If your weekend plans involved driving around the Loop 1604 and Bandera Road intersection, you might want to change those plans.
From Friday at 9 p.m. to Monday at 5 a.m., the intersection will be closed in all directions. Vehicles going north and south on State Highway 16 (Bandera Road) will have to drive around Loop 1604 to get back on the highway. Officers will be on-site to guide drivers around the closed intersection at all times.
The intersection is one of San Antonio’s busiest: Around 40,000 cars use Bandera Road, and 120,000 cars use Loop 1604 every day, said Hernan Rozemberg, spokesman for the Texas Department of Transportation San Antonio District.
The intersection closed back in April when TxDOT was working on constructing the new displaced left turn, which gives drivers on Bandera Road the option to get onto Loop 1604 access roads without getting on the highway. After some pavement tests showed that the pavement at the intersection was in danger of failing, TxDOT decided to repave the intersection early before the road cracked.
“It was determined it was safer and better for the traveling public to repave the whole thing now rather than wait for a few years before seeing some serious cracks or ruts along the road, to try to prevent all of that,” said Rozemberg.
Harper Brothers, the contractor working on the Loop 1604 and Bandera Road intersection, will assume all costs for repaving the intersection, Rozemberg said. Harper Brothers will pay $950,000 for the repaving and costs associated with it. The displaced left turn project cost TxDOT $8 million.
Rozemberg added that there would be electronic message boards set up along both roadways to alert drivers to the closure. He thanked the public and area businesses for their patience.
“We understand whenever we have to do a closure of this type, businesses in the area are impacted,” he said. “We appreciate their cooperation with us as well; we see them as partners. Hopefully this is the last closure of this kind.”
TxDOT shared maps of detours on its San Antonio blog earlier this week. Click through to see the maps.
