The City of San Antonio has officially abandoned its plan to create a bike- and pedestrian-friendly corridor on the now state-owned portion of Broadway Street after a clash over lane reductions.
Voters approved $42 million for the project in 2017, making it the largest single item in that year’s municipal bond.
This week Public Works Director and City Engineer Razi Hosseini said the city is roughly a year away from completing the planned improvements on a portion of the road it owns, running from East Houston Street to Interstate 35.
But money intended to create similar amenities along the road from I-35 to Burr Road will be used elsewhere, after months of failed efforts to reach a compromise with the Texas Department of Transportation.
“Broadway is no longer our project,” Hosseini said Thursday in a wide-ranging interview about the city’s unfinished 2017 bond initiatives. “We are looking to use [the money] on some other project.”
The city could conceivably repurpose roughly $82.5 million intended for the Broadway Corridor.
About $7.3 million of the project’s 2017 bond money for the project hasn’t been used, according to the Public Works Department. Another $38.3 million in federal funding was allocated for the project, as well as roughly $36.9 million from a tax increment reinvestment zone.
Though the city and state collaborated on plans for the corridor, the Texas Transportation Commission surprised San Antonio officials in early 2022 by voting to reclaim part of Broadway Street north of Interstate 35 — and insisting that the city nix plans for lane reductions needed to create the new bike lanes and sidewalks.
Texas Department of Transportation officials said they would be happy to collaborate on a project without that feature, but viewed the lane reductions as a threat to traffic congestion. A call to oppose all such lane closures on state-owned roads was later included in the 2022 Texas GOP platform.
Stunned by the state’s reversal, proponents of the Broadway project first sought to wait out the political environment, then tried to address TxDOT’s concerns by providing a plan that retained the lane closures, but added additional traffic reduction measures, such as synchronized traffic signals and consolidated driveways.
“We spent almost another six to nine months, but we couldn’t resolve the issue,” Hosseini said Thursday.
Now roughly a year into the 2022-2027 bond cycle, Hosseini said the city is leaving improvements on the state-owned portion of Broadway Street to TxDOT.
Meanwhile, two other 2017 bond projects that were expected to include lane closures, on Roosevelt Avenue and Probandt Street, are being sent back to the drawing board.
Hosseini said the state had planned to turn the streets over to the city to maintain, but no longer intends to do so.
Following a March meeting with TxDOT officials, Hosseini said the city will proceed with improvements that adhere to the state’s standards of maintaining all existing lanes of traffic. The city will also have to meet additional environmental standards because the roads are owned by TxDOT, which receives federal funding, Hosseini said.
“It’s not just the cost of the design, the delays cost money,” Hosseini said. “If we had built these projects earlier, it would be less expensive than building them two years down the road.”
A path forward for Broadway
TxDOT has its own plans to make improvements on Broadway Street north of I-35, focused on “safety, maintenance and operational enhancements to repair the roadway.”
TxDOT Public Information Officer Laura Lopez said Monday that the agency plans to begin work on the street this fall, but declined to provide any additional details.
Hosseini said improvements on the city-owned portion of the road, which include reducing traffic lanes in some places, will be completed next summer. Bike lanes on North Alamo and Avenue B that run parallel to Broadway on either side, are expected to open as soon as this month.
Federal money intended for the full Broadway Corridor remains in the hands of the Alamo Area Metropolitan Metropolitan Planning Organization (AAMPO). Sid Martinez, AAMPO’s director, said Thursday that neither TxDOT nor the city had requested to use the federal funds.
Martinez said the city could likely spend the federal money elsewhere, though roughly 80% of it is designated specifically for projects that result in air quality improvements, such as the old plan for reduced traffic lanes on Broadway.
Probandt Street
A plan to improve Probandt Street between South Alamo Street to U.S. Highway 90 received $5 million in the 2017 bond, money that was expected to cover pedestrian amenities, drainage and other improvements.
Hosseini said after the city received input from the community, those plans grew in scope beyond what was initially budgeted, and the 2022-2027 bond added another $5 million to fund Probandt Street renovations.
The project must first undergo a redesign, however.
“We were basically designing to city standards because it was going to be our roadway,” Hosseini said. “We were also counting on some possible funding from TxDOT because of them turning the road [over to the city].”
The project is now expected to be completed in spring of 2028, according to Public Works.
Roosevelt Avenue
The 2017 bond included $8 million for continuous sidewalks, bike paths, turn lanes and lane reductions on Roosevelt Avenue between U.S. Highway 90 to Southeast Loop 410. Another $12 million was added for the project in the 2022 bond.
Last fall residents of the nearby San José neighborhood were frustrated to learn that their project would also have to be redesigned without lane closures. TxDOT also won’t allow bike lanes on the street.
The original design would have turned a four-lane road into a two-lane road with a shared turn lane running from Steves Avenue past Riverside Drive, as part of a broader plan to create a shopping and dining corridor in the Mission Historic District.
The new projected completion date for improvements on Roosevelt Avenue between Steves Avenue and Harding Boulevard is fall 2028, according to Public Works. The work will include a bike and pedestrian bridge over the San Antonio River running next to the street.
