New San Pedro and 410 (Bowie, Bandera: to buy, lawsuit, mall)

[ChrisSA_wxatUIW]

Anyone seen/driven on the new San Pedro and 410 intersection??? It's amazing, it's soooooooo much better than before and it's so nice now! It's still not entirely done, but it's a trip now seeing it with the nice new road and the traffic lights and such. Real state of the art

[Bowie]

It is nice to have a direct connection now, but the height of those flyovers gives me the willies if I look at my surroundings while I drive on them. I wish the city and state had just done better planning in the first place by setting aside right-of-ways to allow a more conventional interchange to be built.

[Corvette327]

Don't get too used to it....it's just a matter of time and they'll be ripping it up again to rebuild it for another 10 years.

[SA Greed]

If you take the fly over going north, you still miss Izom and your first street is Nakoma so it really only diverted traffic away from San Pedro. I will be working on Reunion St so I would still need to take I think the Jones Maltzburger exit.

[heimerswt]

I think people are confusing the new San Pedro Ave/410 intersection with the new 281/410 interchange.

This thread is about the intersection of San Pedro/410 by Northstar Mall, Isom, Lockhill-Selma, etc. Correct? I went through it last week some time, and it looked almost done...but all of the new stuff was still closed off. Have the roads opened up, and have working traffic signals already?

[ChrisSA_wxatUIW]

Yeah San Pedro, the street, and 410, the freeway. I think he was talking about 281/410 also.

And no I don't think they'll ever be "ripping it up again to rebuild it for another 10 years".
The reason they changed it now is because 1) cloverleafs suck and 2) that used to be the means of "interchanging" from 410 eastbound to 281 northbound, and 281 southbound to 410 westbound, before they began constructing the new 281/410 direct ramp interchange.

Now, San Pedro can be a normal surface street with a nice new intersection without having to bear 410 and 281 traffic on a cloverleaf

[Bowie]

Originally Posted by heimerswt

I think people are confusing the new San Pedro Ave/410 intersection with the new 281/410 interchange.

You're correct, at least in my case.

This thread is about the intersection of San Pedro/410 by Northstar Mall, Isom, Lockhill-Selma, etc. Correct? I went through it last week some time, and it looked almost done...but all of the new stuff was still closed off. Have the roads opened up, and have working traffic signals already?

I went through the San Pedro/410 interchange today from the north during the noon hour and found lane closures aplenty. It took me almost half an hour to get from Ramsey Ave. to North Star Mall on San Pedro. It looked like the northbound traffic was moving OK, but going southbound was a nightmare.

[smitty12]

Originally Posted by Bowie

You're correct, at least in my case.

I went through the San Pedro/410 interchange today from the north during the noon hour and found lane closures aplenty. It took me almost half an hour to get from Ramsey Ave. to North Star Mall on San Pedro. It looked like the northbound traffic was moving OK, but going southbound was a nightmare.

They are demoing the last remnants of the outside ramps of the cloverleaf which were used until very recently. Once that is done, and curbs put in place it will be finished and all lanes opened. Considering the blinding speed that Mccarthy crew has done most of work, I can't imagine that taking more than a couple of more weeks.

[TexHwyMan]

Originally Posted by Bowie

It is nice to have a direct connection now, but the height of those flyovers gives me the willies if I look at my surroundings while I drive on them. I wish the city and state had just done better planning in the first place by setting aside right-of-ways to allow a more conventional interchange to be built.

A "more conventional interchange" would have been outdated by now and would have had to be replaced with what is now being built. Remember, there used to be a "conventional" interchange at 10/410, which has now been replaced with a stack.

In any case, the lack of an interchange at 281/410, or the ROW for one, wasn't a matter of bad planning, it was the result of the lawsuit that stalled 281 for years (sound familiar?) Because it looked like the entire freeway would be killed, the City decided to abandon purchasing ROW for the planned 281/410 interchange. After all, they figured why spend the money to buy land for something that, at that time, looked like it wouldn't be needed. By the time the freeway was eventually built, most of the land had been developed and was deemed too expensive to purchase, especially given that the rather light traffic volumes at that time could make due with alternate connections. You can read the whole sordid story on the US 281 page on my website.

[ChrisSA_wxatUIW]

why are people so uptight about expanding 281?? is it because it's a US highway and not an interstate? Could you imagine if US90 was still a surface street and not a freeway?? It would be like BANDERA ROAD or something