LOS INDIOS — The hopscotch improvement of U.S. 281 or the Old Military Highway has moved to a two-mile stretch near this town along the border.
Already sections of U.S. 281 to the west have been repaved and the roadway widened.
This section of highway — at a cost of $3.9 million — is a roadway rehabilitation and widening project on a 1.65-mile stretch from FM 509 west to just past FM 1479.
“Once you have everything striped and everything ready, you can go ahead and switch traffic lanes to that side of the road,” David Vera, a TxDOT engineer, told the Harlingen-San Benito Metropolitan Planning Organization this week. “What that enables us to do is to locate the construction on the other half of the road.”
Now that traffic has been re-routed on the detour along the south side of U.S. 281, Vera said crews could actually begin breaking up the old roadway and removing it.
“At this point, you’ll see the blacktop, and once we remove the blacktop and we remove the caliche or base material underneath it, what a lot of people don’t see … is that underneath all that you have an old concrete pavement and that has to be removed as well as part of the construction plans,” Vera added.
The project, being performed by contractors Foremost Paving Inc., began in February and is about 30 percent complete, according to TxDOT.
TxDOT Projects Update
FM 106 roadway reconstruction
Location: From FM 1847 to FM 510
Cost: $15.6 million
Project Length: 11.4 miles
Contractor: Texas SAI Inc.
Work started: November 2015
Completion date: December 2017
Work finished: 71 percent
The project consists of a major overhaul of the roadway and includes several wildlife underpasses and adjacent fencing.
BSIF at Los Indios
Location: Los Indios Free Trade International Bridge
Cost: $6.9 million
Project Length: .001 miles
Contractor: Foremost Paving Inc.
Work started: February 2015
Completion date: March 2018
Work finished: 78 percent
The new border safety inspection facility will inspect trucks from Mexico entering the United States. Work on the facility has been suspended since September while TxDOT awaits a land donation from Cameron County.
U.S. 281 roadway rehabilitation and widening
Location: From FM 509 to .05 miles west of FM 1479
Cost: $3.9 million
Project Length: 1.65 miles
Contractor: Foremost Paving Inc.
Work started: February 2017
Work finished: 30 percent
Bridge rehabilitation Rio Hondo lift bridge
Location: Rio Hondo
Cost: $12.4 million
Project length: 0.117 miles
Contractor: PCL Civil Contractors Inc.
Work started: Summer 2016
Completion date: February 2018
Work finished: 86 percent
The project consists of a complete overhaul of the mechanical lift bridge over the Arroyo Colorado.
State Highway 107
Location: Combes
Cost: $3.7 million
Project length: 0.465 miles
Contractor: Foremost Paving Inc.
Work started: August 2017
Completion date: October 2018
Work finished: 16 percent
