When Americans launch the last
of their fireworks this 4th of July, the Texas Department of Transportation’s
(TxDOT) San Antonio District will launch a $100 million effort to improve one
of the city’s most important interchanges.
Beginning the week of July 5, TxDOT
will start a 38-month project to improve a portion of the I-410/I-10 East interchange in east San Antonio. Williams Brothers Construction Company, Inc. will
construct the project and Raba Kistner, Inc. will help TxDOT manage it. The work
focuses primarily on the way drivers access eastbound I-10 and southbound I-410.
The new design includes a new direct connector from northbound I-410 near East
Houston Street to eastbound I-10 near Ackerman Road and a new southbound I-410
connector from westbound I-10 near Ackerman to southbound I-410 near East
Houston Street.
In
addition to improvements that will make travel through the interchange more
efficient, the contractor will also rebuild the southbound overpass at Houston
Street as part of the I-10 to southbound I-410 connector. Frontage road
improvements, retaining walls, high-mast and center lane lighting, drainage
improvements, and new asphalt pavement on sections of northbound I-410 from
I-10 northward are also included in the work.
I-10 construction on San
Antonio’s east side isn’t anything new. Since 2016, drivers and businesses have
become more than familiar with road work.
Through a series of reconstruction projects, TxDOT has been working to increase
capacity to meet the growing traffic demand by upgrading the highway to current
safety and design standards and address deteriorating pavement conditions.
Those projects include:
·
I-10 East from Foster
Road to Graytown Road – Includes various safety and mobility improvements. The
project began in 2016 and was completed in fall 2020.
·
I-10 East from I-410 to
Loop 1604 - Reconstruction along an approximately 6.7-mile section of I-10,
including additional travel lanes and improved exit and entrance ramps. Work
began in fall 2018 and is expected to be complete this summer.
·
I-10 East from Loop
1604 to Pfeil Road – Reconstruction along an approximately 2.8-mile section of the
highway, including added travel lanes, bridge reconstruction, and frontage road
improvements. The project began in early 2020 and is expected to be complete in
2024.
·
I-10 from Graytown Road to the Bexar County line
– Reconstruction of approximately 5 miles of highway, including
added travel lanes and frontage road and ramp improvements. The project began
in late 2020 and is expected to be complete in 2024.
The upcoming I-410/I-10 East interchange project is the first in a series of planned improvements for the entire I-410/I-10 East interchange system in the coming years. It is a critical step towards providing safer and better ways of traveling San Antonio for the 83,000 drivers who use the interchange each day.
Drivers and businesses can
expect periodic traffic shifts, lane closures, and detours through the course
of the project. For updates, check out the Go
Ahead! Blog. Updates are also available on TxDOT San
Antonio’s Facebook page at @TxDOTSanAntonioTx and @TxDOTSanAntonio on
Twitter.