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Texas Highwayman Pages > San Antonio Freeway
System > SH 151
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This page covers State
Highway (SH) 151 from US 90 to Loop 1604 in western San Antonio.
Length:
10 miles |
On this page:
Description
SH 151 provides the main
high-speed link from booming west and northwest Bexar County and serves the
exploding Westover
Hills area, which includes Sea World of Texas, the Hyatt Hill Country
Resort, World Savings, Phillips semiconductor, the National Security
Agency campus, QVC, BABN
Technologies, American Funds Group, and the Northwest Vista College, as
well as the nearby Southwest Research Institute. Several of these
facilities are currently being expanded. Residential and retail
construction is also booming in the corridor.
Inside Loop 410, nearly all of the
land fronting the corridor is undeveloped. Outside of 410, much of
the frontage is still undeveloped, but this is changing rapidly.
Roadway details
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LANES |
- 4 lanes along
entire route
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|
ACCESS ROADS |
Continuous access roads along
entire route. These access roads originally served as the
main highway before the construction of the freeway mainlanes.
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EXITS |
|
Click
here for a list of
SH 151 exits
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|
SPEED LIMITS |
- 65 mph along
entire route
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SPECIAL FEATURES &
NOTES |
- No directional
interchange at Loop 410
- The interchange at US
90 only facilitates traffic from
westbound US 90 to SH 151 and to eastbound 90 from SH 151
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TRAFFIC |
Generally light to
moderate. Traffic counts have increased rapidly over the past
decade, especially when the freeway mainlanes opened in 2004.
 |
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|
AVERAGE ANNUAL DAILY TRAFFIC |
|
LOCATION |
1990 |
1996 |
2000 |
2004 |
2005 |
2006 |
'96-'06
% CHG |
| N of US 90 |
25,000 |
27,000 |
32,000 |
41,000 |
42,000 |
43,000 |
+59% |
| E of Loop 410 |
10,200 |
11,300 |
27,000 |
22,000 |
23,000 |
24,000 |
+112% |
| E of Potranco Rd. |
16,100 |
26,000 |
23,000 |
47,000 |
46,000 |
49,000 |
+88% |
| W of Potranco Rd. |
7,300 |
17,000 |
23,000 |
35,000 |
36,000 |
37,000 |
+118% |
| E of Loop 1604 |
4,100 |
7,100 |
8,600 |
14,000 |
14,500 |
15,400 |
+117% |
Construction
projects
There are currently no major construction
projects underway.
Future plans
TxDOT had planned to build an underpass for
151 at Loop 1604 starting in Spring 2007, but it looks like that project
will be rolled into the larger interchange planned as part of the
Loop 1604 tollway project. There are
also long-term plans to build a fully-directional
interchange at Loop 410 and also to extend 151 all the way to SH 211 in far western Bexar
County, the later as part of the
tollway system. TransGuide coverage is planned for the future
as well.
History
Authorized by Minute Order 81732
(March 14, 1984). Named for Raymond Stotzer, a longtime TxDOT San
Antonio District engineer. It originally had the moniker "Westside
Expressway." When it was proposed, some maps mistakenly labeled
the route as the "Northwest Expressway." However, at the time,
I-10 northwest of downtown officially held this designation; it was
renamed the McDermott Freeway in the mid '90s.
A request for this general route
was made as early as 1956. It wasn't until the early '80s,
however, that any serious proposal surfaced. Developers of
Westover Hills, realizing that a freeway would help spur development in
the area, donated land and money to the state for freeway access roads
and lobbied officials to build a full freeway. In 1985, Sea World
announced it would build its new theme park in Westover Hills, and
officials approved construction of the 151 access roads from Loop 410 to
Loop 1604 shortly thereafter. Construction began in late 1985 and
was finished in 1987. Work on the second leg, from Loop 410 to US
90, began in late 1986 and was finished the following year. In
addition to the access roads, overpasses over the future location of the
freeway mainlanes were also built at some of the major cross streets
near Sea World. The original construction did, however, include a
directional freeway-to-freeway interchange at US 90. A signalized
two-level interchange was built at Loop 410.
In 1997, construction was
completed on the first short segment of the freeway mainlanes over
Ingram and Potranco. The freeway mainlanes and overpass at Old
Highway 90 opened in February of 1998, and the mainlane overpass at Pinn
was finished in the summer of 1998. The overpass at Callaghan and
the mainlanes from between Callaghan and Old Highway 90 were completed
in March 2001. Despite funding from TxDOT to complete the
remaining mainlanes, a study was started in early 2003 to determine the
feasibility of operating the completed 151 freeway as a tollway.
Eventually, the tollway proposal was dropped and the toll-free mainlanes
from Callaghan to Loop 410 were completed in May 2004 and from Loop 410
to Loop 1604 in September 2004. Modifications to the 151/1604
interchange were made in conjunction with the Loop 1604/Culebra overpass
project in late 2003.
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