By Edmond Ortiz
This edition of Transit Tracker features updates on projects affecting Blanco Road at Loop 1604 on the North Side, and South Alamo Street in the heart of downtown.
Elsewhere, Balcones Heights started a final phase of improvements on Crestview Drive, an electric vehicle charging station opens in Windcrest, and Converse’s effort to begin expanding Toepperwein Road must wait until 2027.
Blanco Road
According to representatives with the Texas Department of Transportation-San Antonio District office, work crews will fully activate the diverging diamond interchange at the intersection of Loop 1604 and Blanco before the end of March.
TxDOT will close Blanco Road at Loop 1604 from 9 p.m. March 20 through 5 a.m. March 23 in order to formally switch traffic to the new DDI configuration.
A DDI shifts traffic to the left side of the roadway as drivers travel on Blanco through the interchange. This move allows vehicles to make free-flowing left turns without crossing opposing traffic, TxDOT representatives said.
TxDOT officials have said this newer type of intersection will help to increase mobility and improve safety at Blanco and 1604, a vital Stone Oak interchange area that is expected to see double the amount of vehicular traffic within 30 years.
South Alamo Street
Construction crews handling the multi-year– and for many area residents, merchants and commuters, beleaguered – South Alamo reconstruction project are slated to complete the nearly $60 million project before the end of this April.
Workers are scheduled to repave the intersection of South Alamo and Cesar Chavez Boulevard on March 9 and 10, weather permitting.
San Antonio Public Works representatives said the intersection will remain open to traffic during the repaving, and that sidewalk detours and signage will be in place for pedestrians.
According to public works officials, reconstruction work continues on South Alamo, and South Alamo continues to have a single lane open to southbound traffic.
Eastside sidewalks have opened from Market Street to Cesar Chavez, and westside sidewalks have opened from Nueva to Cesar Chavez.
Nueva Street opened to westbound traffic last week. Two lanes of Cesar Chavez in each direction will be reopened to traffic this week. The bond-funded project, which began in late 2022, has gone off-schedule due to its location and utility line challenges, city officials have said.
Balcones Heights
The city of Balcones Heights began a third phase of reconstruction of Crestview Drive on Feb. 16. This project, due to wrap up this May, includes drainage upgrades, and a new sewer main.
Converse
City Manager Stan Farmer informed Converse City Council Feb. 17 that the city’s much-anticipated Toepperwein Road project will not begin until early 2027.
Council members expressed some frustration that the project, which will result in the widening of Toepperwein between Farm Road 1976 and Kitty Hawk Road, was supposed to start this summer.
Farmer said city engineers recommended pushing back the beginning of the Toepperwein project due to challenges that they are experiencing in addressing the water line in the area.
Schertz/Selma
Contractors are performing milling and asphalt operations that started last weekend on the southbound Interstate 35 frontage road from Farm Road 3009 in Schertz to Corporate Drive in Selma.
All southbound I-35 frontage lanes are closed along that route 8 p.m.-6 a.m. daily now through March 15. Additionally, the I-35 intersections at both Tri County Parkway and Mid Cities Parkway are closed during those night time periods.
Windcrest
Bexar County in mid-February opened the first fast-charging electric vehicle station on the Northeast Side. Energize N Go, the service provider, installed the EV charging station in the parking lot of Windcrest-based New Creation Christian Fellowship, 8700 Fourwinds Drive.
Pct. 4 County Commissioner Tommy Calvert was joined by officials from New Creation, Energize-N-Go and Windcrest in a Feb. 20 event to mark the opening of the EV charging station, which is open to the public. Calvert said the new Windcrest station location helps to close an area gap in EV charging infrastructure.
