By RICK KELLEY
Staff Writer
SAN BENITO — A $300,000 project to repave one of the city’s busiest thoroughfares will mean night-time lane closures on Sam Houston Boulevard, TxDOT and city officials say.
The asphalt overlay is currently being laid between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. and the work will continue through Friday night.
Tuesday morning shows an asphalt overlay has been put down on Sam Houston from U.S. Business 77 all the way to City Hall, a stretch of about two-tenths of a mile. All four lanes of the street will be resurfaced from U.S. Business 77 to Interstate 69E/U.S. 77/83, city officials said.
“They’ve been working on the side street entrances to Sam Houston for the last two or three weeks,” the city’s public relations director, Martha McClain, said yesterday.
Working at night is sometimes a better option for cities when the road work is occurring on a heavily used street like Sam Houston.
“They don’t have to worry so much about heavy traffic during the daytime, which increases the safety for their workers and the motorists themselves don’t have to worry about work crews being there when they’re getting to work in the mornings,” McClain added.
While Sam Houston isn’t the city’s highest traffic-count roadway — that’s U.S. Business 77 — it still is a very busy street.
“Sam Houston is pretty steady with traffic there, too,” she said.
Funding for the project is being provided by TxDOT since Sam Houston also is known as State Highway 345.
TxDOT recently completed a sealcoat treatment on the adjoining northern portion of North Sam Houston north of U.S. Business 77 at a cost of about $219,000.
You need to know
WHAT — Lane closures on Sam Houston Boulevard, San Benito
WHEN — Through Friday
WHERE — From U.S. Business 77 to Interstate 69E/U.S. 77
TIME — Work scheduled from 8 p.m. until 6 a.m. each day
