That Fair Oaks Pkwy bridge is about to be done

We're going to go ahead and bury the lede on this post. If you want to get down to the brass tacks of what's going to impact you, skip down to the bottom where we'll talk about the major closure coming the weekend of April 27-30.
Before we get that far we want to address a few quick questions. As always, we offer the same candor we are afforded.

Where is everybody? It seems like it's been months since anyone worked on that bridge or have seen anyone at all. Today is the 30th of March, and at noon nobody is working.
Maybe it's a perception issue you have, and that perception is that the project is delayed, abandoned, etc. I haven't seen any updates on it here in ages and according to this site it's completion is supposed to be Summer of 2018. You currently do not look like you're going to finish by that time period if nobody seems to be working on it.
Again, this may be my own perception issue, but a little more updates on this site and maybe having someone at the actual worksite could ease some people's minds on the constant traffic around the around easing up sooner rather than later.
- Gerard
Gerard, we are afraid it is a bit of a perception issue. RELMCo is still working on a pace that will have this project completed by early summer this year and are working mostly at night on the bridge. They do this to stay out of the way of traffic on the highways and the frontage roads. If you're on the road, they don't want to be - it's risky.
You're going to see us put traffic onto the new bridge the last weekend of this month. Take a look below for more information.

According to the bridge construction diagram, the old bridge at Fair Oaks Parkway will be removed, and a new westbound to eastbound turnaround would be built in the future. However, from the looks of the grading going on, the existing bridge will be used as the turnaround. What say you?
- Al Koppen
After putting in nice, long, straight entrance ramp to eastbound I-10 at Fair Oaks Ranch, they now tore it up!!! What's with that? More taxpayer $$$ down the sewer. The guilty party should be strung up!
- Al Koppen
A couple of days ago, I wrote asking why the recently paved new straight entrance ramp to I-10 at Fair Oaks Parkway was ripped up. Yesterday, the new one exiting westbound I-10 to Fair Oaks Parkway was torn up. Who did the planning on this project--some elementary school kids?
- Al Koppen
First of all, Al, we went ahead and published your questions as submitted so we can all see the approach being taken here. No, we don't have grade-schoolers running the project. And no, we will not entertain public executions as a punishment for our employees who do their jobs.
To answer your question, let's first establish a basis of understanding for what we're doing. Heck, we've even got pictures to do it.
First of all, we have two projects happening out here. One is to rebuild the bridge over I-10 to connect Fair Oaks Parkway and Tarpon Drive. This second project converts the frontage roads to one-way and relocates several entrance and exit ramps to accommodate the new overpass at Old Fredericksburg Road.

You can see how all this lays out, with both projects together, here. For just this intersection, here you go:

The ramps you're seeing, Al, are associated with the bridge construction. Building a bridge over a major highway means several major highway closures, which you've no doubt driven through. As we explained when the project started, we built temporary ramps designed to occasionally carry the main lanes traffic off the main lanes, through the intersection and back on.

Because of those temporary ramps we were able to see delays stay, for the most part, under 15 minutes during major closures on this project. Other projects along the corridor, where construction of such ramps was not possible, have seen delays creep to well over an hour.

Alright. So here's the rub with the temporary ramps: they were built smack-dab in the middle of the new ramps being built for the second project. That's why you saw them torn up - they need to go so we can build the permanent ramps. They were, once again, temporary ramps built relatively inexpensively to handle traffic only a handful of times, which they've done marvelously.

With the temporary ramps gone the good folks with Sundt Construction can begin building the new ramps, which should come online later this summer.
We hope that clears things up a bit for you, Al.

What's coming
Beginning Friday night, April 27, RELMCo will shut down the intersection of Fair Oaks Parkway, Tarpon Drive and the I-10 frontage road.
The main lanes will not be impacted by this closure.
We have to shut down the intersection for the weekend to reconstruct the weekend in one fell swoop. When we're done we'll have traffic on the new bridge and most of the asphalt work will be finished.

During the closure traffic will follow posted detour signs to reach its destination. If the graphic of the closure doesn't help, try this list:
Westbound traffic to Fair Oaks Parkway will use Leslie Pfeiffer
Traffic coming from Fair Oaks Village Business Park will still be able to head west only; to go east they can either head all the way to Balcones Creek and turn around
Traffic headed east along the westbound frontage road can reach Fair Oaks Parkway by using Old Fredericksburg Road and Dietz-Elkhorn
Eastbound traffic to Tarpon Drive will exit as normal, hook around and go west to Windwood Drive and continue to Tarpon Drive
Westbound traffic to Tarpon Drive will remain on the main lanes, turn around at Balcones Creek and approach from the eastbound side
Eastbound traffic to Fair Oaks Parkway will remain on the main lanes, turn around at Ralph Fair Road and approach from the westbound side
When all is said and done this weekend all traffic on Fair Oaks Parkway and Tarpon Drive will be on the new bridge.
This actually brings us back to Al Koppen's first question above. So you don't have to check back up there to review, he wanted to know about the plan to use the bridge being used now as the turnaround.
Well, the bridge now being used is actually the new turnaround. We moved traffic onto it back in August, then tore down the old bridge entirely.
Well, until we get the frontage roads converted to one-way that turnaround bridge simply isn't going to mesh well with traffic. That means it will be closed - temporarily - once we get traffic onto the complete new bridge.
Please, friends, get this message out:
The turnaround bridge will be temporarily closed until the frontage roads are converted to one-way traffic. That should happen this summer.

That's it for now
That's all we have for now. As always, let us know if we can answer any other questions by submitting through our Mail Bag located at the left of the page.

Next week's construction-related closures

I-10 – Boerne

• Sunday-Thursday, April 22-26. 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. nightly. Main lanes, both directions, at mile marker 537. Alternating lanes will close, including ramps as needed, while crews resurface the road.
• Tuesday-Friday, April 24-27. 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. nightly. Main lanes, both directions, at Scenic Loop Road. Alternating lanes will close while crews stripe the road.

I-10 – Fair Oaks Ranch

• Current until Friday, April 27 at 5 p.m. Eastbound frontage road west of Buckskin Drive. All lanes will close while crews rebuild the intersection. Traffic will follow the signed detour route, including a temporary route under the new overpass at Old Fredericksburg, to reach its destination.
• Friday, April 27 at 9 p.m. until Monday, April 30 at 5 a.m. Frontage roads, both directions, at Fair Oaks Parkway. All lanes will close while crews reconstruct the intersection. Traffic will follow the posted detour route. This closure includes the Fair Oaks Parkway overpass bridge.
• Monday, April 30 at 9 a.m. until Friday, May 25 at 5 a.m. Westbound frontage road west of Old Fredericksburg Road. All lanes will close while crews rebuild the intersection. Traffic will follow the posted detour route.
• Monday, April 30 at 9 a.m. until Friday, May 25 at 5 a.m. Eastbound frontage road east of Buckskin Drive. All lanes will close while crews rebuild the intersection. Traffic will follow the posted detour route.

I-10 – Leon Springs

• Current until Monday, Apr 30 at 5 a.m. West-to-east turnaround at Camp Bullis. The turnaround will close while crews do overhead bridge work. Traffic will use the intersection to reach its destination.
• Current until Friday, April 27 at 3 p.m. East-to-west turnaround at Dominion Drive. The turnaround will close while crews do overhead bridge work. Traffic will use the intersection to reach its destination.
• Friday, May 4 at 9 p.m. until Monday, May 7 at 5 a.m. Main lanes, both directions, at Camp Bullis. All lanes will close while crews set bridge support beams. Traffic will exit Camp Bullis, continue along the frontage road and re-enter the highway at the next available ramp.

I-35 – Schertz

• Current and continuous until October 2018. Frontage roads, both directions, at FM 1103. One lane will close while crews replace the FM 1103 overpass bridge.
• Friday, April 20 at 9 p.m. until Saturday, April 21 at 6 a.m. Main lanes, both directions, at FM 1103. The two right lanes will close while crews do bridge work overhead.
• Monday-Friday, April 23-28. 9 p.m. until 6 a.m. nightly. Main lanes, both directions, at FM 1103. The two right lanes will close while crews do bridge work overhead.

I-35 – Northeast San Antonio

• Current until Friday, April 27. 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. daily. Main lanes, both directions, between Eisenhauer and Randolph. The left lane will close while electricians work on the center median lights.

I-410 – West San Antonio

• Current and continuous 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.
• Current and continuous until December 2018. Northbound exit ramp to Marbach. The ramp will remain closed while crews reconstruct the road. Traffic will exit US Hwy 90 and continue along the frontage road to reach its destination.

U.S. Hwy 90A – Seguin

• Monday, April 23 until Friday, May 18. A .m. until 6 p.m. daily, weekdays only. Main lanes, both directions, between Geronimo Creek and Dowdy Road. Alternating lanes will close while crews resurface the road. One-way traffic will be controlled by flaggers or off-duty police.

U.S. Hwy 90 – West San Antonio

• Current until Monday, April 23 at 5 a.m. Westbound frontage road at I-410. The frontage road will close while crews do overhead bridge work. Traffic will head north on I-410, turn around at Hwy 151 and return to US 90 to reach its destination.

Other roads – Converse

• Monday, June 11 until Friday, August 24. FM 78 at FM 1516. The right turn lane will close while crews do road work. Oversized vehicles will use FM 3502 to reach its destination.

Other roads – Helotes

• Current until Friday, September 28. Northbound Bandera Road at FM 1560. The left turn lane will close while crews do road work. No left turns will be permitted. Traffic will continue to the next intersection and turn around to reach its destination. Cross traffic from Circle A is also blocked.
• Tuesday, May 8 until Monday, July 2. Riggs Road, both directions, at FM 1560. All lanes will close while crews reconstruct the intersection. Through traffic on FM 1560 will continue but will not be able to turn onto Riggs Road. Traffic from Riggs Road will use Old Bandera Road to reach its destination.

Other roads – Leon Springs

• Friday, May 4 at 9 p.m. until Monday, May 7 at 5 a.m. Camp Bullis, both directions, at I-10. All lanes will close while crews set bridge support beams overhead. Traffic will turn right onto the frontage road and turn around at the next intersection to reach its destination.

All closures are pending weather.

The biggest upcoming closure we've got

It's almost Fiesta!
That means we've restricted our contractors from doing major closures until the festivities are done. That said, we do have one last major work item that'll let us stay out of the way over the next two weeks.
That task is on I-35, both directions, between Eisenhauer and Randolph. This will be daytime work, and will start tomorrow (Thursday). We'll close the left lane in each direction, leaving three lanes open each way.

This will allow electricians to get out and work on those road lights that have been cut off the last three years. By the end of next week those lights should be working and the road should be lit up during overnight hours.
We are doing this work during the day to avoid the overnight drivers during Fiesta. Yes, we've now celebrated several consecutive fatality free Fiestas ... and we want to do our part to keep that new status quo. We felt combining the late-night traffic from those celebrating would not mix well with overnight construction traffic and determined this work would be best done during the day.
Since the lane we're closing is a new lane, just opened a few months ago, drivers should expect daytime traffic to look about like it did just six months ago without closures.
Again, the work should only go a week and a half at most, weather permitting.

Next week's construction-related closures

I-10 – Fair Oaks Ranch

• Current until Friday, May 25. Eastbound frontage road at Buckskin Drive. All lanes will close while crews rebuild the intersection. 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

• Current until Monday, Apr 30 at 5 a.m. West-to-east turnaround at Camp Bullis. The turnaround will close while crews do overhead bridge work. Traffic will use the intersection to reach its destination.
• Friday, April 13 at 9 p.m. until Sunday, April 15 at 5 a.m. Main lanes, both directions, between Boerne Stage Road and Camp Bullis. The left lane will close while crews move barrier.
• Friday, April 13 at 9 p.m. until Friday, April 27 at 3 p.m. East-to-west turnaround at Dominion Drive. The turnaround will close while crews do overhead bridge work. Traffic will use the intersection to reach its destination.

I-35 – Schertz

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

I-35 – Northeast San Antonio

• Current until Thursday, April 19. 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. nightly. Main lanes, both directions, between George Beach and Thousand Oaks. Alternating lanes will close while crews do road work.
• Friday, April 13 at 9 p.m. until Monday, April 16 at 5 a.m. Southbound exit ramp to Walzem Road. The exit will close while crews do concrete work. This closure includes the right lane of the highway. Traffic will use the next available ramp and turn around to reach its destination.
• Saturday, April 14 at 5 a.m. until Sunday, April 15 at 5 a.m. Northbound main lanes at Eisenhauer Road. All lanes will close while crews do bridge work. Traffic will exit Eisenhauer, move through the intersection and re-enter at the next available ramp.

I-35 – East San Antonio

• Monday-Wednesday, April 16-18. 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. daily. Northbound main lanes between Pine Street and George Beach. The left lane will close while crews clean out drain inlets.

I-410 – West San Antonio

• Current and continuous 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.
• Current and continuous until December 2018. Northbound exit ramp to Marbach. The ramp will remain closed while crews reconstruct the road. Traffic will exit US Hwy 90 and continue along the frontage road to reach its destination.
• Friday, April 13 at 9 p.m. until Sunday, April 15 at 5 a.m. Northbound frontage road between Marbach and Meadow Leaf. All lanes will close while crews install drain culverts. Traffic will follow the posted detour.

I-410 – Northwest San Antonio

• Friday, April 13 at 9 p.m. until Saturday, April 14 at 6 a.m. Northbound main lanes at Hwy 151. All lanes will close while crews pour concrete overhead. Traffic will exit Hwy 151, continue through the intersection and re-enter the highway at the next available ramp.
• Friday, April 13 at 9 p.m. until Saturday, April 14 at noon. Southbound main lanes at Hwy 151. All lanes will close while crews do overhead bridge work and restripe the highway lanes. When work is finished the new southbound I-410 connector to westbound Hwy 151 will open. During the closure traffic will exit Hwy 151, continue through the intersections and re-enter at the next available ramp.

U.S. Hwy 90 – West San Antonio

• Current until Wednesday, April 18 at 5 a.m. Westbound frontage road at I-410. The frontage road will close while crews do overhead bridge work. Traffic will head north on I-410, turn around at Hwy 151 and return to US 90 to reach its destination.
• Friday, April 13 at 9 p.m. until Sunday, April 15 at 5 a.m. Main lanes, both directions, between Military Drive and Acme Road. The left lane will close while crews remove light poles.

Loop 1604 – West San Antonio

• Monday, April 16 at 9 p.m. until Tuesday, April 17 at 5 a.m. Southbound main lanes between Hwy 151 and Valley Meadow Road. The left lane will close while crews install guardrail.
• Tuesday, April 17 at 9 p.m. until Wednesday, April 18 at 5 a.m. Northbound main lanes between Wiseman Boulevard and Hwy 151. The left lane will close while crews install guardrail.

Loop 1604 – Northwest San Antonio

• Sunday, April 15 at 3 p.m. until Monday, April 16 at 5 a.m. East-to-west turnaround at Bandera Road. The turnaround will close while crews resurface the road. Traffic will use the intersection to reach its destination.

Hwy 151

• Friday, April 13 at 9 p.m. until Saturday, April 14 at 5 a.m. Westbound main lanes at I-410. All lanes will close while crews pour concrete overhead. Traffic will exit I-410, continue through the intersection and re-enter the highway at the next available ramp.

Other roads – Converse

• Saturday, April 14. 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. FM 1516 between FM 78 and Converse Street. One lane will close while crews install storm drains. One-way traffic control will be directed by flaggers.
• Monday, June 11 until Friday, August 24. FM 78 at FM 1516. The right turn lane will close while crews do road work. Oversized vehicles will use FM 3502 to reach its destination.

Other roads – Seguin

• Saturday, April 14. 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. Hwy 46 at FM 78. Alternating lanes will close while crews work on the traffic signals. Off-duty police officers will direct traffic at the intersection.

Other roads – Helotes

• Current until Friday, September 28. Northbound Bandera Road at FM 1560. The left turn lane will close while crews do road work. No left turns will be permitted. Traffic will continue to the next intersection and turn around to reach its destination. Cross traffic from Circle A is also blocked.
• Tuesday, May 8 until Monday, July 2. Riggs Road, both directions, at FM 1560. All lanes will close while crews reconstruct the intersection. Through traffic on FM 1560 will continue but will not be able to turn onto Riggs Road. Traffic from Riggs Road will use Old Bandera Road to reach its destination.

Other roads – Leon Springs

• Friday, April 13 at 9 p.m. until Sunday, April 15 at 5 a.m. Dominion Drive at I-10. All lanes will close while crews do overhead bridge work. Traffic will turn right onto the frontage road and turn around to reach its destination.

Other roads – Boerne

• Sunday-Friday, April 15-20. 8:30 p.m. until 5:30 a.m. nightly. Business 87, both directions, between the I-10 north intersection and Blanco Road. Alternating lanes will close while crews repair the road.

Other roads – North San Antonio

• Current until Wednesday, April 18. 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. daily. Westbound TPC Parkway at US Hwy 281. The right lane will close while crews do utility work.

All closures are pending weather.

Heads up! Major closures this weekend

So there's this major event coming up. What's it called ... Fiesta, is it? Yeah, that's it.
Well, we won't have any major closures interfering with Fiesta events, which means most of our projects are trying to get work done before Fiesta starts up. That means a second straight weekend with quite a lot of big closures you may want to be aware of.


US Hwy 90 at I-410
This closure is a continuous closure and actually started today. It's way easier to show you what it is than to describe it, so take a look:

The closure will last until Wednesday, April 18 while crews do bridge work overhead. Williams Brothers is dedicating crews around-the-clock at this location to get it reopened.
With it closed traffic will head north to Hwy 151, turn around and return to US 90 to reach its destination.


I-410 near Marbach
The southbound frontage road will close between Marbach Road and US Hwy 90 starting Friday night at 9. We'll have it all reopened by 6 a.m. Monday. Traffic will simply get onto the main lanes of the highway and get right back off if they need to.


I-410 at Hwy 151

This one is exciting - and means good news!
All lanes will close at Hwy 151 Friday night and reopen by 7 a.m. Saturday while crews resurface the road. at the same time the westbound main lanes of Hwy 151 will close at I-410. Expect a doozy of a detour ... but it'll be overnight only.
Now for the good news part:
When things open up we'll be opening the brand-new southbound I-410 connector to westbound Hwy 151.
You can read that again to be sure you got it clearly. We'll go over details during a guided project tour Thursday, but it should open Saturday. To say we're a little excited is, well, a drastic understatement.


I-10 at Dominion Drive
We'll have the main lanes down to a single lane at Dominion Drive beginning Friday at 9 p.m. We'll have everything reopened by Monday at 5 a.m. This is to do work similar to what we did last week at Camp Bullis, though we don't expect the delays to be as long as they were last weekend.
This means we'll have Dominion Drive closed at I-10 through the weekend as well. Traffic off Dominion Drive (or Stonewall Parkway) will turn right onto the frontage road and turn around at the next available cross street to reach its destination.


I-35 at Eisenhauer
We'll have the northbound lanes closed here for some road work starting Friday at 9 p.m., and we'll reopen things by 5 a.m. Monday. We're nearing completion of all work on this project along I-35 ... so there shouldn't be too many more weekends to sit through like this out here.


I-35 at Walzem
This is a ramp closure only. We'll have the southbound ramp to Walzem closed for some resurfacing and striping. This will start Friday at 9 p.m. and run through the weekend until Monday at 5 a.m. Considering the closure we've got on northbound I-35 at nearby Eisenhauer, it'd be wise to exit early to reach Walzem.