It’s going to give motorists headaches for a few years to come, but much better commute times when it’s all completed.
State transportation officials broke ground on Wednesday on Phase 2 of a one-billion-dollar project to expand Loop 1604 to a total of ten lanes between Bandera Road and I-35 through the North Side.
Phase 2 focuses solely on a major makeover of the I-10/Loop 1604 Interchange to include a new upper level of connecting ramps that will tower over the existing main lanes of 1604.
Then new construction will create what amounts to a third level of crisscrossing highways at the interchange. Work where the two busy highways meet should be done by 2027.
“It’s going to have improvements that are going to create connectivity and enhance safety with the construction of an innovative multilevel Interchange on IH-10,” said Gina Gallegos, the district engineer for the Texas Department of Transportation.
Work on Phase 2 will cost $418 million.
Work on Phase 1, between Bandera Road and the interchange, began last fall. It should be completed next year.
All that construction can try the patience of motorists, but Gallegos said those congested work zones will pay off in the long run.
“With all these improvements, drivers along 1604 are going to see their travel times reduced as much as 75%,” she said.
Around 150,000 motorists travel through the North Side on 1604 every day. State transportation officials say that number is expected to double over the next 20 years.
Much of the new growth in the area is north of 1604 along I-10 in Bexar and Kendall Counties and north of 1604 along Bandera Road in the Helotes area.
Rows of new subdivisions in far west Bexar County are also putting more vehicles on the loop.
Forty years ago, the loop was just two lanes and the scene of many fatal traffic accidents, earning it the nickname, “The Death Loop.”
Today, the loop is divided in both directions with a median and safety barriers at many locations, greatly reducing the number of fatal accidents in more recent decades.