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Other San
Antonio Area Roads
State
Highway 211 (Texas
Research Parkway) |
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This page
last updated November 10, 2020 |

History
Initial segment
While the concept of a
north-south highway in far western Bexar County has been around since
the late 1960s, it wasn't until the mid '80s that an actual need for
such a road materialized. In 1986, land was donated for the now-defunct
Texas
Research Park, a planned campus of biomedical research organizations
and pharmaceutical companies in far western Bexar County just off FM
1957 (Potranco Rd.) This location was accessible only by Potranco Rd.,
and
local leaders knew that to make it successful, they would need better
access. Taking their cue from the then recently-built SH 151,
where the land for the road was entirely donated, officials lined-up
donated land to build a highway from US 90 to Potranco Rd. The State
Dept. of Highways and Public
Transportation (now TxDOT) accepted the land and built the highway, SH
211. The road opened in 1990 as a two-lane rural
highway, but enough right-of-way was acquired for a future
freeway.
Second segment built, but middle
segment stalled Realizing the likely future growth of
the area, officials made plans to extend the route northward to SH 16
(Bandera Rd.) Using donated land once more, the segment from
Bandera Rd. south to FM 471 (Culebra Rd.) was
completed in 1991. However, some land owners along the proposed middle
section
between Culebra Rd. and Potranco Rd. opted not to donate their land.
Per the
agreement with the state, land for the project was required to either
be donated or purchased by Bexar and Medina counties, neither of which
had the funding to do so. And given that there
was no significant need for the route at that time, there was
no political will to provide funding. This resulted in
efforts
to acquire the right-of-way for that section to stall,
leaving the middle section unbuilt. However, that
section remained in the major thoroughfare plan to preserve
the corridor for
the route, and TxDOT periodically updated the environmental
clearances for it to keep it "shovel-ready".
Opposition to far northern
extension
Meanwhile,
more virulent
opposition emerged when the highway department announced they were
planning yet another extension of 211, this time an approximately 14
mile stretch from SH 16 north and east to
I-10 and on to FM 3351 (Ralph Fair Rd.) in far northwest Bexar County.
The owner
of property just north of SH 16 planned to donate a swath of
land
for
the road. However, this path, as well as the topography of the area,
limited the possible corridor for the highway to the north
and resulted in the preferred alignment, as well as several of
the alternatives, to run
through the
middle of an adjacent historic ranch (see map below.) The
owners of that ranch vehemently opposed the road and hired a lawyer and
an environmental firm to fight the state. A
smorgasbord of issues, ranging from endangered species to water quality
to archaeological finds, was proffered. Efforts were made by the state
at a compromise but to no
avail. Other property owners in the area along the various alternate
routes then joined in
opposing the plan. During the fracas, the owner of the property just
north of SH 16 that
was to have been donated passed-away, and the
subsequent inheritor of the property then withdrew the offer to donate
it
for the project. Given all of these factors (and the political fallout
from the publication of a clearly biased
piece in Texas
Monthly on the drama), the proposal for
that extension was shelved in 1992, and there have been no plans
to
resurrect it. However, the recently-formed Scenic
Loop-Helotes Creek Alliance has indicated it may support
revisiting a SH 211 extension, ostensibly to reduce
traffic on Scenic Loop Road.

Circa
1992 map of
possible routes for SH 211 extension
(Source:
TxDOT)
South extension
TxDOT
briefly considered an extension of the route south to I-35, but that
appears to have been short-lived. There were also preliminary
discussions of continuing the route around Camp Bullis and east to I-35
near New Braunfels, but with the tabling of the the SH 16 to I-10
segment, those plans also never progressed very far.
"Road to nowhere"
While
the first segment provided an obvious benefit in connecting the
research park to US 90, the other segment (from Culebra Rd. to Bandera
Rd.) has
often been cited by some (short-sighted) people as being a
"road to
nowhere", especially given the lack of the Culebra Rd. to Potranco Rd.
segment. The fact that much of the land was
donated caused some to believe that the road was
built to encourage development in western Bexar County. TxDOT, however,
has
always maintained that the road was built to get ahead of the growth
and preserve a corridor at minimal cost before
development encroaches, costs increase, and the need becomes acute,
thus reflecting the type of long-range planning that many citizens
say they want.
TxDOT cited the fact that when Loop 1604 was planned in the 1960s, it
was way beyond the edge of the city and many people at that time also
lambasted it as a "road to nowhere", but the wisdom of that foresight
is
quite evident today.
It's
worth noting that despite what was alleged
two decades ago, virtually no development occurred along SH
211
itself until recently. Instead, as predicted by planners, development
has marched outward
along Potranco Rd., Culebra Rd., and Bandera Rd., and SH 211 is
becoming the efficacious lateral connector it was envisioned to be.
Indeed, the need for
completing SH 211-- and the wisdom of its
existence-- is becoming acutely more evident every day as traffic
counts on 211 at Potranco have nearly doubled over the past four years,
and the count on 211 at Bandera is up 47% over that same time.

SH 211
between Culebra Rd. and Bandera Rd. (Photo by Brian Purcell)
Current construction and future plans
Culebra-Potranco segment
With growth exploding in far western Bexar County,
officials began working again in 2007 to acquire
the necessary right-of-way and funding for the missing middle segment
from Potranco Rd. to Culebra Rd., and TxDOT began the process to again
update its environmental reviews for the entire corridor both in anticipation of
constructing the middle section as well as for possible future upgrades
of the corridor to a divided highway or freeway. Due
to state highway funding limitations at the time, Bexar County and the Texas
Transportation Commission approved a
"pass-through financing" agreement in late 2009 whereby
Bexar County will build the missing segment and be reimbursed by the state over several
years.
During
planning, several karst species and habitat in the area were added to
federal endangered species protection; this required an expanded environmental study and a
realignment of portions of the route to avoid those features. That
expanded study, along with additional difficulties in obtaining right-of-way,
caused the planned start date to slip several times.
Finally, on November 10,
2020, a construction contract was awarded by Bexar County. Work
began in early 2021 and is anticpated to be complete in mid
2022.
Interchanges
An
upcoming project (2022 timeframe) to widen Culebra Rd. from Talley Rd.
to the county line will add an overpass
and interchange for SH
211. Another project on US 90
will reconfigure the interchange with SH 211 there.
(SH 211 is authorized by Minute Order 88108 [November 29, 1988]. The
order includes the section from SH 16 to I-10.)
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