1604 Between Bandara and Culebra FINALLY gonna open!!!!!

[bsofa04]

TXDOT panning to open northbound lanes tomorrow at about 11 AM...
Faster Loop 1604 lanes to open Thursday morning - San Antonio Express-News

[Clnconcpts]

Wasn't open. Looks to be opening soon though

[Paka]

It is now open!

[01Snake]

Was over there about 1:30 as I had to go to Alama Ranch. Was still closed on my way to AR but on my way back, they literally moved the barricades as I was approaching the on-ramp and a cop waived us on. Felt good passing the mile of cars still backed up on the access road.

[Paka]

I drove it after 2pm and it was OPEN!

[TexHwyMan]

Originally Posted by Paka

GREAT news for all of us that live/have to travel this section...after ALL this time they are finally ready to open up! South bound initially, and the North bound in the next 2-3 weeks! THANK YOU!!!!!

These lanes were opened several months ahead of the initial projected schedule, which had them opening about the time school started in the fall. It was even about a month ahead of the last projection I saw earlier this year, which was to have them open around the time school was letting out.

Originally Posted by Deep Forest

Local/Govt entities are myopic and the situation has to be near out of control before they act. It's not like all these people just showed up one day....no foresightedness at all.

Originally Posted by Bo

That's not accurate. It was a conscious decision by our state government to create these highway traffic pain points.

Under the Perry administration, the state was trying to make new highway projects like this into toll roads. Unlike other Texas cities, San Antonio dug in its heels against toll roads and was made to suffer for its stubbornness by getting its highway projects pushed down the priority list.

Neither is true. TxDOT, COSA, and the county all have lots of plans for roads sitting on the shelf because funding is unavailable for them (more on that below.) Here's a map of projects from the MPO: blue projects are expected to be funded between now and 2040 (yes, that's not a typo); red project are UNFUNDED, i.e. they don't even expect to get funding for them by 2040 based on current funding levels from the various sources (local, state, and federal.) (This map is about a year old, so some projects may have changed, but you get the idea.)



And that's just projects that have been submitted to the MPO for funding. Those agencies have dozens of other projects that aren't even in that pipeline because they're not to the point of being needed yet. The example I always like to point to is that TxDOT already has done the plans to upgrade SH 211 to a freeway someday, and it's not even complete yet as a two-lane road between Potranco and Culebra! So you can't say they don't plan for the future.

As for San Antonio being penalized for not building toll roads, that's also not true. This area received about the same percentage of state funding during the toll road boom (and continues to today) as it got before.

Originally Posted by The Right Side_TX

The roads are already paid for by those who drive on them. Why do you think gasoline is taxed?

Originally Posted by Clnconcpts

Where does our registration money and gas taxes go to? With all the folks here, there should be enough money to fund proper fwy construction. Not sure, but isn't part of our property taxes suppose to go to help pay for things in the city ?

The gas tax in Texas has not been increased since 1991, so we're all paying 1991 dollars for roads that cost 2016 dollars. According to the Consumer Price Index inflation calculator, something that cost $1M in 1991 costs $1.75M today. And during the mid to late aughts, highway construction costs actually were increasing substantially faster than the CPI.

Here's an analogy: imagine you were trying to support your family today making what someone in your position made in 1991 and, on top of that, the cost of food went up 50% more over that time than it actually has.

Furthermore, vehicles today get vastly better fuel mileage than they did in 1991, so they're paying less gas taxes per mile.

Over the past couple of sessions, the legislature has improved things by eliminating the non-transportation diversions from the Highway Fund (the biggest of which was funding DPS) and by dedicating some other revenue streams to transportation, but the underlying gas tax funding problems still exist, so those are just band-aids. It's only a matter of time before the situation gets critical again.

Originally Posted by bsofa04

According to the website below, the northbound lanes are tentatively scheduled to open on 5/12.

The San Antonio Area Freeway System - Project Info: Loop 1604 from Bandera to Culebra

That's a fantastic website. :-)

[Shock]

good to see you around
i imagine by 2040 there will be widespread autonomous cars, buses and hopefully other methods of transportation. wonder how much of an impact that will have on traffic patterns

[TexHwyMan]

Originally Posted by Shock

good to see you around
i imagine by 2040 there will be widespread autonomous cars, buses and hopefully other methods of transportation. wonder how much of an impact that will have on traffic patterns

Thanks!

Time will tell. In the same vein, there could be a shock in oil prices tomorrow that changes traffic patterns dramatically.