If you're in Uvalde....

Come see us as we talk about the upgrades we're doing to state Highway 55 - Antonio Street, if you're a local - beginning later this year.

Mostly, we're adding a center left-turn lane as well as curbs and sidewalks. We're looking forward to the way this will look when we're done - something along these lines:

We'll be in the Cactus Room at the Uvalde Civic Center between 4 and 6:30 p.m. The gathering is an informal, open-house format. Simply stop by and see what we've got going on!

Wurzbach Parkway's progress....

Another edition of the Parkway Progress is available online now. So, if you're curious as to what's happening out there, check it out!

Spoiler alert: the headline story regarding the closure on U.S. Highway 281 has already happened (last night). Also, none of the work around West Avenue is associated with the segments of parkway that have gone dormant since Ballenger Construction filed for bankruptcy. I get asked about that often ... all the work around West Avenue is either directly associated with the West Avenue overpass (being built by Williams Brothers Construction). There's also some work being done by a private developer building a new apartment complex north of the parkway on West Avenue.

At any rate, check out the newsletter!

Road closures to be aware of!

First of all, crews will shut down all main lanes of south-bound U.S. Highway 281 at Bitters Road tonight, beginning about 10 p.m. and lasting until 5 a.m. In order to get through, you'll need to exit Bitters and, after moving through the traffic signal, you'll be able to re-enter the highway.

In Boerne, demolition work on the Main Street bridge over Cibolo Creek associated with a project to widen the bridge will cause crews to close alternating lanes of the bridge Thursday night.

TxDOT is widening the Main Street bridge over Cibolo Creek in Boerne.

Crews will set up closures at 9 p.m. as bridge crews prepare to take apart the old rail to make way for the added width. Only alternating lanes will be closed – through traffic will continue as the work is being completed. Drivers should be aware of the changing traffic patterns expected through the night.

TxDOT anticipates the roadway will be restored to its normal construction-zone traffic patterns in time for Friday’s morning commute.

For more information on the total project in Boerne - which includes upgrades to traffic signals along the Hill Country Mile - please visit the official TxDOT project page. Get more information on the Wurzbach Parkway project here.

Antonio Street project workshop planned (Uvalde)

The Texas Department of Transportation will hold an open-house workshop Thursday night between 4 and 6:30 p.m. at Willie DeLeon Civic Center detailing improvements to Antonio Street set to be constructed later this year.

The orange highlighted area marks the area to be worked on beginning this fall. TxDOT is widening the roadway to accomodate a center left-turn lane and is adding curbs and sidewalks.

The mile-and-a-half of state Highway 55 on the north side of Uvalde will be widened to include a center left-turn lane and will get curbs and sidewalks. Driveways along the route will be defined by the construction and storm drain features will be added to improve drainage. The work will take about a year to accomplish once a contractor is selected and work begins – all scheduled for later this summer.

This cross-section view shows an example of what TxDOT proposes to do on Antonio Street in Uvalde.

The open house will be an informal gathering with several stations set up for residents of the area and other interested parties to get information on the project. Doors to the event, held at the DeLeon Civic Center Cactus Room, will open at 4 p.m. and TxDOT representatives will wrap up at 6:30 p.m.

Rural Roundup - non-urban highway projects

Later this evening we'll be holding a brief meeting with the folks in Ingram to talk about what's been happening on the Hwy 39 Ingram project, and it seemed like a good enough time to run down the other projects outside "the Loop" (Loop 1604) and not on I-35. So ... here you go (enjoy!):

Hwy 39 Ingram
Since we'll be talking about it tonight, we'll start with the Hwy 39 Ingram project. This is a project the contractor expected to have moving in January, working primarily near the Johnson Creek bridge. However, we are being told by the contractor (Relmco, Inc., of Hondo) they are still working on allocating appropriate resources to begin work. When work does begin, the work will be focused near Johnson Creek and beyond the travel lanes - at least at first. After bridge-widening work at Johnson Creek has finished, crews will move in to other areas of the project.

For now, though, we're working with the contractor to begin the work as soon as possible.

Main Street Boerne
Over the last week or so, bridge crews have been working on shoring up (so to speak) a stable work environment in the Cibolo Creek. A pad for a drill rig has been set up, and drilling for support columns that will hold up widened segments of the bridge will begin next week.

The other half of the Main Street project - an effort to upgrade more than a half-dozen intersections in the historic Boerne downtown - just started moving. Over the next week those crews will finish laying out project areas and begin preparing for work on the crosswalk.

U.S. 281 Comal
Last week Hunter Industries, the contractor expanding U.S. 281 to a four-lane divided highway, began clearing and preparing the right-of-way at various locations. We anticipate crews to begin placing some drain structures south-bound from the Blanco County line. Crews haven't really started turning dirt as yet, but folks might see some utility crews out there moving some lines that are still in the way.

FM 306
Last week crews had a very small window to work on removing a few necessary trees between I-35 and Hunter Road, hoping to reduce the possibility of running onto migratory bird nests that can complicate construction over the summer months.

Like with the Boerne job, there's actually two projects going on in this corridor. The biggest - expanding FM 306 between I-35 and Hunter Road while constructing overpasses to bridge the road over rail road tracks - still hasn't officially started. However, the work on passing lanes and turn lanes near Canyon Lake has been underway for nearly two months.

Over the last week, Hunter Industries (working on the U.S. 281 Comal project as well as both FM 306 jobs) continued working on the east-bound passing lanes near Purgatory Road. They hope to be ready for asphalt - depending on weather (they need warm weather for asphalt) - on the first completed section as early as next week.

Meanwhile, a subcontractor will continue building drain structures and driveways that would have been displaced by the new roadway.

Business 46
Work has progressed cautiously because of the number of utilities in the area - we don't want to break anything, after all - but we've been clearing area and started drilling drill support shafts. This will support the new retaining walls on either side of the expanded Business 46 in downtown New Braunfels.

Crews from Austin Bridge and Road will continue to work on these drill shafts - the priority on the project for now - for the next few weeks. Nothing we do should heavily impact the driving lanes until after Labor Day.

There you have it - a "rural roundup", of sorts. Perhaps that's what we should start calling this regular post ... "Rural Roundup".

With that, we'll wrap up this post while I change the title....