Transportation officials are getting ready to gather public input on the major project near Brooks.
SAN ANTONIO — Every day thousands of people end up stuck in long waits in traffic near Interstate 37 and Southeast Military Drive.
The intersection, near the Brooks development, is close to schools, apartments, shops, restaurants, entertainment venues and more.
“Over the last 10 to 12 years, every time we’ve had a town hall meeting, the No. 1 concern we’ve heard from the residents is the accumulation of congestion,” said Brooks CEO Leo Gomez, adding that, at long last, residents now have a chance to learn about a huge new change and provide input on the plan sure to bring growing pains.
“As we know with this kind of project and its magnitude,” Gomez said, “there’s going to be some pain during construction. But at the end of the day, it’s really going to help relieve the congestion that folks have been concerned about here for quite some time.”
He said the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) project has many attractive features, but his favorite element is that many drivers will be able to completely bypass Military Drive.
“One of the things that I am delighted about is that this project is going to bring us a flyover that’s going to create a frontage road along 37, between Goliad Road and the highway, and that will create an eastern entrance onto the Brooks campus so that you don’t have to go through the traffic light or intersection at Goliad and Military Drive,” Gomez said. “This interchange is going be incredible.”
In addition to the flyover, the plan calls for a feature they call a “diverging diamond intersection” that will funnel traffic along Military Drive much more efficiently.
“If anybody wants to see what it’s going to look like, come to the TxDOT meeting and if you actually want to drive through one, go to the one at Bandera Road and Loop 1604,” Gomez said. “That’s the kind of traffic that’s being accumulated here and we’re going to be seeing (it) at Brooks. Thankfully, TxDOT is beginning to address this proactively.”
Nearby business owner Jim Burke said he’s been advocating for these changes for about a decade. He’s happy to see real progress being made.
“This project is going to completely open up the east side of Brooks,” Burke said.
According to Burke, when Brooks Air Force Base was established in the area decades ago, their primary focus was the security of the defense missions there. But now that the property is being developed, greater public access is an immediate need.
“Today it’s got a major bottleneck at SE Military Drive with very, very congested traffic,” Burke said. “This (the ramp from I-37) will now connect to City Base Landing, which is the main throughfare that goes from Southeast Military Drive around to really nowhere. We’re very excited about this project!”
Burke calls the enhancements a game changer for a very important economic generator.
“Today, Brooks has tens of thousands of vehicles that go in and out of the mixed-use project every day,” he said. “It’s got schools, colleges, thousands of residents that live there. It’s estimated to have over a billion dollars in economic impact each year on the surrounding community in the city of San Antonio. This project will create a direct connection with Interstate 37, which has well over 100,000 cars a day going down it, so I’m happy that we’re finally about to get it going.”
Background information released by TxDOT indicates the project carries a price tag of $40 million that aims to reduce congestion and enhance safety along approximately two miles of the I-37 corridor.
There will also be shared use paths and a southbound frontage road and auxiliary main lane.
The TxDOT Open House is taking place Thursday from 5-7 p.m. at the Embassy Suites by Hilton at 7610 South New Braunfels.
For anyone who can’t make it to the in-person event, they say a virtual open house will be available from 5 p.m. Thursday through Sept. 12. Information on that resource is available here.