I-10 closures (yesterday)

First of all, we owe folks traveling along the northwest corridor of San Antonio a huge apology - we are sorry.
Yesterday (December 21) we had two small segments of westbound I-10 between Ralph Fair Road and Fair Oaks Parkway limited to a single lane and traffic was backed up significantly, causing reported delays of well over an hour. We'd like to explain ourselves a bit.


What we did

For the record, this is a
highway in Oklahoma
published by Equipment World
back in 2015; it is NOT
representative of our roads
in/around San Antonio.

The closures were for emergency repairs to the roadway. Recent wet weather opened a pothole near Ralph Fair Road and caused significant issues on I-10 Tuesday morning. Our guys got out there and created a temporary patch, but it was done during wet-weather conditions. We knew it wouldn't hold up through Christmas.
Yesterday was our opportunity to get in while the ground was dry and do something that would hold a bit better and we reduced significantly the odds of a safety hazard cropping up over Christmas and New Years.
We had another pothole open up near Fair Oaks Parkway we addressed with a long-term fix immediately.


Why we did it
Again, these repairs needed to be done immediately. Waiting wasn't an option; we tried that the first round with the pothole near Ralph Fair Road. That pothole was reported over the weekend and inspected Monday (December 18). We tried to hold off on repairing for a better time, and the pothole simply got worse and created bigger problems by Tuesday.
We simply had no choice but take care of the issue now and not try waiting until after the week of Christmas and New Year.


Why not at night
Asphalt work requires warmer temperatures, often above 60 degrees. We're not getting those warmer temperatures during the nighttime hours, so we had to get the work done during the day.
We know it stinks, and it's not a decision we take lightly at all. We actually have a moratorium on planned construction-related closures this week (and next), and we won't typically do a planned closure on the main lanes of a highway during a weekday anyway.
The point is this: it wasn't poor planning, but poor timing by Mother Nature.


Where we failed

Our communications staff failed to get notice out in a meaningful way. This is what we're apologizing for.
We have in the past been successful alerting folks to unfortunate closures like this. Our goal is simple: let folks know what's happening so they're not left wondering while they sit in traffic. When we got an email from a member of one of our own construction project teams working along I-10 asking why we had the backup we knew we dropped the ball pretty badly.
We should have posted alerts to Twitter and had a blog post explaining the closure. We know traditional media outlets - TV stations, newspaper and radio stations - pick up news bits from our Twitter feeds and our blog. We should have posted the closure to our Drive Texas online travel app. We should have coordinated messaging through our digital message boards operated by TransGuide.
We did none of these.
Travelers were left instead wondering the cause of the long delays near busy shopping centers and along major travel corridors.


What we've learned

The online assets we've used in the past are effective and should be used more consistently in the future - indeed, we will use more consistently in the future. Frankly, we know we can do better - we have done better in the past - and we will do so moving forward. Expect to see us post to Twitter with the hope it gets picked up by traditional media out lets. Expect to see something on our blog.
And if you're listening to satellite radio or your MP3 player, expect to see our digital message boards alerting drivers of the closure. Expect to see something like this on the Drive Texas app.

Next week's construction-related closures

Note: the planned closure on I-10 at Fair Oaks Parkway for Dec. 15-16 has been postponed to January due to the poor weather forecast.

I-10 – Fair Oaks Ranch

• Current until Friday, January 26. Westbound frontage road at Old Fredericksburg Road. All lanes will close while crews replace drain structures. Traffic will follow the signed detour route, including a temporary route under the new overpass at Old Fredericksburg, to reach its destination.

I-10 – Leon Springs

• Sunday, December 17 at 9 p.m. until Monday, December 18 at 5 a.m. Main lanes, both directions, between Boerne Stage Road and La Cantera Parkway. Alternating lanes will close while crews mark the pavement for the workzone.

I-35 – Schertz

• Current until October 2018. Frontage roads, both directions, at FM 1103. The right lane will close while crews replace the FM 1103 overpass bridge.

I-35 – East San Antonio

• Friday, December 15 at 9 p.m. until Monday, December 18 at 5 a.m. Main lanes, both directions, between Thousand Oaks and George Beach. Alternating lanes will close, two at a time, while crews lay asphalt.
• Saturday, December 16. 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. Southbound exit to eastbound I-410. The ramp will close while crews repair a crash cushion. Traffic will take the next exit and turn around to reach its destination.

I-37 – Downtown San Antonio

• Current and continuous until March 2018 at 9 a.m. Northbound exit ramp to Florida and Carolina avenues (exit 140A). The ramp will close while crews rebuild the slope near the exit. Traffic will exit Cesar Chavez (exit 140B) and turn around to reach its destination.

I-410 – South San Antonio

• Current until Friday, December 22. 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. daily. Main lanes, both directions, between Poteet Highway and Somerset Road. Alternating lanes will close while crews seal cracks in the road.

I-410 – West San Antonio

• Current until December 2018. Turnarounds, both directions, at Marbach Road. The turnarounds will remain closed while crews construct the new Marbach overpass bridge. Traffic will use the signalized intersection.
• Monday, December 18 at 8 p.m. until Tuesday, December 19 at 5 a.m. Northbound main lanes and frontage road between Marbach and Meadow Glade. The right lane of the main lanes, left lane of the frontage road will close while crews open a new temporary ramp.

U.S. Hwy 90 – West San Antonio

• Sunday-Tuesday, December 17-19. 8 p.m. until 5 a.m. nightly. Westbound main lanes between I-410 and Hunt Lane. The right lane will close while crews set barrier.
• Tuesday, December 19 at 8 p.m. until Wednesday, December 20 at 5 a.m. Westbound frontage road between I-410 and Hunt Lane. All lanes will close while crews drill bridge support structure foundations.

Hwy 151 – Northwest San Antonio

• Current until Friday, December 22. 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. nightly. Westbound main lanes between I-410 and Hunt Lane. All lanes will close while crews build concrete bridge barriers and resurface the road to reopen the Hunt Lane exit ramp by Christmas.
• Current until Friday, December 22. 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. daily. Westbound main lanes between I-410 and Hunt Lane. The right lane will close while crews remove concrete barrier and resurface the road to get the Hunt Lane exit ramp reopened by Christmas.

Loop 1604 – Northwest San Antonio

• Current until Friday, January 26, 2018. North-to-south turnaround at Bandera Road. The turnaround will remain closed while crews do road work. Traffic will use the signalized intersection to turn around.

Other roads – Seguin

• Monday, December 18 at 7 a.m. until Friday, December 22 at 7 p.m. North Austin Street, both directions, between Seideman and Railroad streets. All lanes will close while crews reconstruct the road. Through traffic will use Guadalupe Street to reach its destination.

Other roads – Helotes

• Current until Sunday, December 31. Bandera Road, both directions, at FM 1560. All left- and right-turn lanes will close while crews do road work. Those turning onto FM 1560 or onto Circle A Trail will do so from the through lanes of traffic. Field staff will adjust signal timing as required.

Other roads – Southwest San Antonio

• Current until Tuesday, December 19. 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. daily. Poteet-Jourdanton Freeway, both directions, between I-35 and I-410. The right lane will close while crews seal cracks in the road.
• Current until Friday, December 22. 7 a.m. until 5 p.m. daily. Pearsall Road, both directions, between I-410 and Loop 13. Alternating lanes will close while crews seal cracks in the road.
• Saturday, December 16 until Friday, December 22. 7 a.m. until 5 p.m. daily. West Military, both directions, between US Hwy 90 and I-35. Alternating lanes will close while crews seal cracks in the road.

All closures are pending weather.

Wurzbach and Northwest Military - your chance to be heard

It could be your last chance to provide input on the future of the intersection of Wurzbach Parkway and Northwest Military.

The current plan, based on input from previous open houses hosted by our planning team, is to expand the intersection without building bridges. Challenges with access between the Inverness neighborhood and the Alon Business Center led to scrapping plans with an overpass in favor for an expanded signalized intersection. Traffic engineers estimate morning delays at the intersection improve from 47 seconds to 34 seconds with this solution; evening delay will improve from 77 seconds to 36 seconds, elevating the current level-of-service rating an entire grade.
The current proposal extends all right-turn lanes for added storage space and includes dual left-turn lanes in all directions. The estimated cost as of today is about $7.5 million.
This is all based on current public input. Those yet wishing to be heard may provide their input at our final planned open house tomorrow night. Here's the info:

• Thursday, Dec. 15 between 5 and 7 p.m.
• Barshop Jewish Community Center Auditorium, 12500 NW Military Hwy

The meeting will be an open house format so residents may come and go at their convenience and staff will be available to answer questions.
Construction on the project could start as early as 2020.

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.

Mail Bag: Congested highways, stewardship and some future planning

Why is traffic on 1604 east bound between 281 and Bulverde Road moving so slowly in the afternoons? My trip home has increased by 40 minutes.
- Nan
Why has traffic increased so much recently? I-35 has turned into a parking lot!
- Ericka
Honestly, that's probably because of the area being among the fastest-growing in the United States. For some reason, people love coming here! We think it has something to do with the tacos....
It's why we have major construction along seemingly every corridor - to address the congestion and safety issues that come from adding dozens of cars to our roads each week.

Recent advance notices refer to nightly closures, but nothing about day time closures of the right lane of US 281 NBFR north of Loop 1604. The TCP on the TxDOT website shows permanent pavement added to the left side of the NBFR which avoids the lane closure. Have the plans changed?
- Tom
First of all, we don't have our traffic control plan (TCP) posted online.
When we add permanent pavement to one side of the road, we often need to shift traffic away from that area to create adequate safe work space. That sometimes means adding some temporary pavement to hold traffic for a few weeks or months as needed - which means closures on both sides of the road.
Frankly, any time we do any construction project, every lane will be subject to occasional small closures at some point of the work.

Is Evans Road from Green Mountain to Bulverde Road closed again today (12.5.17)?
- Gladys
First of all, we're sorry we didn't answer this question a bit sooner. The questions to the Mail Bag aren't checked daily, and the Mail Bag isn't intended for immediate reply. For faster responses try us on Twitter.
As for the Evans Road work, that's not TxDOT work anyway. That work was done by SAWS, and questions about the work should have been directed to them.

I noticed the work on I-10 at Old Fredricksuburg and at Scenic Loop is adding extended sections of concrete roadway. Will the widening of I-10 to The Rim also use concrete? Is there a reason the approaches to the bridges were concrete in these projects?
Also, at Old Fred, the retaining walls are prepared for widening the bridge. When is that planned?
- Blake
We are trying to move toward concrete paving wherever we can afford to do so due to the lower cost of long-term maintenance. Going with concrete is super expensive on the front end, though, and isn't something we're able to do with just any project. We typically extend the concrete paving at elevated bridges, such as the overpasses you're mentioning, to accomplish some of our goal.
The HOV lanes we're building between La Cantera and Fair Oaks are not being build on concrete except on the bridges we'll be expanding.
We're glad you noticed the forward-thinking design on the new overpass at Old Fredericksburg Road - we do not have a date for that expansion set, but we wanted to be sure the new bridge would improve constructability for the projects that may come in the future.

I appreciate what you do getting the word out to the SA community on their TxDOT projects. I live in northeast San Antonio and the I-35 project there impacts me greatly. I was wondering if the southbound I-35 exit to Walzem will be relocated. I know you have relocated the I-410 Walzem exit, even though I see people not using it and using the old exit instead.
My worry is if the exit is not closed, we will continue to see traffic occasionally back up onto the main lanes when there is a train. I know that there is one lane of SB I-35 access road that is continuous through the I-35/I-410 interchange. Is this section being only one lane prohibiting the relocation of this exit?
- Nathan
For now we are not relocating that southbound I-35 exit to Walzem. Your suggestion is really interesting, though - it's something we're passing along to our highway planners as an option we ought to consider for improved operational efficiency.