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Wednesday, November 15

Mail Bag: new signal in New Braunfels, turnarounds at Marbach, 410-151 intersection

First, I want to say I am happy to see a traffic light at the intersection of Hwy 46 and FM 758 in New Braunfels! I travel through this intersection twice a day and it is very dangerous attempting to turn left onto 46 from FM 758. I would like to ask if we will see a flashing yellow left turn for 758 bound traffic from 46.
An instructive gif we used when we turned away
from the left turn yield on green arrangment in San Antonio.
I can already see a red left turn light there causing unnecessary congestion/delay and even making access to Clear Springs restaurant an issue for opposite 46 traffic.
- John

To paraphrase our traffic operations engineer: Yessir! This signal cycle will include a flashing yellow arrow signal. For those who don't know what that means, the flashing yellow arrow allows drivers taking a left to proceed cautiously if the coast is clear. This allows a better traffic flow and minimizes the need for long green time for a secondary movement at a signal.
Timing of the signal, once it's been installed and good to go, will be managed by our friends with the city of New Braunfels.

Closure of the turnarounds at Marbach was very bad planning. It is creating very bad traffic jams on the access roads. I can't believe this bad situation is going to last more than a year.
- Ed

We understand it's difficult, but it's necessary. With the amount of overhead work we're doing and the fact we need to work on the bridge support shelves (called abutments) it's simply impossible to keep the turnarounds open at a location like this. The closure is pretty standard for any construction of the type we're doing.
To mitigate the impact we are working with San Antonio Transportation and Capital Improvements, the city department with oversight for traffic signals and other roadway issues, to optimize the signal timing at the intersection to handle the additional traffic.
As for the duration ... well, we could have them opened back up a LOT faster if we were able to build the bridge all in one shot. That would mean, of course, fully closing I-410 for about eight months while we totally rebuilt the bridge. We'd carry all the main lanes traffic on the frontage roads through the Marbach intersection.

The last major rain event saw pretty bad puddling on the southbound I-410 exit for Hwy 151. What are you doing to fix this?
- Several

We added new asphalt to reverse the flow of water, and so far it's been working wonderfully. The water now runs to the area between the frontage road and exit ramp and drains to the north on up to Leon Creek. Barring a major rain storm, which brings puddling everywhere no matter what we do, we shouldn't see any major issues at this location as long as this temporary ramp is still in use.
Long-term, the exit ramp for Military Drive and the Westover Marketplace shopping center will move back to the north of Leon Creek. That's still on its way.