GET READY FOR MORE MOPAC RAMP CLOSURES
Southbound lanes and ramps for W. 35th, Westover to be closed.
Here comes another difficult weekend on North MoPac Boulevard’s southbound side. But it likely won’t be as bad as last weekend’s 55-hour closure of two full lanes.
The southbound exits and entrances for West 35th Street and Westover Road will be closed all weekend, from 10 p.m. Friday to 5 a.m. Monday, along with the right-most “auxiliary” lane and the regular lane next to it between 35th and Westover.
And overnight Saturday, from 8 p.m. to 10 a.m. Sunday, and overnight Sunday, from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. Monday, the middle of three southbound travel lanes will also be closed from 35th to Westover. The closures are primarily for pavement work.
The upshot: Forget about using 35th or Westover to access southbound MoPac all weekend; Friday night and during the days over the weekend there will be just two southbound lanes available through that short stretch, rather than the normal four, creating something of a bottleneck; and overnight Saturday and Sunday there will be just one lane open through that interval of just over half a mile.
Northbound MoPac will not see
any unusual daytime or evening closures this weekend.
Other weekend lane or ramp closures will be necessary as the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority and its contractor push to bring the 4-year-old MoPac toll lane project to a close in the early fall, said Steve Pustelnyk, a spokesman for the mobility authority, which is overseeing the project.
But the agency, he said, is cognizant of the upcoming University of Texas home football games Sept. 2 and Sept. 9, and it will accommodate the heavier traffic generated by those events.