This page covers the proposed South Texas Parkway in South San Antonio. Length: Approximately 15 miles

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Description and history

With the closure of Kelly AFB in 2001 and the planned redevelopment of the former base into a logistics hub, a new expressway — the Kelly Parkway — was planned to connect US 90 to SH 16 near the Toyota plant on the South Side. City planners, realizing the potential for future development of the area south of Loop 410, extended the planned route east all the way to I‑37. Several other fractured and circuitous east-west routes in the vicinity were also added to the city's thoroughfare plan.

For a variety of reasons, the Kelly Parkway has never been built. In 2025, with increasing development in the area south of Loop 410, city planners revisited the thoroughfare plan for the sector and determined a likely future need for a true high-capacity east-west route connecting I‑35 and I‑37 between Loop 410 and Loop 1604 much like Wurzbach Parkway on the North Side. To that end, they stitched together a few existing planned roadway segments with a new middle segment near the Toyota plant to create the South Texas Parkway. The eastern segment usurped the previous section of the planned Kelly Parkway east of Pleasanton Rd. and the planned Kelly Parkway route was realigned to end at Pleasanton Rd. approximately a mile north of the previous routing.

The South Texas Parkway has been designated as a freeway in the thoroughfare plan, meaning that sufficient right-of-way will be reserved for a full expressway or freeway. The City Council approved the designation in May 2025, and the Alamo Area Metropolitan Planning Organization subsequently approved adding the route to the region's long-term plan, making it eligible for eventual state and federal funding. The project is currently being spearheaded by the Alamo Regional Mobility Authority.

The exact alignment of the new route is still to be determined, but the general corridor is planned to be located approximately halfway between Loop 410 and Loop 1604. From west to east, the currently proposed corridor would start at I‑35 just north of the Medina River in Von Ormy. It would then travel east-southeast until reaching Watson Rd., where it would then follow Watson Rd. to just east of SH 16. There, it would veer east-northeast to cross Applewhite Rd. and Leon Creek. From there, it would run along Leon Creek to Pleasanton Rd., then pass south of Mitchell Lake to cross US 281 just south of the Navistar plant. From there, it would jog east to Blue Wing Rd. and follow it to I‑37.

A companion project to the South Texas Parkway is the "East/West Spur", a planned four-lane divided roadway connecting the Toyota plant on Applewhite Rd. to US 281 near the Navistar plant. This roadway was included in the package of incentives for the Toyota plant expansion and is being expedited to be completed in conjunction with the Toyota expansion. To that end, in June 2026, the San Antonio City Council approved $20 million in bonds, and Bexar County approved $40 in funding and to negotiate an agreement with TxDOT obtain state funding and to build it. The state is expected to approve its share of the funding ($40 million) in August 2026.

While the East/West Spur is officially a separate project from the South Texas Parkway, the proposed route for it is in the same corridor as the South Texas Parkway, and it seems likely that it will be incorporated into it at some point.

As of this writing, there is no funding or timeline for construction of the South Texas Parkway. The designation of the route is just the first step in a long process. Due to the length and estimated $1.5 billion cost of the route, it will almost certainly be broken into multiple segments for planning, engineering, funding, right-of-way acquisition, and construction. As that process is just getting underway, there is currently no timeline for construction. Preliminary planning is expected to last until at least 2029, with more detailed engineering likely taking another decade thereafter.

As for the East/West Spur, TxDOT expects to start construction between 2027 and 2030 depending on when engineering, utility relocation, and right-of-way acquisition is completed.