Vehicles navigate the displaced left turn intersection at Bandera Road and Loop 1604. Credit: Clay Reeves / San Antonio Report

Motorists living or working around the Bandera Road/Loop 1604 intersection will need to extra time this weekend to find a different route to their destination.

The Texas Department of Transportation’s San Antonio District office plans to close the entire intersection beginning at 9 p.m. Friday. It will reopen at 5 a.m. Monday, according to TxDot.

The closure will allow a work crew to apply finishing touches, such as paving, to the newly reconfigured intersection, which is the city’s first displaced left turn.

TxDOT workers did a full closure of the intersection at the end of April leading up to the opening of the new intersection configuration.

Detours that were in place for the opening of the displaced left-turn will be in effect again this weekend during the intersection closure. Maps and more information are available here.

Hernan Rozemberg, public information officer for TxDOT-San Antonio, said this weekend should be the final round of work at Bandera Road and 1604.

“Besides the final overlay or paving to the entire intersection except the turnarounds, they’ll be doing some signage, striping, and traffic signal work,” he said.

If you are not familiar with the displaced left-turn, here’s a video of what the movement of cars at such an intersection typically looks like. A similar intersection exists at Interstate 35 and Texas Highway 80 in San Marcos.

Rozemberg said TxDOT-San Antonio has received fewer comments critical of the reconfigured intersection than the agency had expected.

“There was a good dosage of skepticism leading up to it, mostly chalked up to the factor of fear of the unknown,” he said.

But, according to Rozemberg, a look at TxDOT-San Antonio’s social media shows most people like the new intersection, saying it looks and feels easier than expected and that it is reducing congestion.

Elsewhere on the Northwest Side, the City’s Transportation and Capital Improvements Department will again be closing De Zavala Road from Interstate 10 to Lockhill-Selma Road to implement more bond-funded improvements.

This stretch of De Zavala will be closed from 6 a.m. Saturday until Monday morning. No specific time was given by TCI.

Traffic will be directed from De Zavala to Vance Jackson Road to Huebner Road, from Huebner to Lockhill-Selma and back to De Zavala.

TCI recently announced that motorists regularly traveling this area should expect multiple closures of De Zavala to allow for bond-related road work.

Edmond Ortiz, a lifelong San Antonian, is a freelance reporter/editor who has worked with the San Antonio Express-News and Prime Time Newspapers.