After months of dust, torn up roads and detours at the site of the Interstate 35 and Loop 363 interchange, motorists might have begun to notice a change in landscape in the form of supports going up for the 363 “flyover,” the planned third level of the interchange.
According to John Obr, Texas Department of Transportation area engineer, Bell County, Waco District, the supports going up now are in fact the beginning stages of the overpass, which will ultimately route non-stop Loop 363 traffic over the interstate and access roads.
But the supports, which are being built along the loop on each side of the interstate, won’t be in sight long since they will eventually be behind retaining walls, which will be filled in.
“Currently Zachry Construction Co. is just about working around the clock on the project,” Obr said. “You can tell they are focusing on the west end of the bridge, which will cross over the interstate at the interchange.”
He said the retaining wall construction should be finished by the fall.
He said crews are also concrete paving the interstate where traffic will be routed once work begins excavating the area in the center of the interstate, probably around mid-July, Obr said. Plans call for the interstate to be lowered at the overpass.
“The contractor is pushing to have a large portion of the project completed by year’s end,” Obr said about the interchange.
He added, though, that the surface of Loop 363 will be asphalt, which they might have to wait until hot weather to apply.
The $69 million interchange project began in 2006.
The new interchange project is designed to uncork a traditional bottleneck in the city at the point where the loop passes over the interstate.
Stoplights currently control both the loop and I-35 access roads, resulting in loop traffic backing up.
The project will result in a three-level intersection with I-35 passing through the bottom level, the access roads at a light-controlled intersection on the second level and unimpeded Loop 363 traffic on the third level.
Farther to the east, work is progressing on the $28 million loop improvement project between Fifth and 57th streets.
With a 2009 estimated completion date, the finished product will result in four main lanes and at least three access lanes, as well as a wider 31st Street Bridge.
“We’re still working on getting the widening of 31st Street complete and we’re getting closer,” he said.
He said TxDOT is anticipating an October timeframe to bring down the existing 31st Street bridge.
“We will have traffic on the new portion of the 31st Street bridge when we bring down the old bridge,” he said.
The result will be a 176-foot-wide, 10-lane bridge spanning the loop at 31st Street. The bridge will include turn-around lanes.
He said crews are working to complete the frontage road work east of 31st Street in the area of Temple Mall and will be concentrating on the east side of the 57th Street intersection.
