Tuesday, May 10

Project delivery season

It's that time of year - weather is just right to lay asphalt and a lot of projects are either wrapping up or getting ready to deliver certain elements to improve your commute. Here's a run-down of what you're getting from us over the next few weeks:

I-10 frontage road between Dominion and Boerne Stage
A small connector - no more than about 200 feet long - connecting traffic along the westbound frontage road of I-10 from Dominion Drive to the new westbound frontage road running behind Fralos, Leon Springs Elementary School and the Leon Springs dance hall opened today. Texas Sterling Construction is still working on a westbound on-ramp that runs parallel to this new connector; that ramp should open in June.

Loop 1604 between Bandera and Culebra roads
A ceremony to open new northbound main lanes is planned for Thursday morning, marking the substantial completion of this effort to extend the Lp 1604 expressway through Culebra Road (southbound lanes opened in April). New overpasses at Braun, New Guilbeau and Shaenfield will help improve the daily commute for these drivers dramatically. 

New ramps near Binz-Engleman are set to open late this week, and overall project completion is set to come by July Fourth. This project reconfigured - slightly - entrance ramps and exit ramps while adding an extra lane (an auxiliary lane) to the main lanes of I-35 as they go over Leon Creek. This work is in the finishing stages and these crews will move on to hit hard the significant work between George Beach and Randolph Boulevard.

With warm temps, overnight paving crews are working hard to finish what they started last year. The new concrete medians are in place and complete. All that's left for the TxDOT project is that final inch or so of asphalt to give everyone a smooth ride. The city's project on Tezel Road is ongoing.

Walnut Avenue (New Braunfels)
This one is going to be a boon for the tourist season - just in time for the summer season, we'll have at least one lane open in each direction between Kerlick and Landa. That'll happen by the end of this month if weather holds up for us. Overall project completion, which includes two lanes in each direction, should come by the end of June.