Loop 610 to close at night for next 2 weekends

The near-total rebuild of the interchange includes expanding ramps to two lanes

Road work along Loop 610 won’t ruin weekend traffic on the West Loop entirely for the next 10 days. It will just ruin it at night.

Citing progress in building the new ramps for the Loop 610 and Interstate 69 interchange, state transportation officials have revised planned closings of Loop 610 at the freeway crossing to keep lanes open during the daytime.

Starting at 9 p.m. Friday, all lanes of Loop 610 will close until 5 a.m. Saturday, according to the Texas Department of Transportation. The nighttime closings will repeat Saturday and Sunday.

The following weekend, officials said the same 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. closings will occur.

“They worked aggressively and they were able to get the work done,” said Danny Perez, a spokesman for TxDOT in Houston.

During the past two weekends — when the entire Loop was closed through the interchange — Perez said workers hoisted 1.5 million pounds of steel beams into place.

The work is part of a near-total rebuild of the interchange, including the main lanes of Loop 610. When completed in 2023, the project will make all of the ramps between the freeways two lanes and removes the conflict of entrance and exit ramps at many spots along the Loop.

Williams Brothers Construction, the local firm that won the $259 million job from TxDOT, has incentives built into its contract if it finishes on time or opens some closed areas sooner. Conversely, it can be penalized for late work if the delay is blamed on the company.

Though the company does not win an incentive for avoiding the upcoming daytime work, Perez said finishing the beam hanging will allow Williams Brothers to move ahead in other places.

“Anything we can knock out, get it done and get it back open is something we want to do,” he said.