This week's construction-related closures

Interstate 10

Friday-Monday, June 6-9

9 a.m. until 5 a.m. continuous

Eastbound frontage road between Loop 1604 and DeZavala Road (northwest San Antonio)

The left lane will close while crews open a temporary ramp between UTSA Blvd and DeZavala Road. This closure includes the entrance ramp from UTSA Boulevard. Expect delays.

Monday-Friday, June 9-13

9 a.m. until 3 p.m. daily

Westbound frontage road between Woodlawn and Fredericksburg Road (northwest San Antonio)

The left lane will close while crews replace bird guards in the bridge.

Monday-Friday, June 9-13

9 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. daily

Eastbound frontage road between Huebner Road and Loop 1604 (northwest San Antonio)

Alternating lanes will close while crews move barrier and build storm drain. This closure includes the exit and entrance ramps around DeZavala Road. Traffic will use the next available ramp and turn around.

Monday-Friday, June 9-13

9 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. daily

Westbound frontage road between Huebner Road and Loop 1604 (northwest San Antonio)

Alternating lanes will close while crews move barrier and place asphalt. This closure includes, as needed, the exit ramp to Woodstone Drive and the east-to-west turnaround at Huebner Road. Traffic will use the next available ramp. Expect delays.

Monday-Friday, June 9-13

9 p.m. until 5:30 a.m. nightly

Westbound frontage road between Huebner Road and Loop 1604 (northwest San Antonio)

Alternating lanes will close while crews move barrier and place asphalt. This closure includes, as needed, the exit ramp to Woodstone Drive and the east-to-west turnaround at Huebner Road. Traffic will use the next available ramp. Expect delays.

Monday-Friday, June 9-13

9 p.m. until 5:30 a.m. nightly

Eastbound frontage road between Huebner Road and Loop 1604 (northwest San Antonio)

Alternating lanes will close while crews move barrier and build storm drain. This closure includes the exit and entrance ramps around DeZavala Road. Traffic will use the next available ramp and turn around.

Sunday-Thursday, June 8-12

9 p.m. until 5:30 a.m. nightly

Eastbound main lanes between Loop 1604 and Fredericksburg Road (northwest San Antonio)

Alternating lanes will close while crews move barrier and place asphalt. This closure includes, as needed, the DeZavala exit and entrance ramps and the Fredericksburg exit ramp. Traffic will use the next available ramp and turn around.

Sunday-Thursday, June 8-12

9 p.m. until 5:30 a.m. nightly

Westbound main lanes between Loop 1604 and Fredericksburg Road (northwest San Antonio)

Alternating lanes will close while crews move barrier and place asphalt. This closure includes, as needed, the UTSA Boulevard exit and entrance ramps and the DeZavala exit ramp. Traffic will use the next available ramp and turn around.

Interstate 35

Sunday-Tuesday, June 8-10

9 p.m. until 5:30 a.m. nightly

Northbound frontage road between Forum Parkway and Olympia Parkway (Selma-Schertz)

Alternating lanes will close while crews lay asphalt.

Sunday-Friday, June 8-13

9 p.m. until 5:30 a.m. nightly

Southbound main lanes between Judson Road and FM 1518 (Live Oak-Selma)

Two alternating lanes will close while crews lay asphalt.

Sunday-Friday, June 8-13

9 p.m. until 5:30 a.m. nightly

Northbound main lanes between Pat Booker Road and Evans Road (Live Oak-Selma)

Two alternating lanes will close while crews lay asphalt.

Sunday-Friday, June 8-13

9 p.m. until 5 a.m. nightly

Northbound main lanes between George Beach and Rittiman (northeast San Antonio)

Alternating lanes, two at a time, will close while crews repair crash cushions and set bridge deck panels overhead. Expect delays.

Sunday-Friday, June 8-13

9 p.m. until 5 a.m. nightly

Southbound main lanes between George Beach and Rittiman (northeast San Antonio)

The right lane will close while crews repair crash cushions and pour concrete. Expect delays.

Interstate 37

No closures scheduled.

Interstate 410

Thursday-Friday, June 12-13

9 p.m. until 5 a.m.

Northbound frontage road between Greatfare and Space Center (northeast San Antonio)

The left lane will close while crews set bridge support beams. Expect delays.

Sunday-Thursday, June 8-13

9 p.m. until 5 a.m. nightly

Eastbound exit to I-35 south (northeast San Antonio)

The exit ramp will close while crews repair a crash cushion. Traffic will exit Weidner and use the turnaround. Expect delays.

Sunday-Thursday, June 8-13

9 p.m. until 5 a.m. nightly

Eastbound exit to Randolph Boulevard (northeast San Antonio)

The right lane of the exit to Randolph Boulevard will close while crews repair crash cushions. Expect delays. Expect delays.

Loop 1604

Saturday-Sunday, June 7-15

9 a.m. until 4 p.m. daily

Main lanes, both directions, between Culebra Road and Bandera Road (far west Bexar County)

The shoulder area, and occasionally the left lane, will close while crews clear right-of-way. Expect minor delays.

U.S. Highway 90

No closures scheduled.

U.S. Highway 281

No closures scheduled.

Other roads

Wednesday-Saturday, June 11-14

8 p.m. until 5 a.m. nightly

Fredericksburg Road, both directions, between Louis Pasteur and Data Point (Medical Center)

Alternating lanes will close while crews build storm drain structures. Expect delays.

All planned lane closures are pending weather.

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.

Fred-Med traffic switch pushed back

Availability of materials and completion of some out-of-sequence work has pushed back a major traffic switch on the Fred-Med project.

Crews were initially scheduled to move traffic on Medical Drive - particularly on the east side of Fredericksburg Road – onto new asphalt that will eventually be the westbound connector to Medical Drive. This move clears space for crews to work on the future eastbound side of Medical Drive and begin building the through lanes, which will pass under Fredericksburg Road.

However, some work on the through lanes – or, rather, on a preliminary support structure for the deck that will hold Fredericksburg Road in place while Medical Drive passes under – has taken a few days longer than anticipated. Supervisors with Texas Sterling Construction prefer to finish the work on the support structure (specifically, a slide pad) before switching traffic where it can be done without any major disruptions to travelers.

The traffic switch is now scheduled to happen by next weekend, May 23-25. The switch, when completed, will not impact daily traffic all that much, as we’re maintaining one lane each way on Medical Drive through Fredericksburg Road.

The process of making the switch will make an impact. Police officers will direct traffic at Fredericksburg and Medical Friday night and into Saturday morning, May 23-24. The actual traffic signal will be turned off that night while electricians move them to match the new path of traffic. Drivers should expect some delays.

This weekend - May 16-18 - road crews will be finishing work on the westbound side of Medical Drive at Ewing Halsell. Expect alternating lanes to close from Friday night through Sunday night.

Major closure Sunday on I-35

Lane Construction will set bridge support beams forming the new ramp connecting southbound I-35 to southbound I-410 Sunday morning.

In order to do this work, crews will close the northbound main lanes of I-35 from George Beach to Rittiman Road between 3 a.m. and noon Sunday. Only one lane will reopen at noon.

Crews will also close the northbound main lanes of I-410 from Space Center and Rittiman Road at noon Sunday. At least one lane of the main lanes will reopen after 6 p.m.

All lanes will be reopened in time for the Monday morning commute.

Detour routes:

For northbound I-35, traffic will exit George Beach and continue onto the I-410 frontage road. Turn around at Binz-Engleman, follow the northbound I-410 frontage road through Rittiman Road. Reenter northbound I-35 main lanes after Rittiman Road.

For northbound I-410, traffic will exit Space Center and use the frontage road through Rittiman Road. Traffic will reenter northbound I-35 main lanes after Rittiman Road.

Save the date: May 19

Beginning May 19 after the morning commute, Leslie Road between Shaenfield Road and Culebra Road will be a one-way road. This is a permanent change, as Leslie is being converted into the southbound frontage road.

For now, the road will only have one lane, so local users should expect some delays. For the first week, crews will set barrels to close the lane. Actual, heavy work will begin within a week or so, and concrete barrier will be set within 10 days of the initial closure.

Traffic will actually be shifted over onto the east side of the road (currently the northbound lane) while crews reconstruct the roadway to match specifications for the higher traffic volumes anticipated. Once work on the west side of the road is done, traffic will shift over and work on the east side of the road will begin.

Leslie Road runs parallel to Loop 1604 between Culebra and Shaenfield roads. It will be converted - permanently - to a one-way frontage road beginning May 19

Work on the northbound frontage road will be moving along simultaneously, but will not impact current traffic (the future northbound lanes are being built on undeveloped land). Grading and clearing work for the northbound frontage road is starting this week, and will continue for the next several week.

The big tree

A large oak tree on the southbound side between Caston Gate and Liberty Field will be preserved. It's one of three similar trees along the project that will be preserved and protected by guardrail when the project is complete.