Come Tuesday (December 3) morning prior to rush hour, drivers will notice a traffic pattern change on the northbound lanes at Redland Road.
If you drive this stretch of highway often, surely you've noticed the new bypass/bridge at Redland being built.
Well, now it's ready for you to start driving on it.
As you'll notice starting Tuesday, when you approach the intersection, the left frontage road lane will actually take drivers up on the bridge while the other two lanes will remain open beneath on the frontage road – as shown in the Step 1 diagram above.
Drivers will have this temporary configuration with just the left lane going up to the bypass with the remaining two down below for approximately three weeks.
That time allows crews to continue work at this location leading up to the implementation of the next step, as shown on the right in the Step 2 diagram.
Once work for Step 1 is complete, both left and center lanes of the frontage road will go up on the bypass, with the center lane having the option to go either up on the bypass or remain down below on the frontage road.
The right frontage road lane has the option to continue ahead or also break off for a right turn onto Redland Road.
But wait -- there's even more good news! Along with the addition of a second lane opening up on the bypass, Step 2 also includes the opening of the underpass intersection at Redland Road -- meaning drivers wishing to do so will be able to turn left under the bridge and turn around to head south on US 281.
It also means that drivers coming down on Redland will no longer need to head up north to reach a turnaround -- they'll be able to go under the bridge and take a left onto 281 southbound.
So those traffic lights you had been seeing at the intersection not yet working will be fully functional in both directions starting Tuesday morning.
As always, this planned bypass and new intersection opening are weather permitting and subject to change.
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