Construction and closures Roads: Jones-Maltsberger railroad crossing stimulus funds widening
by Brian
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Relief coming for Jones-Maltsberger bottleneck
Long a bane for shoppers trying to get to the Quarry Market from US 281 or vice-versa, improvements are finally on the way for the railroad crossing on Jones-Maltsberger.
Last week, the city announced that it had secured federal stimulus and state funds to widen Jones-Maltsberger. Presently, the street narrows from four lanes down to two at the tracks, then widens again back to four lanes on the other side. The improvements will consist of widening the road at the crossing to four lanes (two in each direction) plus a dedicated right-turn lane for traffic turning onto US 281 northbound.
According to the city, construction is set to start next February and be completed by the end of summer.
So what took so long to get this job done? My recollection is that there was some dispute between the city and TxDOT as to who was responsible for that section of roadway, not to mention the fact that any work involving a railroad crossing also has to include the railroad. Ergo, it took a while to get it all sorted-out. Then it was simply a matter of securing the funding, which is typically the sticking-point on most road projects.
UPDATE 1/8/10: San Antonio Express-News story
Thanksgiving travel shows glimmer of hope
AAA Thanksgiving 2009 Travel Forecast
Americans shaken by last year’s economic crash may be regaining enough confidence to hit the roads in higher numbers this Thanksgiving, according to AAA.
When a wobbly economy finally nose-dived last fall, Thanksgiving trips also plunged, by 25 percent from the year before, the travel association reports.
This year, with unemployment higher than it’s been since 1983 despite economic growth last quarter, 38.4 million Americans — one in eight — will travel at least 50 miles from home, up a slight 1.4 percent.
But the numbers, like the economy, could be rickety.
It’s that time of year again!
On the way home from work one day last week, I noticed that TxDOT workers had started unfolding the “Watch for ice on bridge” signs. That and the delivery of the phone books marks the beginning of the holiday season for me (although the latter is almost certainly nearing the end of the road, so-to-speak.)
Some folks wonder why the signs are displayed when there’s no ice or even the possibility of it. Well, some time ago (nobody can recall just when, but it was at least a decade ago), TxDOT changed their policy to display these signs from just before the date of the earliest average freeze for an area until after the average last freeze. Prior to that, the signs would only be unfolded when freezing precipitation was forecast. This meant that TxDOT crews often had to scramble to get the signs ready for an incoming storm. Also, as you might imagine, it requires considerable manpower (and thus expense) to go out and unfold every sign, then go back after the storm and fold them back up. Plus, there was always the chance of a freak storm hitting without warning, meaning there would not be time to get the signs opened. So the decision was made to just leave them unfolded for the entire time that ice is typically possible. Yes, it means that most of the time they’re not applicable, but if nothing else, they do raise awareness of the dangers of the season.
Commuting History Oil and gas prices Passenger rail Railroads Roads Transit Travel
by Hugh
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SA – Austin passenger rail still dead
Like the old Saturday Night sketch about Generalissimo Franco, passenger rail between San Antonio and Austin is still dead. Oh a mortician applied a new coat of make-up, but the poor old stiff ain’t going nowhere. After twelve years of failure, a new name and an application for $5 million of tax payer money was enough to create a blip of interest but even that has not lasted long. Oh well.
New TransGuide site online
The new TransGuide website, as discussed in a previous post, is now online.
Funding approved to complete Wurzbach Pkwy
The Texas Transportation Commission (TTC) yesterday approved $130 million in Proposition 12 bond funds to complete the Wurzbach Parkway in San Antonio. The parkway project, which began in the late ’80s as a beltline to connect I-35 to I-10 across North San Antonio, has been built piecemeal over the years as funding has become available. Earlier this year, TxDOT updated the environmental studies to make the project “shovel-ready” in case federal stimulus funds became available. That didn’t materialize, but that preparation paid-off Thursday because the Legislature had mandated that the first batch of Prop 12 funds be spent by September 2011. Therefore, the TTC prioritized projects that could be started quickly. Because of that prep work the local TxDOT folks did, Wurzbach Parkway fit that criteria nicely.
Toll roads: overpasses US 281
by Brian
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I’ve got an idea: just build overpasses!
(Note: Significant edits were made to this posting at about 5:25pm on 11/19/09. The edits consisted of polishing the wording; the gist of the information was not changed.)
Several recent letters to the editor in the San Antonio Express-News have presented what their writers obviously consider to be an epiphany to solving the problems on US 281 North: just build some overpasses!
Wow, what a great idea!!! Why hasn’t anyone thought of this before??
Well, they have.
Construction and closures: Loop 410
by Patrick
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Loop 410 closed this weekend
Construction workers will shut down eastbound Loop 410 on the Northeast Side this weekend so they can pour a bridge deck, the Texas Department of Transportation announced.
Crews will close the main lanes between Starcrest and Perrin Beitel from 3 p.m. Saturday until sometime Sunday. Traffic will be routed to the frontage road.
A suggestion for motorists: Consider using alternatives such as Austin Highway or Wurzbach Parkway.
Also, making the mess worse, crews will close two eastbound Loop 410 lanes between Broadway and Starcrest from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Saturday and again on Sunday. That’s to do pavement work.
Who put the “free” in “freeway”?
The motto of San Antonio toll road opponents is “Keep our FREEways free!” However, the term freeway doesn’t really mean that it’s free to drive on. Now admittedly my Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary has “a toll-free highway” as its second definition for freeway. But that use is purely colloquial and can lead to a lot of misunderstandings when talking about toll roads. Besides, if that was the true definition of a freeway, then the little residential street in front of most of our homes would be a “freeway”, and we all instinctively know that that’s just not the case.
So then, just what is the definition of a freeway?
Commuting Safety: pedestrians sidewalks
by Brian
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Walking in San Antonio not as dangerous
Last week, Transportation For America and the Surface Transportation Policy Partnership released a report called Dangerous By Design that exposes what most of us here in San Antonio know all too well– that being a pedestrian on local streets can be a dangerous proposition. However, compared to the other three big Texas metros– and most other metros nationally for that matter– San Antonio is not too bad.