PHARR — Drivers on the Pharr Interchange traveling east toward Harlingen will be rerouted beginning Tuesday night as construction to expand the interchange continues.
“The contractor working on the I-2/I-69C Interchange Project plans to close the existing ‘Edinburg to Harlingen’ direct connector and temporarily shift traffic onto the left lane of the new ‘Edinburg to McAllen’ connector,” the Texas Department of Transportation said in a news release last week.
That means drivers will have to head west before heading east to their destinations.
“With the new change, ‘Edinburg to Harlingen’ commuters will access the ‘Edinburg to McAllen’ connector on a dedicated lane toward McAllen, loop around at the Sugar Road underpass, and then merge onto eastbound I-2,” TxDOT officials said. The traffic shift is expected to be in place for approximately 8 months as construction crews remove the original single-lane connectors to Harlingen and McAllen and replace the Harlingen connector.
There will be continuous movement on the new route and no traffic signals will be in place, officials said.
Substantial completion of the $303 million dollar I-2/I-69C Interchange Project is expected in late 2023.
Once completed, the interchange connectors will each accommodate two lanes of traffic and Interstate 2 will widen to 8 lanes, between Second Street in McAllen and Stewart Road in San Juan.
