San Antonio Area Freeway System
History of the Loop
410/US 281 Interchange |
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This page last updated November 18, 2017 |
On the morning of
June 9th, 2008, the final two ramps in the new $154.7 million,
fully-directional interchange at US 281 and Loop 410 next to San Antonio
International Airport opened, marking the end of an era in San Antonio's
freeway history.
Prior to the interchange's construction,
motorists wanting to go from Loop 410 to US 281 or vice-versa were left
to navigate overburdened surface street and access road connections. This intersection
was often
cited as the only place in Texas where two major urban freeways crossed without
direct connections between them. As a result, traffic frequently queued on Airport Blvd. and the westbound 410 access
road as drivers negotiated their way between the freeways. Only one of the turns
required no interaction with a traffic signal; all of the remaining directions
required motorists to pass through at least one signalized intersection. While
many people simply blamed this traffic nightmare on poor planning, the real story,
as is often the case,
is not that simple. When planning for the North Expressway (US 281) was going on in the late '50s
and early '60s, there were heated debates and lawsuits over the route that the new freeway
should take. After evaluating several routes including San Pedro, McCullough, and Broadway,
a 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 was allowed to start while the controversial middle section was re-evaluated and re-litigated. Opponents
of the route eventually won a federal ruling halting construction on
the grounds that the freeway violated a then-new federal rule
prohibiting freeways from crossing parklands. At this point, the
project appeared dead. At the time, the City of San Antonio, which had
been charged with obtaining the right-of-way for the project, was in
the midst of acquiring land for a planned 410/281 interchange. Since
the freeway now seemed doomed, the city had no choice but to abandon
the right-of-way acquisition. As a result, new buildings
sprang-up at the interchange site almost overnight. A few years later,
Congress passed a law that allowed the city and state to build the
freeway without federal funding. But by this time, the cost of the land
for an interchange had become prohibitively expensive and so the
interchange was scrapped. (For more information on the history of 281,
see my US 281 North page.)

Proposed
US 281/Loop 410 interchange
This conceptual diagram, from the 1964 San Antonio expressway plan, shows that an
interchange
at Loop 410 and US 281 next to the
airport was indeed considered.
Initially,
traffic volumes were low enough to allow relatively easy access between
the freeways using access roads and adjacent surface streets. By
the late '80s, however, traffic volumes began to severely overload this
arrangement. To fix the problem, TxDOT began design work on a
four-level interchange. Several preparatory projects in the
vicinity were undertaken in the mid and late '90s including the
widening 410 between McCullough and Jones-Maltsberger and the placement
of most of the future ramp pylon foundations and 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. The project was originally scheduled to be built
in five phases over ten years. However, new funding mechanisms from the
legislature allowed the phases to be combined, saving a considerable
amount of time and money. That consolidated project-- the largest
single highway construction project ever awarded in San Antonio-- was
then projected to take five years to build, but the contractor promised
to build it in just over three years. Work continued almost non-stop,
24 hours a day, seven days a week and the first ramp to be completed,
from 281 southbound to 410 westbound, opened to traffic on the
afternoon of June 18th, 2007. Several additional ramps opened in the
months thereafter and the final two ramps, from both directions of US
281 to eastbound Loop 410, opened less than a year later on the morning
of June 9th, 2008, marking the the end of the storied non-interchange.
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