Delays have pushed the project back but hazards remain along the stretch of the far-west side street.
SAN ANTONIO — A road construction nightmare on the city’s far west side has residents in several neighborhoods nearby begging for the project to be completed. This multi-year project has been plagued with delays and even one death.
People that live in the Villages of Westcreek say construction in their subdivision has been going on for over two years, bottling up traffic and creating a dangerous situation for anyone walking or driving through the area along West Military Drive.
“Kids going to school in the morning are going to run through here and there’s just so much danger it needs to get taken care of,” said Olga Utley-Rodriguez who has lived in the Villages of Westcreek since 2009.
She says the construction on West Military Drive that starts near Westcreek Oaks Drive and continues to just past Pinefore Street, needs to be finished.
“Everything here is just delay after delay after delay,” Utley-Rodriguez said.
She says not only does traffic come to a standstill in the mornings as cars crawl past closed intersections leading into neighborhoods, but the area is littered with danger like a hole at Pinefore Street and an open trench further down towards 1604.
“There’s supposed to be at least that orange netting, but it’s not enough to really protect the kids,” she said.
There is a gaping hole at the intersection of Westcreek Oaks and West Military Drive that is well over six feet deep.
“There’s just a chain link fence right here and then it’s just wide open on the other side,” Utley-Rodriguez said.
The project even plagued by the death of a construction worked unloading pipes in April of 2023. A memorial remains for 52-year-old Carlos Hernandez on the side of the road.
KENS 5 reached out to SAWS and Bexar County who told us the SAWS work on the project has been completed and in a statement the County said:
“Harper Brothers Construction will continue installation of the underground storm drain through the end of next week. Once the underground storm drain has been completed, excavation for the final roadway subgrade will begin followed by paving operations.”
When the paving is complete the roadway will be open to traffic, which they expect to be completed by the end of April.