Today, the 3.4-mile stretch of Hausman Road connecting Loop 1604 to Interstate 10 is four lanes wide and has large sidewalks and bike lanes.

It’s a shining example, as local leaders noted Monday, of why voters should approve the 2017 bond program in May.

The $73.5 million finished project, with its five bridges spanning dangerous low-water crossings, stands in stark contrast to what used to be there three years ago: a curbless, meandering two-lane road on the south side of the University of Texas at San Antonio that wasn’t conducive to the massive traffic loads in the bustling Northwest Side corridor.

“Demographers project that in the next three decades, our population in San Antonio will double,” District 8 Councilman Ron Nirenberg said. “The Texas State Data Center says that we’re adding about 100 cars a day to the roadways, and by 2040, commute times are estimated to increase an average of 75 percent across the city.”

Addressing such challenges, he said, is done by completing projects like Hausman Road.

Mayor Ivy Taylor, who attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony with City Manager Sheryl Sculley and former District 8 Councilman Reed Williams, said the Hausman project was originally estimated to take some 15 years.

But Williams dedicated his district’s 2012 bond allocation to the project, Taylor and Sculley said, and insisted that the city use leftover funds from the 2007 bond program to fully design the project so it would be ready for construction after the 2012 bond was approved.

For his part, Williams said he bucked tradition when he honed in on the need for the project years ago.

“There’s always been a tendency to spread the political salve around every little wound, you know?” he said to laughter from the audience. “We had a sucking chest wound right here, OK? We weren’t going to stub your toe or something — if we didn’t solve this, we were going to be gummed up for hundreds of years.”

The jovial former councilman continued, saying that when city staffers pitched the project to him, it was originally envisioned as a three-phase project.

“I said, ‘Let me add it up. OK, that’s about 15 years — I’ll be dead!’ It ain’t gonna happen!”

Williams said the point to his tale is that leaders have to triage the biggest problems their community faces, make decisions and stick with them.

“You’ve got to solve the big ones first, or you can’t grow,” Williams said. “And if you can’t grow you’re going to go into decline.”

The project, which also includes a connection to the Leon Creek Greenway and 19 new parking spaces at the trailhead, pooled funds from several sources: $43.5 million from the 2012 bond, $15.8 million from Bexar County, $7.7 million from the San Antonio Water System, $3.9 million from CPS Energy, $1.7 million in savings from the 2007 bond, and $1.3 million from the city’s Parks and Recreation Department, according to city documents.

Sculley noted that the project was completed on time and on budget.

“Here we are at the end of that 2012 bond program, opening and dedicating this bond project,” she said. “I ask you to keep that in mind as you think about the 2017 bond program, because as it’s been said, we’re in deliberations about that, and we’re committed to make sure we complete these projects well.”