The bottom line is this: the roads you drive on each day are our offices. Can you imagine a steady stream of 50- or 60- or 70-miles-per-hour traffic along the corridor between your cubicle and the water cooler at your office? That's what our guys experience. Every. Single. Day.
That's why we ask you to slow down when you're driving through a work zone. That's our office, and we'd like to go home safely each day.
Three of our "offices" will be of particular concern this weekend. Here we get to the meat of this post - a pair of major closures that will yield major traffic shifts in San Antonio.
I-35
We will have all lanes of southbound I-35 closed between Rittiman Road and George Beach Saturday night and through Sunday morning. This will allow crews to move barrier and restripe the main lanes to follow the new permanent southbound main lanes of I-35.
The new lanes of I-35 are shifted significantly, allowing traffic to southbound I-410 to begin exiting to the right side of the road. In this area, many trucks coming from Rittiman Road sweep across several lanes of traffic to reach the old ramp. These trucks will have access to the new right-side ramp directly from Rittiman, helping to keep the flow of traffic on southbound I-35 flowing.
I-10 (northwest SA)
Beginning Friday night, all but one eastbound lane of I-10 will close between UTSA Blvd and Huebner Rd while crews restripe the road. This closure includes an alternating rotation of exit and entrance ramps. All lanes will reopen in time for Monday's morning commute.
On the frontage roads we will have officers directing traffic at the intersection of DeZavala Road. Expect delays on DeZavala as officers will likely give priority to the I-10 traffic.
If this is your planned travel area, you may wish to add a solid half hour to your travel plans. When the work is finished, the main lanes will open up to five full lanes plus an auxiliary lane over DeZavala.
I-10 (east SA)
I-10 (east SA)
Over on the east side of San Antonio, just east of downtown, we'll have a day-long closure Saturday on the westbound main lanes of I-10 between Roland Avenue and Pine Street. The right lane will close while crews move barrier and restripe the road.
That work will begin 7 a.m. Saturday and will wrap up by 7 p.m., and again Sunday night at 9 until 5:30 a.m. Monday.
Why all at once?
We get the question often enough, we may as well answer the question now: Why in the world would we schedule so many major closures across the city at the same time?
The answer: With the holidays and events in line for the month of April, failure to perform the traffic shifts scheduled for this weekend would mean pushing this work back until May. That would delay these projects a full month.
Some of the work we're doing this weekend was indeed scheduled for earlier weekends, but was pushed back because of weather. So ... here we are. We are faced with tough decisions, but this is the most responsible course to take in order to provide the congestion relief drivers in these areas are clamoring for.
That work will begin 7 a.m. Saturday and will wrap up by 7 p.m., and again Sunday night at 9 until 5:30 a.m. Monday.
Why all at once?
We get the question often enough, we may as well answer the question now: Why in the world would we schedule so many major closures across the city at the same time?
The answer: With the holidays and events in line for the month of April, failure to perform the traffic shifts scheduled for this weekend would mean pushing this work back until May. That would delay these projects a full month.
Some of the work we're doing this weekend was indeed scheduled for earlier weekends, but was pushed back because of weather. So ... here we are. We are faced with tough decisions, but this is the most responsible course to take in order to provide the congestion relief drivers in these areas are clamoring for.