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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 cheap gucci polo shirts northside of San Antonio is just about done with just a cheap gucci polo shirts few final “punch list” items remaining, so TxDOT and other local officials– including the cheap gucci polo shirts Mayor, County Judge Nelson Wolff, VIA boss Keith Parker, and cheap gucci polo shirts city councilman John Clamp– took the cheap gucci polo shirts 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 cheap gucci polo shirts traffic and has significantly cut congestion and delays throughout the corridor.  And the cheap gucci polo shirts completion comes just in time: 2009 traffic counts show that Loop 410 has cheap gucci polo shirts 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 cheap gucci polo shirts widen the freeway from four to six lanes was completed.  For those of you who were here in the mid ’80s, you cheap gucci polo shirts may remember front-page newspaper reports about one of the proposals being looked at: double-decking the cheap gucci polo shirts freeway.  Those plans were later refined to cheap gucci polo shirts the 10 lane freeway that is now in place and the cheap gucci polo shirts first “preparatory” projects for cheap gucci polo shirts the I-10 interchange began ca. 1988 with the widening of the cheap gucci polo shirts Cherry Ridge and Fredericksburg overpasses.  A public meeting to cheap gucci polo shirts 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 cheap gucci polo shirts US 281 was widened and prepared for the planned 218/410 interchange in 2001 (remember the “stumps” that cheap gucci polo shirts were put in place there that became the foundations for the cheap gucci polo shirts elevated ramps?)  The section from cheap gucci polo shirts I-10 west to Callaghan was widened in 2003, followed by the cheap gucci polo shirts section from West Ave. to Blanco in 2005.  On all of those early sections, only eight of the cheap gucci polo shirts eventual 10 lanes were initially marked to reduce the bottlenecks that cheap gucci polo shirts 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 cheap gucci polo shirts 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 cheap gucci polo shirts 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 cheap gucci polo shirts be funded until later this decade, but local voters approved the cheap gucci polo shirts Advanced Transportation District (ATD) and cheap gucci polo shirts its sales tax in 2003, part of which was dedicated to cheap gucci polo shirts that project and enabled it to receive matching funds from the cheap gucci polo shirts 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 cheap gucci polo shirts the Fratt Interchange will be included with that, so nothing will be cheap gucci polo shirts done east of Perrin-Beitel until those plans are finalized.

Sadly, given the cheap gucci polo shirts current transportation funding situation in both Washington and Austin, the cheap gucci polo shirts completion of this project essentially marks the end of a cheap gucci polo shirts highway construction boom in San Antonio.  Over the past seven years or so, over $2 billion worth of highway improvement projects have cheap gucci polo shirts been completed, largely as a result of the ATD tax, borrowing at the cheap gucci polo shirts state level, and pass-through agreements with local entities.  The only major projects currently in the cheap gucci polo shirts works are the Wurzbach Parkway and the first phase of the cheap gucci polo shirts 281/1604 interchange, which unfortunately is facing a possible legal challenge.  Beyond that, unless and cheap gucci polo shirts until the state Legislature figures-out how to solve the transpo funding issues that cheap gucci polo shirts 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 cheap gucci polo shirts relieved that construction zones and their associated headaches may be taking a cheap gucci polo shirts hiatus, keep in mind that this also means that there is cheap gucci polo shirts little relief in sight for the remaining congested areas and bottlenecks.