Motorists traveling Texas 46 West this week should expect delays as crews install rumble strips along a stretch of roadway that local officials have identified as one of the area's most dangerous corridors.
“Please expect delays, and take an alternate route, if possible,” Kendall County Precinct 1 Commissioner Jennifer McCall said.
McCall issued the warning during a June 9 Kendall County Commissioners Court meeting.
The Texas Department of Transportation began work Monday on the 11mile section of Texas 46 West between Interstate 10 in Boerne and Texas 16 in Bandera. Crews are installing rumble strips designed to reduce head-on collisions and wrong-way crashes.
According to state records, the corridor has seen 550 crashes and 13 fatalities over the past decade. More than half of those deaths resulted from head-on or opposite-direction collisions. Forty-three crashes involved wrongside- of-road or illegal-passing violations, resulting in seven deaths and 14 serious injuries.
“We have had horrific incidents on that roadway, and I want timelines adhered to. We want (Tx-DOT) publicly talking about what they are going to do,” McCall said during an April commissioners meeting.
Robert Madrigal, Tx-DOT area engineer for the Kerrville field office, said work started near the Spencer Ranch subdivision intersection on the Boerne end of the highway.
Crews are operating within a 2-mile work zone, reducing traffic to a single lane.
“Traffic control will be a one-lane two-way traffic control operation with a pilot car,” Madrigal said.
Flaggers stop traffic on one side of the work zone while a pilot car escorts motorists through the construction area. Once vehicles clear the work zone, traffic resumes in two lanes before the pilot car returns to escort traffic from the opposite direction.
The work zone is expected to move westward as installation progresses along the corridor. Work is scheduled to continue through Thursday, June 18, beginning each day at 8:30 a.m.
“We encourage drivers to drive safely through the work zone and look for alternate routes, if possible,” Madrigal said.
The rumble-strip project is one of several safety improvements local officials have sought for the heavily traveled roadway, which serves as a key route between Kendall and Bandera counties. County leaders have repeatedly pressed TxDOT to address the number of serious crashes and fatalities along the corridor.
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