UPDATE (11/1/11) - The changeover has been postponed until Wednesday.

Just back from vacay and have some local news to report.  The final element of the package of improvements along Loop 1604 West that included two superstreet intersections will come online tomorrow.  Namely, the left turn from southbound 1604 to SH 151 will be eliminated.  Motorists wanting to go to SH 151 will now exit at a new exit ramp just south of Culebra, follow the access road, then cross 1604 at a perpendicular signalized intersection.  The existing entrance ramp from Culebra will be closed and replaced by an improved entrance ramp at the SH 151 intersection.  (For a schematic of these changes, see the link under “Additional information” below.)

Like the superstreet intersections, this change will most likely seem completely unintuitive for many folks.  After all, southbound Loop 1604 traffic will now have to stop to allow traffic to enter SH 151 whereas before they didn’t ever have to stop.  But this new arrangement will actually be safer overall and will help reduce congestion in the area.  The reason is that most of the traffic coming from Culebra moves over to the left to make the turn onto 151.  This causes lots of conflicts with through traffic on 1604, thus creating an unsafe free-for-all and lots of resulting congestion, not to mention the resulting driver angst.  Moving all that traffic onto the access road (which has been improved to handle it) will eliminate that mess.  Yes, southbound 1604 traffic will now be stopped periodically to allow traffic to cross over to 151, but it will be better controlled now, which will improve safety.  And there are some things that will mitigate the delay to southbound 1604 traffic: 151-bound traffic will now be moving straight, so it can move a little faster than it did when turning left; there will be three lanes crossing 1604, thus improving throughput by 50%; and the signal can be synchronized to minimize the disruption to southbound platoons of vehicles coming from Shaenfield.  Computer modeling of these changes showed an astounding 85% reduction in morning peak period delays and a 47% reduction in the afternoon over current levels.

The change is also considered a necessary preparatory change for the upcoming SH 151 underpass at Loop 1604.  That left-turning traffic will need to be moved out of the way to facilitate that anyway, so doing it now will help expedite that project when it starts next year.

Finally, the changes will have some ancillary benefits including allowing traffic from Alamo Ranch Parkway to reach SH 151 and allowing traffic headed to Alamo Ranch from southbound 1604 to bypass the congested Culebra intersection, both of which should reduce the congestion in that intersection a bit.

The previous improvements along Loop 1604 have already resulted in a dramatic reduction in congestion.  As I have previously reported, the simple addition of an auxiliary through lane at Braun virtually eliminated the peak period backups there.  Since then, the superstreet intersections at New Gilbeau and at Shaenfield have turned a chronically-congested stretch of 1604 into free-flowing, even in peak periods.

Additional information:

• Loop 1604/SH 151 improvements schematic
• Loop 1604 West Superstreet

Local TxDOT officials joined with several dignitaries yesterday to cut the ribbon on a project that widened Loop 1604 near Randolph AFB.  The 17 month, $6.6 million project upgraded 2.5 miles of Loop 1604 from a two-lane “farm” road to a four-lane divided highway.  The project came in on-time and under budget.

Speakers at the ribbon-cutting included US Representative Henry Cuellar.  Cuellar helped secure the federal economic stimulus funding to get the project off the ground.

This section of the loop has been in the news recently.  A project to continue the expansion from its current terminus at Lower Seguin Road to I-10 is planned to start next year.  However, county officials had briefly considered transferring funding from that project to construct the northern set of ramps at US 281 and Loop 1604.  An alternative source of funding was found, however, thus allowing the widening project to continue as planned.

It’s worth noting that this expansion mirrors a similar expansion done on Loop 1604 West nearly two decades ago.  Road improvements tend to be incremental or evolutionary.  The road system San Antonio has today didn’t just drop out of the sky one day.  The project dedicated yesterday upgraded a congested and dangerous two-lane road to a four-lane divided highway with traffic signals.  This configuration is a substantial improvement over the previous road and is more than adequate for the current needs and for those in the foreseeable future, just as the expansion of Loop 1604 south of Braun Road was back in the ’90s.  Will traffic growth eventually render this roadway obsolete?   Maybe.  But building a full-fledged expressway at this location now is unnecessary and would have been an injudicious use of scarce funding, just like doing so out on Loop 1604 West back in the ’90s would have been.

Officials have released a list of the 100 worst traffic conditions in Texas.

Dallas motorists suffer the most highly congested road conditions in Texas, says a recent report from the Texas Department of Transportation.

The state’s top three bottlenecks are all located in Dallas County, according to the 100 Most Congested Roadway Segments in Texas. But while Dallas has the hottest spots, Harris County actually has more of them. The Houston area has 31 on the worst road conditions traffic list while Dallas has 21.

Road conditions for Fort Worth are next in line for headaches, with 15 tight spots, followed by San Antonio with 11 and Austin with 10.

Here are the top 10 most congested roads and their respective counties:

1. SS 366 in Dallas, from I-35E to U.S. 75
2. I-635 in Dallas, from I-35E to U.S. 75
3. U.S. 75 in Dallas, from I-635 to Woodall Rodgers Freeway
4. I-35 in Travis, from SH 71 to U.S. 183
5. I-35W in Tarrant, from I-30 to SH 183
6. U.S. 59 in Harris, from I-10 to SH 288
7. I-35E in Dallas, from I-30 to SH 183
8. I-10 in Harris, from I-45 to U.S. 59
9. I-610 in Harris, from I-10 to I-45
10. I-45 in Harris, from I-10 to I-610

See this interactive map to locate all 100.

Congestion patterns haven’t changed much over the past year, Texas officials say. 

“Finishing or starting construction is probably the number one reason for the shift in ratings,” said Tim Lomax, a researcher with the Texas Transportation Institute, which helped TxDOT develop the list.

“Weather contributed, and the economic recession has generally reduced congestion compared to four years ago,” he said. “But in the last year, construction was primary.”

The Transportation Institute calculates congestion from traffic speeds gathered by NAVTEQ, a firm that collects real time travel information nationwide, and combines that with traffic volume data.

“Texans know that traffic is bad, and these ratings shifts won’t change public opinion,” Lomax said. “The list is important for planning purposes.”

It’s been 30 years in the making.  Today, local officials gathered at Walker Ranch Park to officially break ground on the final section of the Wurzbach Parkway.  The segment, from West Ave. to Jones-Maltsberger, is actually already under construction, along with the two adjacent segments.  When they’re completed in 2014, the long-awaited east-west thoroughfare will finally be complete.

Speaking at today’s groundbreaking were the Wolffs (Nelson and Kevin), Lyle Larson, local TxDOT district engineer Mario Medina, and TxDOT’s new interim executive director John Barton.  Somewhat surprisingly, there was little media coverage of the event; only KABB and KTSA had stories on it.

For more information about the three current projects, see my site here:
Texas Highway Man – Wurzbach Parkway

Ribbon-cutting for Loop 410 expansion

For the past 30 years, San Antonians have complained about construction along Loop 410.  But no more.  As Mayor Julian Castro said during today’s Loop 410 ribbon-cutting ceremony, “the headaches are over!”

The last leg of the nearly $1 billion “410 for SA” project to improve Loop 410 across the northside of San Antonio is just about done with just a few final “punch list” items remaining, so TxDOT and other local officials– including the Mayor, County Judge Nelson Wolff, VIA boss Keith Parker, and city councilman John Clamp– took the opportunity today to celebrate the culmination of 30 years of work that widened Loop 410 from six to 10 lanes from Perrin-Beitel to Culebra and built new interchanges at US 281, San Pedro, I-10, and Bandera Rd.  All of these improvements have helped get Loop 410 “ahead of the curve” with regards to traffic and has significantly cut congestion and delays throughout the corridor.  And the completion comes just in time: 2009 traffic counts show that Loop 410 has regained its position as the busiest highway in San Antonio with an average of 215,000 vehicles per day between I-10 and US 281.

Getting here has been an adventure.  TxDOT began working on plans for Loop 410 back in the early ’80s shortly after work to widen the freeway from four to six lanes was completed.  For those of you who were here in the mid ’80s, you may remember front-page newspaper reports about one of the proposals being looked at: double-decking the freeway.  Those plans were later refined to the 10 lane freeway that is now in place and the first “preparatory” projects for the I-10 interchange began ca. 1988 with the widening of the Cherry Ridge and Fredericksburg overpasses.  A public meeting to discuss the plans for Loop 410 held at Aggie Park in 1995 was the first such meeting I ever attended.  Two years later, the first significant widening project expanded the segment from West Ave. to Cherry Ridge.  The section between McCullough and US 281 was widened and prepared for the planned 218/410 interchange in 2001 (remember the “stumps” that were put in place there that became the foundations for the elevated ramps?)  The section from I-10 west to Callaghan was widened in 2003, followed by the section from West Ave. to Blanco in 2005.  On all of those early sections, only eight of the eventual 10 lanes were initially marked to reduce the bottlenecks that remained on each end.

In 2008, the “keystone” section– that being from from Blanco to McCullough– was completed.  This provided a continuous widened stretch (except for the I-10 interchange) from North Star Mall all the way over to TxDOT’s offices at Callaghan.  Jones-Maltsberger to Broadway and the 410/281 interchange were finished the following year.  Work on the I-10 interchange, including widening Loop 410 to eight lanes, was completed in early 2009.  The elevated Bandera connectors and work to widen the section from Callaghan to Ingram was completed in mid 2009.  Finally, the section from Broadway to Perrin-Beitel is now wrapping-up.

Some folks may wonder why it took so long to complete this project.  The answer is simple: funding.  With a $1 billion pricetag, the project had to be broken-up into many phases to stay within funding constraints.  In fact, the eastern segment– the one being completed now– was not even expected to be funded until later this decade, but local voters approved the Advanced Transportation District (ATD) and its sales tax in 2003, part of which was dedicated to that project and enabled it to receive matching funds from the state far sooner than it otherwise would have. 

Another question is what will happen east of Perrin-Beitel.  That will be looked at as part of a major investment study of what to do along I-35 North.  Major improvements to the Fratt Interchange will be included with that, so nothing will be done east of Perrin-Beitel until those plans are finalized.

Sadly, given the current transportation funding situation in both Washington and Austin, the completion of this project essentially marks the end of a highway construction boom in San Antonio.  Over the past seven years or so, over $2 billion worth of highway improvement projects have been completed, largely as a result of the ATD tax, borrowing at the state level, and pass-through agreements with local entities.  The only major projects currently in the works are the Wurzbach Parkway and the first phase of the 281/1604 interchange, which unfortunately is facing a possible legal challenge.  Beyond that, unless and until the state Legislature figures-out how to solve the transpo funding issues that Texas faces, there won’t likely be any other major projects coming to fruition unless they’re tolled.  That’s just the reality of today.  And while some people may be relieved that construction zones and their associated headaches may be taking a hiatus, keep in mind that this also means that there is little relief in sight for the remaining congested areas and bottlenecks.

Click the image above for a full-sized, annotated diagram

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, work is scheduled to start soon on the Medical/Babcock intersection in the Medical Center.  I got a copy of the plans and most of the changes mirror those at the other Med Center intersection upgrades: new signals and signage, dedicated right turn bays on all four corners, and improved pavement.  A couple of other improvements are also planned:

• Long, dual left turn lanes from southbound Babcock onto Medical.  This will facilitate the morning commute and help reduce the backups on Babcock that sometimes extend nearly to Hamilton Wolfe.
• Dual left turn lanes from westbound Medical to southbound Babcock.

To facilitate the new long left turn lanes on southbound Babcock, left turns to and from Lamb Road will now be prohibited.  I know a lot of people use that to get to/from Oakdell Way– those folks will now either have to use Medical and come back around from the west or use Roanoke Run or Hamilton Wolfe to the north.  I was actually a little surprised that the plan did not completely close the Lamb Road intersection with Babcock and instead realign Oakdell Way through the empty lots there to meet Babcock at a new intersection about 150 yards or so to the north. 

Another small surprise was that the wide median on Medical on the west side of Babcock wasn’t narrowed, maybe for a dedicated left turn lane.  I often see people coming from that direction turning left onto Babcock interfere with oncoming traffic going straight or turning right and I’m convinced that the wide median there is part of the problem.  Reconfiguring that median or changing the signals to a split-phase would resolve that.

Thanks to the folks at the South Texas Medical Center Alliance, Project Control, and Pape-Dawson Engineering for making the plans available to me.

Somewhere on the new section of Blanco

Earlier this week, crews opened all the new lanes on the final stretch of Blanco Road outside Loop 1604, specifically from Wilderness Oaks to south of Huebner.  Last month, the new lanes north of Wilderness Oaks were opened.  All that’s left to do now is some striping, signage, and other “punch-list” items and this long-awaited improvement will be completed.  Along with the recent completion of the US 281 superstreet (well, it too is still getting finishing touches), traffic in and around Stone Oak should start to see appreciable improvements.  Additionally, off to the east, work on widening Bulverde Road from 1604 to Evans is ongoing (expected completion is late 2012) and the city is in the initial planning stages to widen Stone Oak Boulevard to six lanes.

Meanwhile, work is scheduled to start in the next week or so on the latest Medical Center intersection improvement project.  Crews will begin rebuilding the Babcock/Medical intersection in a manner similar to the other recent intersection upgrades.  I haven’t see the plans yet (I’ll update this post if/when I do), but I suspect there will be dual left turn lanes from southbound Babcock onto Medical and probably dual right-turn lanes from westbound Medical onto Babcock in addition to right-turn bays in all four quadrants and other improvements.  And nearby, work on the Hamilton-Wolfe/Floyd Curl intersection is wrapping-up; I expect it to be essentially complete by the end of this month.

• UPDATE (11/15/10): Medical/Babcock plans
• UPDATE (11/18/10): Express-News story about Blanco

TxDOT announced today that work will start next week on the first of three phases to finally complete the Wurzbach Parkway.  Crews will begin November 1st on the section from Wetmore to Jones-Maltsberger, with completion expected in early 2014.  A month later, on December 1st, work is scheduled to begin on the segment from Blanco Rd. to West Ave.  That section should be done about a year sooner, in early 2013.

That leaves the final section from West Ave. to Jones-Maltsberger.  That stretch is scheduled to go to bid in May of next year.

All three sections will feature a four-lane divided parkway similar to that already in-place east of Wetmore.  Despite earlier uncertainty over costs, it appears now that the projects will include overpasses at Blanco, West Ave., US 281, Jones-Maltsberger, and Starcrest.  However, there still are no plans at this time for a full interchange at US 281.

The total cost of all three segments is expected to be around $130 million and is being funded with Proposition 12 funds approved by the Texas Transportation Commission (TTC) about a year ago.  Officials had originally hoped to get federal stimulus funds for the project, but when that didn’t materialize, the TTC took advantage of new Prop 12 funds authorized by the Legislature.  The Wurzbach project was the largest single Prop 12 project approved last year.

Meanwhile, work began last month on a long-awaited (or maybe long-feared) project to widen De Zavala between Babcock and Cogburn.  The project will widen the road to five lanes (two each way plus a center left-turn lane) and add sidewalks, curbs, and updated traffic signals.  The $17 million project is expected to be completed in mid 2012.

Workers have probably finished closing down westbound Loop 410 at Perrin Beitel by now so they can restripe the highway.

Crews will work through the night and into Saturday morning, likely interrupting the busy flow of weekend shoppers and travelers. Workers should finish by noon.

The $119 million project to widen this part of Loop 410 is the largest construction job in San Antonio, according to the Texas Department of Transportation. Work is slightly ahead of schedule and is expected to wrap up by the end of the year.

“We don’t have far to go,” TxDOT engineer Randy Grones assured. “The completion date is right around the corner.”

To check the latest San Antonio traffic:

• TransGuide