In order to allow crews to safely expand the road to four lanes, Seguin Avenue will close for six months beginning September 9 at the Union Pacific Railroad overpass.
The road will be closed when the morning commute begins. The posted detour will follow Nacogdoches Street, Comal Avenue and Hampe Street. Local users may find alternate routes of their own. The road will reopen spring 2014. With the road closed, crews will reconstruct the railroad overpass bridge to allow Seguin Avenue to be widened to match the rest of Seguin Avenue in the area.
Work on the project, which was conceived nearly two decades ago by city and state officials, began in January. When finished, the road will have two lanes in each direction with a significantly improved drain system in place. The historic stones making the current retaining wall will be cleaned and used as a façade for the new retaining wall, which was built over the summer while crews scrambled to do as much work as they could without closing the road.
The first work to be done with the road closed will be construction of a shoo-fly detour route for the railroad. A shoo-fly detour will allow the railroad to cross at the same location, but will cause the train to go around the immediate work area. With the shoo-fly in place, the existing overpass will be reconstructed. Once the new overpass is ready for rail traffic the shoo-fly will be torn down and the work on the road underneath will be finished.
Funding for the $11.2 million project comes from state-granted Proposition 12 money. The Austin Bridge Company was awarded the project at the end of 2012.
