Traffic impact of road construction to lessen
The construction causing delays on Ranch Road 12 in Wimberley came to a close earlier this week, but other construction projects around town will continue in less invasive manners.
Skidabrader, a pavement and surface technology company, has been using a process called shot-blasting to clean the roadway and make the pavement easier for tires to grip. They are contractors hired by the Texas Department of Transportation, which had shut down one-lane of traffic on many of the roads in Wimberley throughout the last few weeks.
“You take a steel shot and you blast it just like sand blasting,” John Michael Jiles, superintendent for Skidabrader, said. “We are not actually eating the road up. It is more like cleaning the road and taking a little bit of the surface around it so it gives you more traction with the aggregate (roadway.)” The process takes a layer off the top of the roadway to make it safer to drive on.
“Say you are coming over the hill and coming up to the red light, if it is raining. You might slide because it is slick and rear end somebody,” Jiles said. “Now you’ll have traction because the water is shedding off the road but your tires are above the road because the water is going between the aggregate.”
The company finished up work in Wimberley earlier this week.
Other construction will continue around town. At the intersection of FM 3237 and Ranch Road 12, the Wimberley Water Supply Company is moving about 1,100 feet of a six-inch water main to clear the way for a future roadway expansion that will add a turn lane at the traffic signal.
“Other than a bit of rubbernecking we are not slowing traffic much,” Wimberley Water Supply Corporation General Manager Garrett Allen said. “We have (put out cones) off the shoulder parallel to Ranch Road 12… I foresee only one delay when we close one lane of traffic… To eliminate inconvenience, that will be completed at night.”
That construction should not impact traffic over the next few months except for two nights. One night, a cut across FM 3237 will reroute traffic to Old Kyle Road for a few hours. That could occur as soon as this week. Later in the project, a cut across Ranch Road 12 will close one lane of traffic at a time. That construction will also occur at night.
Additionally, construction continues for an additional lane and traffic signal at the intersection of FM 3237 and Winters Mill. It is expected to be completed in early 2023. See last week’s Wimberley View for more details on that project.