construction and is entirely funded by local sources. Not only will this nine-month project, which started in October, make the area safer, but it will add to the growing economic corridor of the blossoming town.

Major milestones

The biggest milestone in the news this year was that of the northbound I-35 exit to Forum Parkway, which was closed near the beginning of the year to be reconstructed. We took what was a zipper-weave ramp with exiting and entering traffic merging with one another, competing for road space, and turned it in to a braided ramp with exiting traffic bridged over traffic entering northbound I-35 from Loop 1604.

Nearly six weeks after closing the ramp, the contractor discovered some design issues holding them back from building. Resolution of those issues pushed deep into our summer months, and when the contractor returned attention to the ramp they pushed hard to finish in time for the Christmas shopping season (the new exit ramp is a major route to The Forum at Olympia Parkway). That time frame was successfully met, and Santa helped us open the ramp the day before Thanksgiving.

The first of three major milestones on the I-10 Huebner project kicked in when lanes on I-10 over Fredericksburg Road were closed for about two months while Webber Construction rebuilt the bridge deck surface, forcing one of the lanes of main lane traffic to use the frontage road. To the credit of the contractor, that work was finished and the main lanes reopened three days earlier than the original 70-day target.

Out of the blue

A recap of the year wouldn’t be complete without recognizing the quick work and assistance of contractors who responded – with astonishing haste, no less – to emergency situations this year. Most notably, this includes an unused bridge over U.S. Highway 281 that was hit by a truck this summer.

The crash caused a closure of some main lanes on U.S. 281 that lasted several days, and the total closure of the highway for a weekend. Hunter Industries was able to complete the work to repair the bridge and clean up the mess in less than 30 hours, though they had more than 72 to finish the work.

On I-35 between Schertz and New Braunfels a garbage truck hit the underside of an overpass, causing structural concerns for a lane of the northbound I-35 main lanes. Hunter again came to help, offering equipment to assist in the short-term. Dan Williams Construction finished the work fast, though – getting the crossing under I-35 reopened in a matter of weeks rather than months.

Looking forward

Over the course of 2014, we’re looking forward to completing the bookends of the Wurzbach Parkway project as well as finish the I-35 project through Selma and Schertz. If we get favorable conditions, we could wrap up work on FM 306 near Gruene and on U.S. Highway 281 in Spring Branch. We’ll finish the Seguin Avenue project being done by Austin Bridge and Road.

The Main Street bridge in Boerne should be finished soon, and Relmco is expected to get the expansion of Highway 39 in Ingram near completion by year’s end. We’ll wrap up work on an overpass for Loop 1604 at Marbach by mid-year as well.

Meanwhile, we’re starting a project to convert Loop 1604 to an expressway (overpasses!) between Bandera Road and Culebra Road in northwest San Antonio. That should kick off this spring, as will some smaller projects in New Braunfels.

Those in the Fair Oaks Ranch and Boerne Stage Road area will see significant upgrades to the frontage roads along I-10, with work on the Ralph Fair Road overpass starting this spring.

And that’s the year in review!

Spring Branch, The Loop, Seguin Ave and other Comal County things

It's been a while since a hearty post was published about all things Comal County, so this post should be a particular treat to those living in the beautiful Texas Hill Country areas north of the metro area....

New project

The best place to begin is with something new, right? Earlier this week we accepted bids on a project at I-35 and Loop 337 (Rueckle Road) to reconfigure the Loop 337 overpass bridge. Hunter Industries of San Marcos submitted the apparent low bid, 10 percent less than the estimate TxDOT engineers came up with.

For more on this, check out the KGNB Web site here. (We'd post more here, but KGNB has all the info we'd have.)

U.S. 281 Comal

Two major items have happened on the U.S. 281 project up in Spring Branch: the southbound lanes have been seperated from the northbound lanes between the Blanco-Comal county line and Blazing Meadows. Second - and, perhaps, most important for motorists to know - is the decrease in speed limit along the project.

The speed limit change is permanent. Except for a small segment near FM 311, the speed limit is 55 miles per hour. Remember: it's an active construction zone, and Comal County law enforcement officials are enforcing the speed limit. If workers are on the project, the fine is doubled.

That short segment at FM 311 is posted at 50 miles per hour, but it's not a bad idea to drop to 45.

Just for grins, here's a look at the drive from the county line to the Guadalupe River:

Seguin Avenue

This is a project that won't give us much to really talk about (regarding traffic switches, etc.) until sometime this spring. Well, we'll have a traffic switch on Seguin Avenue between Nacogdoches and Faust as we finish the work we're doing on the westbound side of Seguin Avenue and move onto the eastbound side, but that's still a few weeks away.

For now, we're on pace to finish the project on time. The shoofly detour is in place and in use. The old overpass bridge structure has been removed and crews are getting ready to start building the new bridge.

Remember: we need to build two bridges and knock down two bridges. We're building the shoofly bridge, knocking down the old bridge, building a new bridge, then knocking down the shoofly bridge.

We're also building the drain field - really, a detention pond - under the roadway as well. That will help keep the entryway to New Braunfels open through rain events. With the rock walls that will match the original retaining walls along the project (and the nice pedestrian handrails along the road under the UPRR overpass), it will make for a beautiful gateway to the city's downtown.

I-35 Selma

With the work at Forum Parkway done - at least, the bridge work is done - bridge crews and concrete crews are being moved to work on the FM 3009 overpass and turnaround bridges. The goal is to have the north-to-south turnaround open and the overpass at its final configuration by Christmas.

The future

City and county officials have adopted a list of priorities - five prioritized projects, really - to submit to the metropolitan planning organization. Both municipalities are now members of the San Antonio-Bexar County MPO, and most projects with TxDOT and federal funds need approval through the MPO moving forward. (By the way, rumor has it the MPO will be getting a new name.)

Among the prioritized projects submitted by Comal County and New Braunfels is work on Loop 337 between Altgelt and Highway 46, expansion of FM 306 between Hunter Road and River Chase Drive and expansion of Hwy 46 at Bulverde.

Comal County round-up

The traffic switch on U.S. Highway 281 slated for last week was pushed back by rain, then by sleet, then by wind and ice. Bridge beams were set on Farm to Market 306 near Gruene. Drain boxes are being set to form a retention pond beneath the road at the Seguin Avenue underpass.

U.S. Highway 281

It’s pretty tough to paint a wet surface. Lines run all over, and it just looks sloppy. So, without the ability to clearly articulate the new lanes of the highway – particularly on the southbound side, where traffic will use new road – we can’t safely put traffic on it.

With the weather clearing up in the next few days, we hope to do the switch the first week of December. Crews are planning to move traffic Tuesday, Dec. 3. That allows us to push through the wet weather and through the long holiday weekend.

Really, the northbound side isn’t moving. Southbound traffic from the Comal-Blanco county line to Blazing Meadows is being moved onto new asphalt. This is the first of a handful of traffic switches on this project as we aim to construct a four-lane divided highway where a two-lane country highway has been for years.

FM 306

The first of four sets of bridge beams were set along FM 306 – this set near Goodwin Lane. The beams serve as the skeleton for what will be the westbound lanes of the highway over Goodwin Lane and the UPRR crossing nearby.

Another set of beams is nearly ready to be set nearly Hunter Road. That, too, will serve as the backbone for westbound lanes. Once the westbound bridges are built and in place, crews will begin working on the eastbound structures.

Meanwhile, most of the drain boxes and inlets are built along the roadway edges – at least between I-35 and Goodwin. The initial construction plans called for the contractor to do just one side at a time – and, at that, to work on this area after finishing work near Hunter Road – but Hunter Industries has determined to do as much of the work at once they can. That means we’re actually doing three or four phases of work (there are somewhere in the ballpark of eight phases on this project) at the same time.

Seguin Avenue

Large drain boxes – about four feet tall, six feet wide and eight feet long – are being set under the roadway area of the Seguin Avenue underpass. They’re being stacked end-to-end and side-by-side to fill the entire area of roadway, forming a large drainage detention pond.

The primary goal of our project is to address congestion in the downtown area of New Braunfels by adding a lane in each direction (effectively making Seguin Avenue a four-lane road with sidewalks, turn lanes, the whole shebang. But expanding a road isn’t the only way to address congestion.

This location is known for flooding over during heavy rainstorms. Part of the problem is the 24-inch pipe funneling the storm water into the river; it’s simply too small to carry the water fast enough to clear the roadway. Because expanding the pipe would be incredibly expensive (not to mention invasive), we’re building a detention pond to hold the storm water while it clears.

Comal, Castell avenues to close for UPRR work (New Braunfels)

The Texas Department of Transportation and Union Pacific Railroad will close Comal and Castell avenues Sunday, Nov. 17, at the UPRR crossings to complete a shoofly detour route associated with an ongoing TxDOT project.

he roads will close at 7 a.m. and will reopen in time for Monday morning’s commute. Traffic will use West Nacogdoches Street, South Academy Avenue and Jahn Street as a detour route.

The Seguin Avenue underpass - marked in orange - has been closed since September and will remain closed until April. The UPRR crossings with Comal and Castell avenues - marked in red - will close Sunday, Nov. 17. The green route marks the suggested detour route.

The shoofly detour – a short detour running parallel with the regular railroad – will allow crews with Austin Bridge & Road to reconstruct the railroad structure that has spanned over the Seguin Avenue underpass since the 1930s. Crews have been working on a project that will expand Seguin Avenue from two lanes to four since early 2013. Work on the $11.2 million project should finish before the end of the current school year.

Comal County round-up

Here's a look at the latest on the major projects around Comal County....

Schwab Road

Though not an active construction project, the Schwab Road underpass at I-35 is a concern to those driving the area regularly. Earlier this month a large truck with a lifted boom struck the underside of the bridge, damaging the support beam.

Our maintenance crews had a temporary fix in place within a few short hours, but the permanent fix will take a bit more than a month. In fact, crews are working on that fix now. Schwab Road will remain closed at I-35 until the bridge repair is complete in mid-November.

The shifted lanes on northbound I-35 will remain shifted until mid-November as well.

FM 306

With New Braunfels Utilities restringing power lines to utilize the newer, taller, metal poles at Goodwin Lane, Hunter Industries in one step closer to getting the first of two railroad overpasses built.

Crews with New Braunfels Utilities run new power lines along new, taller, power poles that will clear the UPRR overpasses being built. Once the other utility companies follow suit and move wires out of the way, this overpass at Goodwin will quickly be finished.

Though the NBU lines are being moved this week, lines belonging to other utilities companies will still need to be moved. That may take several weeks, so in the meantime bridge builders will be putting up retaining walls to form the bridge overpass structure. Once the overhead lines are out of the way, however, dates to hang bridge support beams will be scheduled. Project supervisors are optimistic that will happen at some point this fall.

Seguin Avenue

The massive rains last week didn't actually slow down Austin Bridge and Road very much, and crews have cleared just about everything out of the way of what will be the main lanes of Seguin Avenue and began building the support columns for the shoo-fly detour to be used by the railroad.

North of the active railroad bridge just a few yards, bridge builders are constructing the "shoo-fly" detour. Meanwhile, dirt crews continue to progress on the new Seguin Avenue underpass.

The hope is to have the detour in use by late November, allowing ABR to begin working on the actual bridge structure.

By the way ... the original bridge was also built by Austin Bridge and Road. Actually, it was built by the Austin Bridge Company, which was also known as Austin Brothers Bridge Company back in the 1920s. The name was changed to AB&R in the 1990s.

The Seguin Avenue railroad underpass, built in 1936, is being rebuilt by the same company that built it in the first place. Austin Bridge Company was renamed Austin Bridge and Road in the 1990s.

Anyway, it's kind of interesting to note the company that built the bridge in 1936 is doing the work again in 2013. Funny how things come full circle, right?

Oh, and just to be sure everyone is clear: the stones making up the original retaining wall are being restored and prepared to be used on the new retaining wall.

U.S. 281 Comal

For the next two-plus weeks (until October 10, weather permitting), we'll have daily one-way traffic control in the Spring Branch area while crews build box culverts under the road. This is the only significant closure we'll see for a while on this project, though - the contractor actually has hopes to open the first portion of new roadway as early as next month.

The closures folks have been pushing through over the last few days will not be in place on Fridays, meaning work will be done Monday thru Thursday only.

We're also looking at a few options to enhance safety along the work zone - an issue we're always reevaluating on each of our projects. We have some out-of-the-box ideas we're excited about, and as soon as some decisions are made we'll let folks know.

We still have no word on what's happening with the Post Office in Spring Branch.