Next week's construction-related closures

I-10 – Boerne

• Friday, July 28 at 9 p.m. until Monday, July 31 at 5 a.m. Westbound exit ramp to Hwy 46 (Exit 540). The ramp will close while crews open up a new ramp configuration. Traffic will exit Business 87 ant turn left onto Bandera Road (Hwy 46) to reach its destination.

I-10 – East San Antonio

• Sunday-Monday, July 30-31. 8 p.m. until 5 a.m. Eastbound main lanes between Roland Avenue and Amanda Street. The left lane will close while crews build support structures.
• Monday, July 31 until Saturday, August 12. 7:30 a.m. until 5 p.m. daily except Sundays. Westbound frontage road between Foster Road and FM 1516. Alternating lanes will close while crews install storm drain.
• Wednesday-Thursday, August 9-10. 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. daily. Westbound exit ramp to FM 1516. The ramp will close while crews install storm drains. Traffic will exit Loop 1604, turn around and use the westbound frontage road to reach FM 1516.
• Saturday, August 12. 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. Westbound entrance ramp from FM 1516. The ramp will close while crews install storm drain. Traffic will use the next available ramp.

I-35 – Northeast San Antonio

• Current until Tuesday, August 1 at 5 a.m. Turnarounds, both directions, at Walzem Road. The turnarounds will remain closed while crews do overhead bridge work.
• Saturday, July 29 at 5 a.m. until Sunday, July 30 at 5 a.m. Northbound main lanes between George Beach and Thousand Oaks. Alternating lanes will close while crews lay asphalt, hang signs and work on ramps.
• Sunday, July 30 until Wednesday, August 2. 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. nightly. Southbound main lanes at Randolph Boulevard. The right lane will close while crews repair concrete barrier. This closure includes the exit ramp to Randolph Boulevard. Traffic will use the next available ramp and turn around to reach its destination.
• Monday, July 31 until Friday, August 11. 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. nightly. Southbound main lanes between Thousand Oaks and George Beach. Alternating lanes will close while crews work on the center median and lay asphalt.
• Saturday, August 5 at 5 a.m. until Sunday, August 6 at 5 a.m. Southbound main lanes between George Beach and Thousand Oaks. Alternating lanes will close while crews work on new ramps.

I-35 – East San Antonio

• Friday, August 11 at 9 p.m. until Monday, August 14 at 5 a.m. Main lanes, both directions, at New Braunfels Avenue. All lanes will close while crews demo the old bridge deck. Traffic will exit New Braunfels Avenue, continue along the frontage road and re-enter at the next available ramp.

I-410 – South San Antonio

• Monday, July 31. 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. Eastbound main lanes at Roosevelt Road. Alternating lanes will close as needed while crews do concrete work.

I-410 – Northwest San Antonio

• Current until Monday, July 31. 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. nightly. Main lanes, both directions, between Marbach Road and US Hwy 90. Alternating lanes will close while crews set concrete forms.
• Current until August 31. Northbound exit to Culebra Road. The exit will close while crews widen the main lanes and frontage road. Traffic will exit Ingram Road, turn around and get to Culebra on the southbound frontage road.
• Current until Friday, September 1. 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. nightly, Sunday nights through Thursday nights as needed only. Northbound main lanes between Marbach Road and Military Drive. All lanes will close while crews do overhead bridge work. Traffic will exit Hwy 151, continue along the frontage road and enter the highway at the next available ramp. Officers will control traffic at intersections. This closure will not be employed simultaneously with the northbound frontage road closure.
• Current until Friday, September 1. 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. nightly, Sunday nights through Thursday nights as needed only. Northbound frontage road between Marbach Road and Military Drive. All lanes will close while crews do overhead bridge work. Traffic will use eastbound Hwy 151 and Military Drive to reach its destination. Officers will control traffic at intersections as needed. This closure will not be employed simultaneously with the northbound main lanes closure.

U.S. Hwy 90 – West San Antonio

• Monday, July 31 until August 1. 9 p.m. until 5:30 a.m. Main lanes, both directions, between Hunt Lane and Loop 1604. The right lane will close while crews paint bridge rails.
• Tuesday-Wednesday, August 1-2. 9 p.m. until 5:30 a.m. Westbound main lanes at Loop 1604. All lanes will close while crews do overhead bridge work. Traffic will exit Loop 1604 and re-enter the main lanes at the next available ramp.
• Tuesday-Friday, August 1-4. 9 p.m. until 5:30 a.m. nightly. West-to-east turnaround at Loop 1604. The turnaround will close while crews paint the bridge rails.
• Thursday-Friday, August 3-4. 9 p.m. until 5:30 a.m. Eastbound main lanes at Loop 1604. All lanes will close while crews do overhead bridge work. Traffic will exit Loop 1604 and re-enter the main lanes at the next available ramp.

U.S. Hwy 281 – North San Antonio

• Sunday, July 30-Thursday, August 3. 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. nightly. Main lanes, both directions, between Loop 1604 and Stone Oak Parkway. Alternating lanes will close while crews retrace pavement stripes. This closure will be a rolling closure, meaning the closure area will slowly progress from one end of the project to the other with only a short segment of road being closed.
• Monday-Tuesday, August 7-8. 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. Southbound main lanes between Marshall Road and Stone Oak Parkway. The right lanes will close while crews set barrier.
• Tuesday-Thursday, August 8-10. 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. nightly. Southbound main lanes between Stone Oak Parkway and Evans Road. The right lanes will close while crews set barrier.
• Thursday-Friday, August 10-11. 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. Southbound main lanes between Evans Road and Encino Rio. The right lanes will close while crews set barrier.

U.S. Hwy 281 – Near North San Antonio

• Sunday, July 30-Friday, August 4. 9 p.m. until 6 a.m. nightly. Northbound main lanes between I-35 and Tuleta Drive. The left lanes will close while crews repair bridge joints.

Hwy 151 – Northwest San Antonio

• Current until August 31. Westbound exit ramp to Hunt Lane. The exit will close while crews work on retaining walls. Traffic will exit Ingram Road and follow the frontage road to reach its destination.

Other roads – Seguin

• Current until August 31. Austin Street between Martindale and Seidman. The road will be converted to one-way only, moving southbound only, while crews do road work. Northbound traffic will use Guadalupe Street to reach its destination.
• Friday, July 28 at 8 p.m. until Monday, July 31 at 6 a.m. Southbound Austin Street between Baxter and West New Braunfels streets. The southbound lane will be closed while crews install storm drain boxes. Traffic will use Hwy 46 or the Hwy 123 bypass to reach its destination.

Other roads – New Braunfels

• Current until Friday, August 18. 8:30 a.m. until 4 p.m. daily, Monday-Friday only. Hwy 46, both directions, between FM 758 and I-35. The right lane will close while crews replace curb and install traffic signals and guardrail.

Other roads – Northeast San Antonio

• Friday, August 4 at 9 p.m. until Monday, August 7 at 5 a.m. Walzem Road, both directions, at I-35. All lanes will close while crews work on columns. Traffic will turn right onto the frontage road and turn around at the next cross street to reach its destination.

Other roads – East San Antonio

• Friday, August 11 at 9 p.m. until Monday, August 14 at 5 a.m. New Braunfels Avenue, both directions, at I-35. All lanes will close while crews demo the old bridge deck. Traffic will be allowed to turn right onto the frontage roads and will use Walters Street to cross I-35.

Other roads – Northwest San Antonio

• Current until Saturday, August 5. 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. nightly, Sunday night through Thursday night as needed only. Potranco Road, both directions, at Hwy 151. All lanes will close while crews do overhead bridge work. Traffic will use the frontage roads and turn around at the next available location to reach its destination.
• Thursday-Friday, August 3-4. 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. Potranco Road, both directions, between Waterstone Place and Loop 1604. All lanes will close while crews do overhead bridge work. Traffic will use Military Drive to reach its destination.

All closures are pending weather.

Mail bag: Is TxDOT involved with the Cibolo Parkway project?

This edition will address a single question we've gotten because, well, we've gotten the question a few times and it will take a bit to clearly respond. That question revolves around the proposed Cibolo Parkway, a locally funded project in Cibolo. The question goes something like this:

Why is a toll road happening in Cibolo and why is TxDOT involved with it?
- some folks from the Cibolo area

There are a few issues implied in the question, and it'll take some doing to answer it completely. We'll take it one issue at a time.

It's not our project

The Texas Department of Transportation is not providing any funds for this project. TxDOT is not providing design consultation, or design services for this project. TxDOT is not providing feasibility studies for this project. TxDOT is not requesting the city of Cibolo to do this project. TxDOT is not providing construction inspection or engineering services for this project. TxDOT is not providing any project oversight on this project. TxDOT is not involved wiht the development of this project in any way. There is no other way we can be more clear - the proposed local project known as the Cibolo Parkway is not a TxDOT project and TxDOT has no involvement with its development.
Who is involved, then? The city of Cibolo. And ... well ... that's pretty much it.

Connection to FM 1103
Any new roads or driveways proposing to connect to any state-maintained road requires TxDOT approval per the Texas Administrative Code. The current proposed path of the Cibolo Parkway would indeed connect with FM 1103 and the Texas Transportation Commission would need to approve the connection.

When the city submits a complete proposal, including all geometric schematics, the Texas Transportation Commission will review and consider for approval connection to the state system (here meaning FM 1103).
This is no different than the connection of any other road to the state system and should not imply TxDOT affiliation with the proposed project any more than TxDOT would be affiliated with a private development connecting a major collector road to the state system.

FM 1103 expansion
Some have claimed the proposed expansion of FM 1103 is tantamount to TxDOT subsidization of the proposed Cibolo Parkway.

Frankly we're not sure how those making this claim reach such a conclusion. While do have a proposed expansion to FM 1103 - after all, it's our responsibility to maintain and develop roads on the current state highway system - this proposal is entirely independent of the proposed local project and planning for the expansion predates the city's proposal. Even the city's web page on the Cibolo Parkway project notes we identified a need to expand FM 1103 at least a decade ago, though TxDOT denied at the time local requests to extend FM 1103 to I-10. This denial came because of challenges with funding and a concern over right-of-way acquisition.
What we have in mind is a $25 million expansion that will make FM 1103 a four-lane road with center medians, sidewalks and shoulders allowing for safe bike riding. This project extends between I-35 and Rodeo Way and is currently targeted for a late 2019/early 2020 start. Funding for the FM 1103 expansion comes from a combination of local contributions and traditional state funds.
This work follows the expansion of the FM 1103 bridge over I-35 (a project that kicked off just last week).

MPO role
The Alamo Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, which coordinates the entirety of transportation planning efforts in the region, has included the proposed Cibolo Parkway as a privately funded project in its transportation plan. While TxDOT does have a seat at the table with the MPO, inclusion of the project in the MPO transportation plan doesn't mean TxDOT has any actual link to the project.
In fact inclusion on the transportation plan doesn't even obligate any MPO funds (which do include TxDOT resources). The project does not have any allocated state or federal funds in the 10-year plan of the MPO. All claims to the contrary are simply incorrect.

This week's construction-related closures

I-10 – Boerne

• Friday, July 28 at 9 p.m. until Monday, July 31 at 5 a.m. Westbound exit ramp to Hwy 46 (Exit 540). The ramp will close while crews open up a new ramp configuration. Traffic will exit Business 87 ant turn left onto Bandera Road (Hwy 46) to reach its destination.

I-10 – East San Antonio

• Monday-Tuesday, July 24-25. 8 p.m. until 5 a.m. Eastbound main lanes between Roland Avenue and Amanda Street. The left lane will close while crews install bridge support pilings.

I-10 – Northwest San Antonio

• Sunday-Friday, July 23-28. 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. nightly. Eastbound frontage road between Crossroads Boulevard and West Avenue. Alternating lanes will close while crews resurface the road. This closure includes ramps as needed. Traffic will follow the posted detour route.
• Monday-Friday, July 24-28. 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. daily. Eastbound frontage road between Fredericksburg Road and Crossroads Boulevard. Alternating lanes will close while crews work on guardrail.

 I-35 – New Braunfels

• Sunday-Friday, July 23-28. 9 p.m. until 6 a.m. nightly. Southbound main lanes between Schmidt Road and Rueckle Road. Alternating lanes will close while crews lay asphalt.
• Sunday-Friday, July 23-28. 9 p.m. until 6 a.m. nightly. Northbound main lanes between Solms Road and the Guadalupe River Bridge. Alternating lanes will close while crews work on pavement markings.

I-35 – Northeast San Antonio

• Current until Tuesday, August 1 at 5 a.m. Turnarounds, both directions, at Walzem Road. The turnarounds will remain closed while crews do overhead bridge work.

I-35 – East San Antonio

• Thursday-Friday, July 27-28. 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. daily. Southbound main lanes at AT&T Parkway. The left lane will close while crews do bridge work.

I-410 – South San Antonio

• Monday-Tuesday, July 24-25. 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. daily. Main lanes, both directions, at Roosevelt Road. Alternating lanes will close as needed while crews do concrete work.

I-410 – Northwest San Antonio

• Current until Monday, July 31. 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. nightly. Main lanes, both directions, between Marbach Road and US Hwy 90. Alternating lanes will close while crews set concrete forms.
• Current until August 31. Northbound exit to Culebra Road. The exit will close while crews widen the main lanes and frontage road. Traffic will exit Ingram Road, turn around and get to Culebra on the southbound frontage road.
• Current until Friday, September 1. 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. nightly, Sunday nights through Thursday nights as needed only. Northbound main lanes between Marbach Road and Military Drive. All lanes will close while crews do overhead bridge work. Traffic will exit Hwy 151, continue along the frontage road and enter the highway at the next available ramp. Officers will control traffic at intersections. This closure will not be employed simultaneously with the northbound frontage road closure.
• Current until Friday, September 1. 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. nightly, Sunday nights through Thursday nights as needed only. Northbound frontage road between Marbach Road and Military Drive. All lanes will close while crews do overhead bridge work. Traffic will use eastbound Hwy 151 and Military Drive to reach its destination. Officers will control traffic at intersections as needed. This closure will not be employed simultaneously with the northbound main lanes closure.
• Sunday-Friday, July 23-28. 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. nightly. Northbound main lanes between Culebra Road and Military Drive. The two right lanes will close while crews do bridge work.
• Monday-Friday, July 24-28. 8 p.m. until 5 a.m. nightly. Southbound frontage road between Marbach and US Hwy 90. The left lane will close while crews reset barrier and restripe the frontage road.

U.S. Hwy 90 – Near South San Antonio

• Monday-Tuesday, July 24-25. 9 p.m. until 5:30 a.m. Westbound frontage road between Hunt Lane and Kriewald. Alternating lanes will close while crews paint the Medio Creek bridge.
• Tuesday-Thursday, July 25-27. 9 p.m. until 5:30 a.m. nightly. Main lanes, both directions, between Kriewald and Hunt Lane. Alternating lanes will close while crews paint the Medio Creek bridge.

U.S. Hwy 281 – North San Antonio

• Sunday-Thursday, July 23-27. 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. nightly. Main lanes, both directions, between Loop 1604 and Stone Oak Parkway. Alternating lanes will close while crews retrace pavement stripes. This closure will be a rolling closure, meaning the closure area will slowly progress from one end of the project to the other with only a short segment of road being closed.
• Sunday, July 30-Thursday, August 3. 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. nightly. Main lanes, both directions, between Loop 1604 and Stone Oak Parkway. Alternating lanes will close while crews retrace pavement stripes. This closure will be a rolling closure, meaning the closure area will slowly progress from one end of the project to the other with only a short segment of road being closed.

U.S. Hwy 281 – Near North San Antonio

• Monday-Friday, July 24-28. 9 p.m. until 6 a.m. nightly. Northbound main lanes between I-35 and St. Mary’s Street. The left lanes will close while crews work on bridge joints.
• Wednesday-Thursday, July 26-27. 9 p.m. until 6 a.m. Southbound frontage road between Stadium Drive and Mulberry Avenue. Alternating lanes will close while crews do concrete work. This closure includes highway ramps as needed.

Hwy 151 – Northwest San Antonio

• Current until August 31. Westbound exit ramp to Hunt Lane. The exit will close while crews work on retaining walls. Traffic will exit Ingram Road and follow the frontage road to reach its destination.

Other roads – Seguin

• Current until August 31. Austin Street between Martindale and Seidman. The road will be converted to one-way only, moving southbound only, while crews do road work. Northbound traffic will use Guadalupe Street to reach its destination.

Other roads – New Braunfels

• Current until Friday, August 18. 8:30 a.m. until 4 p.m. daily, Monday-Friday only. Hwy 46, both directions, between FM 758 and I-35. The right lane will close while crews replace curb and install traffic signals and guardrail.
• Monday, July 24 at 6 a.m. until Friday, July 28 at 5 p.m. Northbound FM 1101 between Hwy 46 and Advantage Drive. The lane will close while crews reconstruct the road. Traffic will use I-35 and FM 306 to reach its destination.

Other roads – Northeast San Antonio

• Current until Monday, July 24. 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. nightly. Walzem Road, both directions, at I-35. All lanes will close while crews work on columns. Traffic will turn right onto the frontage road and turn around at the next cross street to reach its destination.

Other roads – Northwest San Antonio

• Current until Saturday, August 5. 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. nightly, Sunday night through Thursday night as needed only. Potranco Road, both directions, at Hwy 151. All lanes will close while crews do overhead bridge work. Traffic will use the frontage roads and turn around at the next available location to reach its destination.
• Monday-Wednesday, July 24-26. 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. Military Drive, both directions, west of Loop 1604. All lanes will close while crews do overhead bridge work. Traffic will use Westcreek Oaks Drive to reach its destination.
• Monday-Friday, July 24-28. 8:30 a.m. until 4 p.m. daily. Potranco Road, both directions, between Hunt Lane and Tisbury Parkway. The left lane will close while crews repair the turn lanes at Westover Hills Pediatric Center.

All closures are pending weather.

With work started, here's what to expect on US 281

The day has finally come.
Monday crews with Webber Construction started work on the expansion of US 281 between Loop 1604 and Stone Oak Parkway. It's a project that's well over a decade coming and has been prioritized by the Texas Clear Lanes initiative developed by Governor Greg Abbott and our Texas Transportation Commission.
For info on what the final product will look like, check out our project information page. Or you could just watch this video:

 

What to expect

Through the first few weeks drivers will see little impact on their commute as construction crews go through needed safety procedures to prepare for work. This includes placing advance warning signage and re-tracing the US 281 pavement markings.

The first planned closures

Beginning the night of July 23 rolling closures will begin while crews restripe the roadway. This work will be done entirely overnight and affect Sunday through Thursday nights, starting at 9 p.m. and finishing by 5 the next morning. This should last last about two weeks.

Stay in the know

As the project continues you can stay tuned here to get the most up-to-date information on project happenings as well as upcoming lane closures. Urgent information and other updates will be sent via email to a project-specific email list. To get yourself added to that list, click here.

Mail Bag: I-10, ramp speed limits, traffic shifts, future plans

Are there any plans to move the northbound Watson Ln/Old Bastrop Rd exit further south? It is difficult to see vehicles exiting onto the frontage road when trying to turn from Watson Ln East onto the access road. It seems like moving it a half to 3/4 miles south allow more room for error. I don't if dodging traffic is the cause but the guard rail on the corner of Watson Ln East & the frontage road seems to get damaged fairly often. Maybe vehicles are just coming off the exit too fast and can't make the almost immediate right turn onto Watson Ln East.
- Bob
Right now, Bob, we don't have any such plans on our list of projects. That's not to say this can't be something that gets added. Stuff like this can become a priority by pushing it through the Alamo Area MPO - a group that kind of tells us where to spend our money in the region (allowing for local-level decisions rather than state-level decisions). We'll forward the comment to our internal planners and our area office in New Braunfels as well to see if we can at least keep the area on our radar.

Will you clarify how drivers determine the speed limit on flyovers, such as the Bandera Road connector to Loop 410 and the Loop 1604 connector to Highway 151? Do we follow the speed posted on the "Exit 45 mph" sign the entire distance of the flyover, or can we accelerate to highway speed once we get into the flyover? The Bandera Road connector has no signs along the way (except the "Exit 45 mph" at the entrance). I think the 151-1604 connector might actually have a speed limit sign at the entrance - but I'm still a little unclear if that applies to the entire distance. I try to stay around 50 mph on the Bandera connector, but people ride my bumper like crazy.
- Angela
Great question, Angela. There are two types of speed limits - regulatory speeds and advisory speeds. Those yellow signs with speed limits posted are advisory speeds - meaning they're a recommended speed to maintain safety on the ramp.
According to our Manual for Uniform Traffic Control Devices (section 2c.14) these yellow advisory speeds are placed at locations to allow you to appropriately slow down as your exiting the highway. Once you're on the ramp, we won't place additional yellow advisory speed signs unless there's a change in the "horizontal alignment". That's engineer speak for "if the road curves".
Ultimately, those advisory speeds are there to help you remain safe as you drive. We would all do well to remember it's not about getting to our destinations fastest, but about getting to our destinations the safest.
Once nearing the end of these ramps drivers should begin safe merging practices by speeding up to the normal speed of the traffic with which they're merging and continue along their way.
We hope that helps!

What does right-in, right-out mean? If I'm coming down I-10E, how do I get into Fair Oaks Ranch? If I'm in FOR, how do I get to I-10E?
- Al
For everyone else: Al asked this a few weeks ago, prior to our first major closure of I-10 at Fair Oaks Parkway.
Right-in, right-out configurations happen when access to or from a side road is right-turn only. Here's a look at an easy engineer's drawing from our manuals:

I have a question. A few years ago I-10 was under construction to make the exit and bridge for the Dominion folks - because they are the rich ones, I guess. Now we are under construction again - for WHAT? There needs to be 3 lanes going in each direction from the Rim to Fair Oaks if not all the way to Boerne. The big trucks need to stay out of the left lane - they are dangerous! Why wasn't this done in the first place instead of tearing up the highway twice and spending extra money? And are we getting 3 lanes going east and west?
- Linda
Lots of issues to address here, Linda, but we'll try and stick to the basic question we think you're asking. We think you are really wanting to know when you're getting additional lanes to I-10 between Loop 1604 and Boerne.
The shortest answer is we'll be adding those much-needed extra lanes in segments. The first segment will be between La Cantera Parkway and Ralph Fair Road. Work on that project is set to begin early fall (August/September) this year and will take about three years to build. More information on the project may be found here.
As to the issue of why we didn't do it in the first place, when we re-did the overpass at Dominion Drive? Simply put: money and permission. We didn't have all our documents ready at the time to do an expansion like this, and we didn't have the money to do more. We're sorry we couldn't do more at the time and we're excited the Texas Clear Lanes initiative has enabled us to appropriately prioritize this project now.

Hwy 151 in San Antonio - I saw the notification sign this morning that the eastbound entrance ramp to 151 at Hunt Lane will be closed 18 July. Will this be a one day closure, or long term? Also, what time will the closure begin?
- ebargainer
This is a temporary closure and will last only a couple of days to allow crews to widen the ramp. Closure info is posted weekly here.

Will we have 151 run all the way to Talley Road in the near future? And are you doing any construction Talley Road soon?
- Janie
In theory, Janie, yes! Well, sort of. The extension of Alamo Ranch Parkway further east is up to the private developers continuing to build in that area. Development of Talley Road is up to Bexar County Public Works and is on their to-do list. They'll have a better idea as to the timeframe and other details of what's going on.
The real question, then, is whether Alamo Ranch Parkway will ever be converted to Hwy 151. Right now the answer is "no", but you never know what'll happen in 10 years.

There's a sign at Military Drive and 1604 in NW SA that warns of a "traffic switch" on 7-12-2017. No info seems to be available as to what a "traffic switch" entails or what time this will be happening.
- Kim
Kim, there's no excuse. We simply dropped the ball on getting word on this out. We have info out there now, which was published Saturday. Check out all the details here.

Traffic shifts on Military Drive at Lp 1604

Earlier this week Zachry Construction shifted traffic on Military Drive to allow construction of the future southbound frontage road as part of their work to expand Lp 1604 between Hwy 151 and Potranco Road.
We've had some questions via social media about the change, which happened without a lot of fanfare from our field staff, and we've gotten an explanation as to what's happening. First, a gif to see the progression of what you'll see through the summer:

The change this week is the first of three mini-phases to get the southbound frontage road intersection built. Each step is expected to take 2-3 weeks with traffic returned to its normal pattern by September 1. The biggest impact will be constriction of lanes on Military outside Lp 1604 to a single lane in each direction.
Because pictures make a better story than an actual story does, here's a look at what you can expect. The bright orange areas are the areas being constructed in each step. The dark blue represents areas already constructed. The tan areas represent existing pavement. You can click on each image to enlarge.
Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Next week's construction-related closures

I-10 – Fair Oaks Ranch

• Saturday, July 15 at 4 a.m. until Monday, July 17 at 5 a.m. Eastbound main lanes between Fair Oaks Parkway and Ralph Fair Road. Alternating lanes will close while crews move traffic onto the new overpass bridge. Crews will maintain one lane open through this closure.
• Saturday, July 22 at 4 a.m. until Monday, July 24 at 5 a.m. Westbound main lanes between Ralph Fair Road and Fair Oaks Parkway. Alternating lanes will close while crews move traffic onto the new overpass bridge. Crews will maintain one lane open through this closure.

I-10 – East San Antonio

• Sunday-Tuesday, July 16-18. 8 p.m. until 5 a.m. nightly. Westbound main lanes between Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard and Amanda Street. The left lane will close while crews do bridge work.

I-35 – New Braunfels

• Sunday-Friday, July 16-21. 9 p.m. until 6 a.m. nightly. Main lanes, both directions, between Solms Road and the Guadalupe River bridge. Alternating lanes will close while crews do road work.

I-35 – Northeast San Antonio

• Current until Tuesday, August 1 at 5 a.m. Turnarounds, both directions, at Walzem Road. The turnarounds will remain closed while crews do overhead bridge work.
• Current until Monday, July 24. 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. nightly. Main lanes, both directions, between George Beach and Thousand Oaks. Alternating lanes will close while crews work on the center median.

I-410 – Northwest San Antonio

• Current until August 31. Northbound exit to Culebra Road. The exit will close while crews widen the main lanes and frontage road. Traffic will exit Ingram Road, turn around and get to Culebra on the southbound frontage road.
• Current until Friday, September 1. 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. nightly, Sunday nights through Thursday nights as needed only. Northbound main lanes between Marbach Road and Military Drive. All lanes will close while crews do overhead bridge work. Traffic will exit Hwy 151, continue along the frontage road and enter the highway at the next available ramp. Officers will control traffic at intersections. This closure will not be employed simultaneously with the northbound frontage road closure.
• Current until Friday, September 1. 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. nightly, Sunday nights through Thursday nights as needed only. Northbound frontage road between Marbach Road and Military Drive. All lanes will close while crews do overhead bridge work. Traffic will use eastbound Hwy 151 and Military Drive to reach its destination. Officers will control traffic at intersections as needed. This closure will not be employed simultaneously with the northbound main lanes closure.
• Sunday-Monday, July 16-17. 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. Main lanes, both directions, between Culebra and Ingram roads. The two left lanes will close while crews work on overhead sign board support structures.
• Tuesday-Thursday, July 18-20. 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. nightly. Southbound main lanes between Marbach and US Hwy 90. The right lane will close while crews place barrier.
• Tuesday-Friday, July 18-21. 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. nightly. Southbound main lanes between Culebra Road and Military Drive. The right two lanes will close while crews do bridge work. This closure includes the entrance ramp from Culebra Road. Traffic will use the next available ramp.
• Sunday-Friday, July 23-28. 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. nightly. Northbound main lanes between Culebra Road and Military Drive. The two right lanes will close while crews do bridge work.

U.S. Hwy 90 – Near South San Antonio

• Current until Friday, July 28. 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. daily. Frontage roads, both directions, between I-410 and Hunt Lane. Alternating lanes will close while crews widen the road.

U.S. Hwy 281 – Near North San Antonio

• Sunday-Friday, July 16-21. 9 p.m. until 6 a.m. Northbound main lanes between I-35 and St. Mary’s Street. Alternating lanes will close while crews do repair work.

Hwy 151 – Northwest San Antonio

• Current until August 31. Westbound exit ramp to Hunt Lane. The exit will close while crews work on retaining walls. Traffic will exit Ingram Road and follow the frontage road to reach its destination.

Other roads – Seguin

• Current until August 31. Austin Street between Martindale and Seidman. The road will be converted to one-way only, moving southbound only, while crews do road work. Northbound traffic will use Guadalupe Street to reach its destination.

Other roads – New Braunfels

• Current until Friday, August 18. 8:30 a.m. until 4 p.m. daily, Monday-Friday only. Hwy 46, both directions, between FM 758 and I-35. The right lane will close while crews replace curb and install traffic signals and guardrail.
• Monday, July 24 at 6 a.m. until Friday, July 28 at 5 p.m. Northbound FM 1101 between Hwy 46 and Advantage Drive. The lane will close while crews reconstruct the road. Traffic will use I-35 and FM 306 to reach its destination.

Other roads – Boerne

• Friday, July 14 at 9 p.m. until Monday, July 17 at 5 a.m. Scenic Loop Road, both directions, at I-10. All lanes will close while crews demo the old westbound I-10 bridge deck. Traffic will use the frontage roads to reach turnarounds at Business 87 or Balcones Creek to reach its destination.

Other roads – Northeast San Antonio

• Current until Monday, July 24. 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. nightly. Walzem Road, both directions, at I-35. All lanes will close while crews work on columns. Traffic will turn right onto the frontage road and turn around at the next cross street to reach its destination.

Other roads – Northwest San Antonio

• Wednesday-Thursday, July 19-20. 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. Wiseman Boulevard, both directions, between Loop 1604 and Cottonwood Way. All lanes will close while crews do overhead bridge work. Traffic will use Talley Road to either Culebra Road or Potranco Road to reach its destination.
• Current until Saturday, August 5. 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. nightly, Sunday night through Thursday night as needed only. Potranco Road, both directions, at Hwy 151. All lanes will close while crews do overhead bridge work. Traffic will use the frontage roads and turn around at the next available location to reach its destination.

All closures are pending weather.

Holy smokes, those ramps around Rittiman are (almost) done!

The new entrance and exit ramps along I-35 surrounding Rittiman Road will be finished and open for use this weekend as the long-running project to improve the operation of the corridor between Windcrest and SAMMC moves closer to completion.

What's happening?
The biggest change is the northbound exit to Rittiman, which will now be located nearer to George Beach and serve traffic headed to Space Center Drive as well. This allows us to eliminate the existing northbound exit to Rittiman and get rid of that weird competition between traffic headed to Rittiman Road and traffic merging onto northbound I-35 from northbound I-410.
Other changes include swapping the exit and entrance ramps between Rittiman and Eisenhauer (more on that in a moment). That means those entering northbound I-35 from Rittiman will do so near Eisenhauer.
On the southbound side we'll have the new exit ramp to Rittiman - located right after the Eisenhauer overpass - ready to roll as well as the new entrance ramp.
With all the ramps involving Rittiman opened up and in use, we'll be able to remove the existing northbound exit to Rittiman Road and get crews to work adding all the needed auxiliary lanes and get the northbound I-410 connector to northbound I-35 finished up.

When is this happening?
July 15 - that's this Saturday - is when all this is going down. We'll start super early in the morning and have everything in place midday.

Eisenhauer Road
We said we'd get back to this one! We still have work to do to get the ramps opened around Eisenhauer. Project staff estimates we'll have those ramps opened up by mid-August. That will open opportunities for crews to finish the auxiliary lanes over the Eisenhauer overpass.

Walzem Road
We will continue with our nightly and weekend closures of Walzem Road at I-35 through the summer as we extend the Walzem overpass to carry the auxiliary lanes at that location.

Auxiliary lanes
So, what exactly are these auxiliary lanes of which we're speaking? Well, they're an extra lane on the highway, typically between interchanges, allowing drivers more time to merge. They help by getting entering or exiting traffic away from through traffic, giving through traffic a clean lane or two to push through the corridor.

I-10 work in July: updated timeline

Welp, we're midway through July. That takes us through the activities (well, most of them) noted on our earlier post detailing the work along I-10 between San Antonio and Boerne. Here's an updated timetable from our project engineer:

At Scenic Loop Road
In order to demolish the old westbound I-10 bridge over Scenic Loop Road (traffic was switched off the bridge in earlier weeks) we'll have the intersection under I-10 closed through this weekend.
Work will begin Friday (July 14) at 9 p.m. and wrap up no later than Monday at 6 a.m.
Traffic from Scenic Loop Road and from Cascade Caverns will use the frontage roads and turn around at either Business 87 or at Balcones Creek to reach its destination.

New overpass at Old Fredericksburg Road
The eastbound main lanes will be moved onto the overpass this weekend. Sundt Construction will start around 3 a.m. Saturday (July 15) and continue until finished - no later than Monday at 5 a.m. We'll keep one lane of I-10 open, so we're not shutting the highway down, but expect slow going. When we're all done Monday we'll have eastbound lanes all up on the new overpass bridge.
That means the westbound side will get done the following weekend (July 22-24), following the same schedule. To be clear, that's 3 a.m. July 22 until 5 a.m. July 24.
With traffic  up on the new overpass we'll have crews working to open the intersection below - which will happen early 2018 - before converting frontage roads between Ralph Fair Road and Old Fredericksburg Road to one-way.

New westbound exit to Hwy 46
The new westbound exit ramp to Hwy 46 is finally opening up, but we'll have to use some closures to make it happen. That work wills tart 9 p.m. July 28 and run through 5 a.m. July 31. When we're finished we'll have the new westbound frontage road fully functional, including a new westbound exit ramp to Hwy 46 and an on-ramp serving those coming off the frontage road.
During the ramp closure traffic will use Business 87 (Main Street) and Hwy 46 (Bandera Road) to reach its destination. This route will be posted with signs as appropriate.

Next major thing at Fair Oaks Parkway
The next major closure of I-10 at Fair Oaks Parkway will be the granddaddy and is tentatively scheduled for August 4-7. We'll be demolishing the old Fair Oaks Parkway bridge, which will take a long time to get done. Why? We lay down a bed of sand and dirt on the road to cushion the main lanes against falling chunks of concrete, then break away and demolish the bridge, then clean up the debris, then clean up the sand/dirt bed we laid down. It takes a good minute to get done.
Before we do that, we'll be shifting traffic off the current bridge onto the new turnaround bridge; that turnaround bridge is wide enough to accommodate traffic the same as the current bridge does. This is a temporary shift until the full project is complete.
We'll have more info on this work in upcoming posts.

Some stuff got missed

Hey, y'all.


First thing's first: our apologies for failing to get some important info out to y'all in the manner you've become accustomed. We had a major closure on I-10 last weekend, a traffic shift at Lp 1604 and Military this week and a handful of other things to brief you on and we simply didn't get it done.


We hope you can forgive us.


We have no excuses, but we do have a good reason. Our staff consists of two folks, and we manage all communication efforts for the agency in a 12-county region. When one of us takes a vacation, things get bogged down pretty quickly. Between the two of us we handle all customer service calls, all media inquiries, conduct research to provide accurate and timely answers for all calls and inquiries, try to be proactive in our outreach efforts on a variety of issues (safety, planning, design, maintenance and construction), monitor social media and interact as appropriate, maintain relationships with our elected representatives and their staffs and headline at a variety of public speaking engagements.


And that's just on Tuesdays.


At any rate, we were short-handed for a couple of weeks due to vacations. We thought we had all our major construction issues posted on the blog for those two weeks, but some timetables shifted and we got caught off-guard. That's on us, fully. We simply hope you understand and can forgive.


We will spend the remainder of the week ensuring everything that's happening gets posted and you're back to being in the know so, when your coworker asks you about such-and-such highway project during your morning visit to the coffee pot in the break room, you'll be back to being the one everyone asks for the good info.


Thanks, y'all, for understanding and look for more posts through the week.


-TxDOTSanAntonio Communications Staff