Monday AM Drive: I-35 Southbound and Eastbound I-410 Reopen After the Weekend Closures

Monday's commute starts with the weekend's two biggest closures cleared. Southbound I-35's main lanes and the connector ramp between Petroleum Drive and Frost Bank Center Drive have reopened, and eastbound I-410 and its exit ramp to San Pedro Avenue near Spur 537 have reopened as well, according to closure updates stamped Monday morning. Both closures had been scheduled to clear by 5 a.m. Monday, and both did.

The I-35 closure was the first step of a scheduled traffic switch on the Northeast Side. Crews closed alternating southbound lanes — first the center and right lanes, then the center and left — along with intermittent entrance and exit ramps between Mile Markers 160 and 163, routing W.W. White Road traffic to the I-410 main lanes via the Rittiman Road turnaround and frontage-road drivers through the FM 78 and Binz-Engleman intersections while the work ran.

On I-410, the shutdown that began at 9 p.m. Friday closed the San Pedro exit ramp, two right main lanes and the left frontage-road lane so crews could demolish the Blanco Road bridge over the exit ramp. Drivers were detoured to Blanco Road or Airport Boulevard exits through the weekend; those detours are lifted with the reopening.

What has not changed is the longer work behind the weekend closures: the roughly $3 billion I-35 Northeast Expansion continues along the corridor, weekday Loop 1604 and I-10 interchange closures continue on their published schedule, and SAWS begins its Hildebrand Avenue water-main replacement today between McCullough Avenue and Devine Road. The Traffic Desk's advice for the AM drive: the freeway map is back to its normal Monday shape, but work zones remain active across the North and Northeast sides — leave the usual extra minutes in the trip.