CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The city of Corpus Christi is under construction, it seems every road you take is undergoing some type of work. From Airline to Ayers and even down Ocean Drive. 3News spoke with the city about these projects and they say the finish line isn’t too far.
AIRLINE ROAD:
Construction on Airline Road has almost neared completion, however some items still need to be addressed.
The project was from South Padre Island Drive to McArdle, and started earlier this year and was completed last Friday.
According to Assistant Director of Engineering Services Brett Vanhazel, bus routes are ready to resume to start picking up residents.
“It's all concrete road and we've got new bus pads and new coverings so RTA is ready to get back out there and start picking up the public again,” Vanhazel said.
However, Vanhazel adds that the completion of the project was far from inexpensive.
“But the projects are complete, it was a little over 3 million dollars for the total job," Vanhazel said.
Additionally, Vanhazel said that there might be some occasional lane closures to accommodate the clean up work. However, it will not stop traffic from being able to go north and south bound.
OCEAN DRIVE:
Ocean Drive is another site around the city under construction and it’s been going on for quite some time.
"Is a very big project both emotionally and financially,” said Vanhazel.
“Had we constructed the project as originally planned it would have caused us more impact to both the local residents and the traveling public, so we sequenced it in such a way to allow the most benefit to them.”
Vanhazel says although the historical roadway is taking a bit longer, they’re almost to the finish line.
“So, we’re currently 80% complete with the section from Ennis Joslin Road up to Airline Road and the contractor is currently working on the southbound lanes from Louisiana Avenue to Airline Road,” said Vanhazel.
Although improvements have been made, there’s still work to be done.
“They’re about to start milling about 4 inches of the roadway off on that section. It’ll take them a couple of months to complete that,” said Vanhazel.
“Then once they complete that they’ll put on the final roadway surface on the southbound lanes from Louisiana to Airline and jump over to the northbound lanes from Airline to Louisiana and put the final service down.”
The work is expected to be done by March of 2022.
AYERS:
Ayers like Ocean Drive is expected to be completed by March of 2022.
“Ayers is currently in its second phase and the public can travel down Ayers from Gollihar heading southbound towards SPID access road and it will remain that way for about 4 to 5 more months,” said Vanhazel.
Vanhazel says they're ahead of their original schedule.
“They’ve already finished all the utility work, the main utility work, some minor items that need to be finished up, but currency they’re on target to complete March of 2022,” said Vanhazel.
“At that time, they’ll open up the north and southbound lanes for traffic.”
ADDITIONAL PROJECTS:
The next upcoming project the city will be working on is a new concrete roadway project along Callicoatte Road from I37 to River Road.
“It’s not a very long stretch of roadway, but it is a very heavily traveled roadway, so we are looking to have a lot of traffic in that area,” said Sr. Public Information Officer- Engineering Services Melanie Lowry.
Lowry says the city is planning to have additional signage along the roadway, and they say it should be a short project.
“That’s the next upcoming project that we’re working on. It’s a new concrete roadway construction project," said Lowry.
For the status on other projects around the city, click here.
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