SAN ANTONIO – Broadway and Hildebrand is a north side intersection 60,000 people use every day, and it’s about to become a big mess for drivers.
The city’s long-awaited $15.5 million drainage project will start Monday, January 7, and is expected to take 18 months to complete.
The price tag for the taxpayer is steep, but it could come with a much bigger price.
Order’s up at Cheesy Jane’s, the old-style diner at the heart of the intersection.
Just steps away, signs are going up, warning drivers about major changes.
"It's going to have a significant impact on business,” Cheesy Jane’s owner Jon Lindskog says.
He’s worried, in a few months, he’ll look up from behind the counter toward the tables and they’ll be empty.
"It will be easy to get here, but it won't be easy when you want to leave,” Lindskog says.
That’s because Hildebrand, from the San Antonio River to North New Braunfels, will become a one-way street going east toward Alamo Heights.
So drivers who usually take Hildebrand west to Highway 281 will instead have to use Broadway to get to another highway entrance.
"It's going to be very challenging,” The University of the Incarnate Word police chief Jacob Colunga says.
Chief Colunga says don’t try to outsmart the detours and cut through his campus – an area with lots of pedestrians and a 10 mile-per-hour speed limit.
"Everything on that side of Hildebrand – when they exit, they'll have to come back toward Broadway so it's almost pointless to attempt that,” Chief Colunga says.
The city’s goal is to redesign the intersection so it can withstand a 100-year flood.
Back at the diner, Lindskog and his employees are just hoping to survive the storm.
"It just all depends if we can make it the next 18 months,” he says.
The intersection might close completely over certain nights and weekends during construction, and News 4 WOAI will help drivers stay on top of those alerts as they happen.
