Construction on the I-10 Frontage Road will be starting within the next few days. Ryan Stimpra with the Texas Department of Transportation was on hand at Tuesday night’s Sealy City Council Meeting to give details on how the upcoming construction would progress. A preconstruction meeting was held last Friday and the official day that the project starts will be April 19th. However, though the 19th is the beginning day don’t expect to see a lot happen for a few weeks. The beginning stages of the construction will simply be equipment being moved in and getting set up. Heavier construction won’t actually be seen until the second or even third week of the construction period. A gas line that runs under the proposed frontage road is still in the process of being relocated. City of Sealy City Manager Larry Kuciemba is in the process of getting those details worked out with the gas company. Weather will also play a factor in the length of time that the construction will take.
The first part of the project will be the widening of the I-10 overpass that goes over Highway 36 to accommodate the frontage road exit. The calculation from the Department of Transportation right now is for the project to take about 120 working days to completion. However, “working days” is not the same as calendar days. The department calculates that there are typically 15 working days in a standard month. So, it is clear to see that this project will take some time. Even if everything were to work out perfectly the project would be completed in no less than 8 months with 9 and even more being expected. The other project, the widening of Hwy 36 between Wallis and Sealy, is slated to begin very shortly as well but, shouldn’t have any impact on the frontage road project.
The video below has the entire presentation from the Department of Transportation at Tuesday night’s Sealy City Council Meeting.