"It feels a little less chaotic now compared to when the cones were there. It just felt like mayhem."
Kayla McConnell grew up on the North Side. She told KSAT this in late August about the new interchange at Loop 1604 and Blanco Road, which she said felt confusing the first time she drove it. Three weeks later, crews started on the southern edge of the same neighborhood. The Texas Department of Transportation began a $156 million rebuild of Loop 410 around San Pedro Avenue, North Star Mall and San Antonio International Airport.
That puts major work at both ends of the Blanco Road commute within a few weeks of each other. The Loop 410 plan is mostly about where you get on and off. Several entrances that Castle Hills and North Star Mall drivers have used for years are slated for removal. The new connections are mostly at different cross streets, and more of the turning moves happen on the frontage road. Anyone who drives this corridor out of habit will have to learn a new route.
Blanco and 1604 is already finished
The diverging diamond interchange at Loop 1604 and Blanco opened on Saturday, Aug. 22, 2026. The design briefly moves drivers to the opposite side of the road and then returns them to the normal side, so it can feel like driving on the wrong side. A North Side homeowner named Sharaf told KSAT that the confusion nearly caused a crash. McConnell said there is good signage, and that drivers now get through the intersection faster than before.
The interchange is part of Segment 3 of the Loop 1604 North Expansion. That segment began in fall 2021, has an estimated cost of $279 million, and a TxDOT spokesperson told KSAT it should be finished by the end of 2026. The north end of the commute is close to its final shape. The south end will be under construction for years.
Loop 410's plan starts by closing familiar entrances
The Loop 410 San Pedro Improvements project covers 4.3 miles of Loop 410, from West Avenue to Broadway. It also covers 2.7 miles of US 281, from Loop 410 to East Nakoma. Webber LLC is the contractor. TxDOT expects to finish by 2029 and says all dates are subject to change. In total, TxDOT describes seven ramps being removed or replaced.
Here are the planned changes as the Express-News laid them out from TxDOT's materials in August.
| Where | What goes away | What replaces it |
|---|---|---|
| West Avenue | Eastbound Loop 410 entrance from West Ave; westbound exit to West Ave | New ramps at Honeysuckle Lane |
| Blanco Road | Nothing removed | New eastbound exit and new eastbound entrance at Blanco |
| San Pedro Avenue | Eastbound entrance from San Pedro; current eastbound exit | New elevated eastbound exit that passes under NW Military and over Blanco |
| McCullough Avenue | Entrance from McCullough to westbound Loop 410 | One added frontage-road lane each way between McCullough and Jones Maltsberger |
| US 281 at Jones Maltsberger | Northbound US 281 entrance ramp | None at this spot |
| US 281 at Nakoma and San Pedro | Existing Nakoma entrance and San Pedro exit, both rebuilt | New southbound ramp between Nakoma and San Pedro; two-lane southbound exit to San Pedro; auxiliary lane from Nakoma to Isom |
For Midtown drivers, the left column is the part to study. Some of those ramps have been around long enough to feel permanent. None of them have been removed yet. Every change in the table is still a plan, and the first months of work are temporary lane shifts.
Castle Hills' main access point moves to Honeysuckle and Blanco
For Castle Hills, the biggest change is at West Avenue. Today, drivers headed east on Loop 410 can enter at West Avenue. Under the plan, that entrance and the westbound exit to West Avenue both go away, and the new connections are at Honeysuckle Lane. TxDOT's project graphic shows an eastbound exit and a westbound entrance at Honeysuckle. It also shows a braided westbound entrance from Blanco that passes over the rebuilt Honeysuckle exit. The Express-News described Honeysuckle as getting exit ramps from both directions. The two descriptions don't fully match, so check TxDOT's project page for the version currently being built before you plan around it.
The new eastbound entrance at Blanco will also matter for Castle Hills. When West Avenue's eastbound entrance closes, Blanco becomes one of the named places to get onto eastbound Loop 410 nearby. On NW Military Highway, the ramp from southbound NW Military to the westbound frontage road will be realigned for better sightlines. The eastbound frontage road intersection there becomes a Continuous Green-T.
Put together, a drive that used to be one turn onto a ramp at West Avenue becomes a short stretch on the frontage road to a different cross street.
The frontage road handles more of the work
The same thing happens farther east. At San Pedro, the eastbound entrance is removed. The intersection is rebuilt with three left-turn lanes from the eastbound frontage road onto northbound San Pedro, and two right-turn lanes without traffic signals from southbound San Pedro onto the westbound frontage road. Instead of more ramps, the plan gives this intersection more lanes and fewer signal stops.
McCullough works the same way. Its westbound entrance goes away. TxDOT spokesperson Jennifer Serold told KSAT that once the project is finished, drivers coming from McCullough will be able to get onto Loop 410, turn right immediately onto the access road, and use a turnaround to head west toward North Star Mall. She said that could mean fewer traffic lights and stops for some drivers. The added frontage-road lane in each direction between McCullough and Jones Maltsberger supports that design.
On US 281, the northbound entrance at Jones Maltsberger is removed. In its earlier public-meeting response, TxDOT said drivers can still enter northbound US 281 from Jones Maltsberger Road north of Isom Road. For trips that start near the airport, that likely means going through the Jones Maltsberger and Isom signals before reaching the highway.
TxDOT's case for the redesign is a comparison. It projects that westbound Loop 410 evening peak travel times will fall about 70% once the project is done. Without the project, it projects those times rising more than 50% as traffic grows. Serold described this stretch as one of the most congested corridors in San Antonio and said congestion is expected to keep growing over the next 10 to 20 years without improvements. In other words, TxDOT expects fewer ramp merges and more frontage-road capacity to move traffic faster than the current layout can.
What the first year of construction looks like
Construction starts on the stretch between West Avenue and San Pedro. Serold said crews will likely stay there for several months and possibly close to a year. TxDOT says most lane closures will be overnight, 9 p.m. to 5 a.m., Sunday through Thursday. KENS 5 reported that the first traffic shifts would move lanes left or right without removing any lanes.
The September schedule showed the pattern. In the first week, both frontage roads narrowed to one lane overnight between West Avenue and San Pedro. Next came alternating overnight closures of mainlanes and ramps in both directions from Sept. 20 to 25, then westbound closures from Sept. 27 to Oct. 2. Those windows have ended. Expect new ones to follow in a similar way, with specific ramps posted ahead of time.
A few things will stay the same throughout the project:
- Speed. The work-zone limit drops from 55 mph to 45 mph.
- Shopping. TxDOT says access to North Star Mall, Best Buy and other nearby businesses will remain open throughout construction.
- Airport trips. Officials told KSAT they do not expect the project to affect airport travelers. TxDOT does say routes to and from the airport may change as ramps are rebuilt or moved.
- Driveways. Access to homes and businesses along the corridor will be kept open whenever possible, and driveway access will be handled as needed.
TxDOT posts closures and traffic changes at txdot.gov/Loop410SanPedro, and you can subscribe there for notices. If you regularly get on at West Avenue, San Pedro or McCullough, subscribing is the easiest way to see the next overnight closure before it affects your drive.
When the Blanco interchange opened, McConnell said it helped to "follow the lanes." The same applies at Loop 410, where many of those lanes will be on the frontage road. For a broader look at how this part of town fits together, see our guide to Midtown Inside 1604.
Road projects that run until 2029 come up in real conversations about selling or buying a home: which streets will connect to which ramps, and how long a commute will stay under construction. The Abrahams Real Estate TIES Team keeps track of these corridor changes for clients in Castle Hills, Shavano Park and the Medical Center area. If you'd like to talk about how the Loop 410 work affects your home's position, book a consultation or request a free home valuation.
