Construction begins on Loop 1604 upgrade

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SAN ANTONIO — Construction started Monday to transform almost five miles of Loop 1604 on the far Northwest Side, the fastest-growing sector of Bexar County, into a controlled-access highway by building overpasses and access roads between Bandera and Culebra roads.

The $82 million project is funded by the city, the county and the state, including some money that the Texas Department of Transportation found in savings on projects that came in under budget in 2012, spokesman Josh Donat said. This is the first local project boosted by TxDOT's so-called “couch cushion funds,” which totaled about $650 million.

Overpasses will be built at Braun, New Guilbeau and Schaenfield roads, and continuous frontage roads will be added along the same stretch.

The Loop 1604 project is being designed as it is built, said state Rep. José Menéndez, D-San Antonio, who was among the officials at the project's groundbreaking.

Construction will last for 30 months.

The project includes a $44 million option to build an overpass at Texas 151, where work on an underpass last year was halted by the discovery of an endangered spider.

It's expected that about 300,000 people will move to the Northwest Side, outside of Loop 1604, in the next few years, Menéndez said.

“Before we do anything on the West Side, they need to give us the same level of free lanes that everybody has from Bandera Road north,” said Menéndez, who lives off of Texas 151. “It seemed, to me, unfair that the fastest-growing population didn't get a finished highway.”

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Loop 1604 between Bandera and Culebra to expand

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