Work began on July 6th, 2005, on the $154.7 million project to build a fully-directional interchange at US 281 and Loop 410 next to San Antonio International Airport.  When completed in 2008, a massive four-level interchange will facilitate direct connections between the two freeways, replacing the overburdened surface street and access road connections currently used by about 100,000 motorists daily.  The project was originally scheduled to be built in five phases over ten years.  However, new funding mechanisms from the legislature allowed the projects to be combined, saving a considerable amount of time and money.

Initially, the new consolidated project, which will build the entire interchange at once, was projected to take five years to build, but the contractor's bid was for just over three years!  Work continues 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

In addition to the actual interchange ramps, this project is also adding additional lanes on Loop 410 and US 281, reconfiguring several surface streets, access roads and intersections, and relocating several exit and entrance ramps along both freeways.  In totality, this project will dramatically reshape traffic patterns in North-Central San Antonio.

This is the largest single highway construction project ever awarded in San Antonio and is part of the overall Loop 410 Expansion Project.

In late 2005, a contest was held to name this interchange.  "The Web" was the name selected.

Details

The map below shows the overall scope of the project.  As you can see, it extends well beyond the actual 281/410 crossing.  Click on any section of the map for a close-up engineering plan of that area.  Each of the images is over 100KB and will open in a new browser window.

Click on a map segment above to see detailed plans for that area.
(Engineering plans courtesy of TxDOT)

This will be a four-level interchange:

• Level 1 (bottom): Loop 410 mainlanes and access roads
• Level 2: US 281 mainlanes
• Level 3: Ramps from US 281 to Loop 410
• Level 4: Ramps from Loop 410 to US 281

The project will use:

• 60,000 cubic yards of concrete (enough to cover 30 football fields, 1 foot deep)
• 322,000 tons of hot mix asphalt (enough to pave 975 football fields)
• 11 million pounds of steel beams (enough to build over 3,200 cars)
• 119,695 linear feet of concrete beams, which would stretch 23 miles if placed end-to-end.  The beams for the largest bridge span are 195 feet long and weigh in excess of 45 tons each.

(Stats courtesy of TxDOT.)

Status

Major construction began on July 6th, 2005.  The project is about 86% complete (January 2007) and should be done in the 3rd quarter of 2008.

Click here for construction photos

Estimated ramp completion dates:

The Express-News has a jazzy Flash animation of the ramp opening sequence here.

Here are the completion dates for other major elements of this project:

• US 281 widening to eight lanes from Hildebrand to Jones-Maltsberger: Completed
   
• Loop 410 EB access road overpass at Wetmore: Completed
   
• New SB 281 exit to Jones-Maltsberger (Quarry): Completed
   
• US 281 widening to eight lanes from Jones-Maltsberger to Nakoma: 1Q 2008
   
• Loop 410 widening to 10 lanes: 4Q 2008

Current long-term closures

• EB Loop 410 exit to Jones-Maltsberger: Closed permanently-- use San Pedro exit.
   
• EB Loop 410 exit to Broadway/Wetmore: Closed until mid 2008-- use Airport Blvd. exit.

Project history

Any motorist who drives any appreciable amount of time on San Antonio's freeway system will eventually come upon the 410/281 non-interchange.  This intersection is often cited as the only place in Texas where two major urban freeways cross without direct connections between them.  About 300,000 vehicles a day travel through the area and traffic frequently queues on Airport Blvd. and the westbound 410 access road as drivers negotiate their way between the freeways.  Only one of the turns requires no interaction with a traffic signal.  All of the remaining directions require motorists to pass through at least one signalized intersection.  While many people simply blame this traffic nightmare on poor planning, the real story is not so simple.

When planning for the North Expressway (US 281) was going on in the late '50s and early '60s, there were heated debates over the route that the new freeway should take.  After evaluating several routes including San Pedro and Broadway, the route skirting Brackenridge Park, slipping between the Zoo and Alamo Stadium, and continuing north over the Olmos Basin was chosen.  This route also caused great protest, but construction on the northern and southern thirds of the freeway began anyway.  Opponents of the route got a federal court order halting construction on the grounds that the freeway violated a new federal rule disallowing freeways from crossing parklands and saying the freeway would cause great disturbance to the animals at the zoo.  Meanwhile, the City, which had been charged with obtaining the right-of-way for the project, was in the midst of condemning land for a planned 410/281 interchange.   The injunction stopping the freeway construction caused the City, uncertain as to the future of the project, to stop dead in its tracks as well.  The court battle dragged on for several years.  Before long, with development booming along the Loop, owners of the condemned property demanded that the City either buy the land or release it from condemnation.  At that time, the freeway looked doomed, so the City lifted the condemnation.  New buildings sprang-up at the interchange site almost overnight.  When the freeway eventually did come through several years later, the cost of the land was prohibitively expensive and the interchange was scrapped. (For more information on the history of 281, see my US 281 North page.  For a diagram of the originally proposed interchange, see the historical maps page.)

Until the mid '80s, traffic volumes were low enough to allow relatively easy access between the freeways using access roads and adjacent surface streets.  However, by the early 1990s, traffic volumes began to severely overload this arrangement.  To fix the problem, TxDOT began design work on a four-level, $124.5 million interchange.  Several preparatory projects in the vicinity were undertaken in the mid and late '90s.  These projects included the widening 410 between McCullough and Jones-Maltsberger and the placement of most of the future ramp pylon pedestals along that stretch.  The US 281 overpasses over Loop 410 were also rebuilt and a couple of strategic turnarounds added.  Additionally, a ramp from northbound US 281 directly into the airport terminal area was built.  This ramp was proposed and funded separately by the airport and the FAA and was inserted into the overall interchange construction plan by TxDOT.

After several years of uncertainty over funding, the state finally funded the entire project in late 2004.

In late 2005, a contest was held to name this interchange.  "The Web" was the name selected.

The first ramp to be completed, from 281 SB to 410 WB, opened to traffic on the afternoon of June 18th, 2007, marking the beginning of the end for this storied non-interchange.

Additional information

TxDOT press release http://www.dot.state.tx.us/sat/newsrel/028-2005.htm l

This page last updated
April 05, 2008 05:00 AM