The Comal County round-up

Those familiar with the communities in Comal County know TxDOT is doing a lot of work - thanks mostly to the hard work by local officials to find money to help fund the work. Here's a look at the biggest projects TxDOT has going:

Business 46 (Seguin Avenue)

At the end of March the contractor, Austin Bridge, approached TxDOT with a proposal to continue work through the summer without disrupting the current traveling lanes. Initially the plan was to stop work altogether April 1 and resume work after Labor Day, allowing traffic to be unhindered during the busy summer months that sees hundreds of thousands visit New Braunfels to play in the river.

Because the proposal shows a potential for time savings on the project, and because the contractor has said we will not interfere whatever with the traveling lanes, the proposal was accepted by District Engineer Mario Medina.

Most of the summer work will be to prepare to move the railroad to some temporary tracks over Seguin Avenue (called a "shoofly" bypass). The idea is to have everything but the actual overpass built and ready, so the shoofly can be completed September 8 and we can move forward.

Remember: we plan to CLOSE Seguin Avenue at the UPRR overpass September 8, and we expect to have the road closed about six months. We'll talk about the detour route as we get closer to the closure date.

FM 306 - Gruene and Canyon Lake

The Canyon Lake portion of the work on FM 306 (a series of new passing lanes and turn lanes on the northeast side of Canyon Lake) is progressing. Still no major impacts on daily traffic, but the work being done off the shoulder is pretty plain to see.

Some of the widening to FM 306 in the Canyon Lake area can be seen here, where fresh asphalt has been laid beyond the existing shoulder areas.

Please - when driving through the area, be mindful this is our business office. Don't just barrel through the work zones. Be aware we'd like to return home each day from work safely, and be extra attentive and cautious when driving through our work area.

In the Gruene area, work is just about to get interesting. This week (and a little into next week) the utilities work will wrap up. NBU has been pretty busy over the last several months moving water lines, sewer lines and overhead power lines.

Those traffic stops caused by NBU will be replaced by stops caused by our efforts to build temporary roadways while we move into the first phase of actual road building. The area most impacted will be at Hunter Road and westward, where FM 306 will be narrowed and shifted over a bit. We'll actually be losing the dedicated turn lanes at the intersection of Hunter Road, and the left-turn arrows at the light will go away during the next phase of construction. We're working on a good route to get folks from I-35 safely and swiftly to Gruene. Once everything on that route is worked out, you'll see it published here.

The left-turn arrow at Hunter Road will be eliminated, as will the dedicated turn lanes, when construction moves into its first full-on road-building stage by the start of May.

We're still two weeks out from the more major changes to traffic along FM 306, so we'll work on some images to help folks get an idea of what we'll have going on before it happens. Stay tuned in next week for a more detailed look.

U.S. 281 Comal

Really, any update here is "more of the same". We're still working on building up roadway that's not near the existing lanes, and we don't expect to move into a phase of work that will impact traffic at all until after the summer.



Until the summer is over, the biggest impact drivers will see on U.S. Hwy 281 in the Spring Branch area is the concrete barriers already in place along the west side of the roadway.

However, please mark your calendars for Thursday, May 9. We've been invited by Comal County Commissioner Jan Kennady to be part of an informational open house at Bulverde Spring Branch Library. There's no formal presentation - just a bunch of stations with county and TxDOT staff available to answer questions about anything regarding the project. Seriously, it's open season on us. Ask anything.

We'll be there from 4:30 p.m. until 6:30 p.m. We'll even have the full plans available to look at (not take home!) if you're interested.

I'm pretty grateful for Mrs. Kennady and her work in the county, and glad for her invite to this open house. Seems like an easy way to chat with everyone about issues from driveway placement to project funding to intersection layouts. We hope to see you there.