SAN ANTONIO – The new year brought new construction projects all over town and it’s going to get worse before it gets better.
Over the next six months, drivers will face detours throughout their commutes.
The horns blare at 281 and 1604.
"The congestion out here is off the charts,” neighbor Jesse Kennedy says.
A bit south on Hildebrand, the orange signs are leaving store owners with white knuckles.
"It's going to have a significant impact on business,” Jon Lindskog with Cheesy Jane’s diner says.
And now I-35 and Forum Parkway is expecting daily detours.
"It's going to delay a lot of people,” one driver says.
Every corner and every artery of our area will see a big impact from construction over the next six months.
Here’s what the city is working on, from realigning downtown streets to drainage projects.
-Blanco Road from Hildebrand to Jackson Keller, to be completed in March 2014
-Hildebrand from the San Antonio River to New Braunfels, to be completed in July 2014
-Bulverde Road from Loop 1604 to Marshall Road, to be completed in June 2013
-Walters Street from IH-35 N to Ft. Sam, to be completed in March 2013
-Houston Street from IH-25 N to Ft. Sam, to be completed in March 2014
-Market Street realignment near the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center, to be completed in September 2015
Bexar County gave News 4 this list of summer projects.
-Flood Control, Rosillo Creek RSWF: crossings at FM 78, Old Seguin Road, Redding Drive, Starfire Lane, Benz-Engleman Road, and Ackerman Road
-Flood Control, Schaefer Road: from FM 1518 to Cresentview Park
-Flood Control, Laddie Place Phase III: Fredericksburg Road from Williamsburg Place to Gardina Street
-Flood Control, VFW Boulevard: from Padre Drive to Roosevelt Avenue
-Flood Control, Roland Avenue Bridge: from Amity Road to Terron Road
-Road Project, Big Country Subdivision
-Road Project, Babcock Road: from Heuermann to Camp Bullis
-Road Project, Boerne Stage Road: from IH-10 to Cross Mountain Trail
-Road Project, Borgfeld Road Phase 1: from US 281 to Timberline
-Road Project, Loop 1604: from IH-10 to Lower Seguin Road
-Road Project, Community of Macdona Streets
-Road Project, Bulverde Road Phase V: Smithson Valley to approximately one mile south
-Road Project, West Military Road Bridge: east of Grosenbacher
-Road Project, Galm Road Phase 1: from FM 1560 to Silver Bells
And TxDOT is making major changes to our highways.
-Huebner from IH-10 to Loop 1604, with work resuming by early spring 2013
-IH-10 at FM 3351, with work starting by August 2013
-IH-35 and Selma from 1604 to FM 3009, to be completed by December 2013
-Highway 281 and Wurzbach will have occasional closures throughout summer
-Wurzbach Parkway at Blanco, West Avenue, Jones Maltsberger, Starcrest and Wetmore through the rest of 2013
-Highway 281 and Loop 1604 should be completed by summer 2013
-Loop 1604 at Vance Jackson
-Loop 1604 at Marbach through next two years
Put them all together and it looks like a summer filled with traffic headaches and honking horns.
So why so much construction, all at once? Just the city of San Antonio alone has spent $2 billion on infrastructure improvements in the past five years.
City engineer Mike Frisbie says all those jobs have to be coordinated with the area’s other major projects to see which ones can overlap and which ones really need to be done separately.
"It's a regular process, though,” Frisbie says. “We have monthly coordination meetings with the other agencies so we know what projects they're working on well in advance."
A lot of the construction is paid for with bond money, and it can take several years to get those jobs started – from the design process and getting bids from contractors to coordinating with all the other projects in the works.
