Closure to snarl traffic on Loop 610

Houston may have dodged a hurricane, but not everything will be calm in the coming days as work along Loop 610 in Uptown will close southbound lanes and likely spill backups onto nearby freeways.

Southbound lanes will close at 9 p.m. Friday from north of Interstate 10 to Post Oak Boulevard, according to Texas Department of Transportation officials. Along with main lanes, the ramps from U.S. 290 and Interstate 10 in both directions to southbound Loop 610 will close. The lanes and ramps will reopen by 5 a.m. Monday, officials said. Along with the southbound closure, two lanes of

northbound Loop 610 will be closed from Post Oak to Woodway.

Combined, the closures are expected to create delays along the Loop in both directions and at major freeway intersections around the area as traffic detours. TxDOT officials recommend motorists travel through downtown via Interstates 10 and 69 to approach Loop 610 and Uptown from the south during the closure.

Drivers Thursday morning were mixed in their reactions to the loss of the freeway. Sheri Collins, who said she uses the Loop practically on a daily basis, said she will plan ahead, calling the closure “no big deal for a few days.”

Walter Leighton, meanwhile, said he was sick of orange cones.

“Enough already,” he

said, waiting on his coffee at a Starbucks at Westheimer and Post Oak. “Every single day it is something closed, something blocked off … it’s like living in a war zone.”

The closures are needed so crews can hang beams for a busway that’s under construction along Loop 610. The two-lane busway — part of bringing bus rapid transit to the Uptown area, mostly along Post Oak — ascends from the street into the center of Loop 610 before swinging to the west side of the freeway and then into Metropolitan Transit Agency’s Northwest Transit Center.

The weekend closure is just the beginning of a disruptive few days of construction. On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday crews will close the southbound lanes at Post Oak between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. Traffic will be forced off at the Post Oak exit, where drivers can continue on the frontage road and re-enter

the southbound freeway past Post Oak, said Emily Black, spokeswoman for TxDOT in Houston.

After Wednesday, crews will take a break for a couple days and then do it all over again. The total closure will resume July 19 to 22, followed by nightly closures from July 22 to 24.

As with most road work in the Houston area, the construction and timing of closures is heavily dependent on weather. With rain a possibility in the region this weekend, officials still are assessing plans, having once canceled the work prior to the Independence Day holiday.

Black said rain would not stop the work, but the threat of lightning would, as hanging the beams requires cranes at risk of a lightning strike. If weather is favorable, however, Black said that could lead to earlier reopenings.