Loop 1604 “Super Street” to be studied
Diagram of a typical super street intersection (KY DOT)
Bexar County Commissioners have approved funding for a feasibility study for a “super street” on Loop 1604 from Braun Rd. to SH 151. This would be the same concept recently approved for US 281 north of Loop 1604.
TURF’s propaganda machine is in a tizzy
Well, I’ve been holding off on a toll road related post for a while, but TURF’s latest round of propaganda has forced me to respond.
Next week, the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) will meet to determine whether to remove the tolling component of plans to upgrade US 281 and Loop 1604. Terri Hall and her myriad of special-interest groups—primarily TURF— have once again seized upon this as an opportunity to disseminate their persistent and prolific exaggerations, hyperboles, half-truths, and just plain fallacies about toll roads. Below are just some of their false assertions and the actual facts; each TURF claim is linked back to where it is published.
SPUI comes to Texas
Rendering of SPUI on US 75 at Parker Rd. in Plano
Work is underway on the North Central Expressway at Parker Rd. in the Dallas suburb of Plano on what, to my knowledge, will be Texas’ first Single Point Urban Interchange, or SPUI (pronounced “spoo-ee”). (If anyone knows of an existing one in Texas, please post it!) Popular in several other states, a SPUI is a type of intersection between a surface street and a freeway’s entrance and exit ramps.
History: gas stations Humble Oil
by Brian
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Humble Oil station wins contest
The old Humble Oil station south of downtown San Antonio, discussed here earlier this week, has won the national “The Place Matters” contest! The abandoned station, which I stumbled upon several years ago and found so impressive that I created a special sidebar page about it on my own site, was the winner among 12 finalists in the first-ever contest sponsored by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. According to Saturday’s Express-News article, the property’s current owner has no plans to tear-it down and, in fact, would like to see it restored. Given its historical designation with the City, it is eligible for local and federal tax credits for restoration work. Here’s hoping that someone will find a good use for it soon and restore it back to its former glory.
History: gas stations Humble Oil
by Brian
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More on the Humble service station
As Patrick noted in an earlier post, the Express-News did a story recently about the old Humble Oil gas station south of downtown. Several years ago, yours truly stumbled across it while photographing the adjacent section of I-10/35. At the time, I speculated that it might have been built in the early ’50s when the expressway ended at that location and went out of business in the early ’60s. However, the E-N article says city staffers believe it to be from the ’30s and was abandoned in 1977. Either way, it’s obviously a relic that time has forgotten. Here is the page I put up after I discovered the place, which includes a lot more pictures of it:
Aviation Travel: San Antonio International Airport TransGuide website
by Brian
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Transportation website makeovers
New airport website
Two local transportation-related websites have gotten or are about to get long-overdue overhauls. First, sometime last month, San Antonio International Airport launched their vastly improved website. Besides being much more professional-looking, the new website is substantially easier to navigate, is less cluttered than the old one, and just works better overall. Along with the new airport site is a companion site called “SAOnTheFly“, which is dedicated solely to the award-winning concessions program at the airport. It’s here that I found the feature I like best– the very slick interactive terminal maps. Congratulations to those involved in these new sites!
Another site getting a much-needed makeover soon is the TransGuide website. Visiting their website, you’ll see a big “TransGuide website upgrade coming end of October 2009” banner with a “beta” preview of the site already online alongside the soon-to-be “legacy” site. I’ll have more details of the new TransGuide site on a future posting.
Roads: construction FM 1957 pass-through financing Potranco SH 211 widening
by Brian
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Good and bad news for Potranco
If your commute involves Potranco Rd. (FM 1957) outside Loop 1604, then I have the proverbial good news and bad news for you. The good news is that the Texas Transportation Commission approved a pass-through financing agreement with Bexar County last week that will allow the county to fund and manage the widening of Potranco from two to four lanes between Loop 1604 and SH 211 in far western Bexar County. This agreement will allow the expansion work to get done much, much sooner than if it had to wait its turn for “traditional” (read: gas tax) funding, which is growing more scarce every year. After the project is completed, TxDOT will reimburse the county for about 65% of the costs on a prorated basis over several years. The Potranco widening is lumped-in with another much-needed project: the completion (finally) of SH 211. I hear that developers in the area are picking-up the remainder of the tab on the two projects.
The bad news? It looks like work won’t start for about two years as Bexar County finalizes the plans for the two projects. So relief is still a few years away, but at least the ball has started rolling.
Welcome!
Welcome to On the Move! I’m excited to be part of this new forum for discussing the ever-changing and sometimes contentious scene of transportation issues here in San Antonio and Texas. I’m especially proud of the other contributors to this blog: Patrick Driscoll, former transportation issues writer for the Express-News and instigator of this endeavour, and Hugh Hemphill, curator of the Texas Transportation Museum. Both bring their unique expertise and experience to this blog.