SAN ANTONIO – A project to make improvements along a major East Side roadway is causing growing pains for some people in the area.
The City of San Antonio is overseeing the project, which, among other things, involves adding and upgrading sidewalks and improving drainage along a stretch of North New Braunfels Avenue between East Houston Street and Paso Hondo Street.
In some areas, medians are also being installed along the busy street. The current work has been labeled Phase 2 of the project.
Phase 1 stretched along North New Braunfels Avenue just north of that area from Burleson Street to East Houston. That phase wrapped up in 2023.
“Oh God, I mean we had just finished over here, and now here,” said Betty Hullaby, who lives one block over on North Polaris Street. “They don’t finish. It goes on and on.”
To Hullaby, the line between Phase 1 and Phase 2 seems to be blurred, as if it is just one never-ending construction project.
While this current work is being done, she said her normally quiet neighborhood street has become more of a thoroughfare.
North Polaris Street is being used as a detour for drivers, who she said take the narrow street way too fast.
“These cars. They don’t stop,” Hullaby said, pointing to a passing car. “The stop signs are there. Everybody’s in a hurry.”
For others along North New Braunfels Avenue, slow customer traffic is a greater issue.
Roger Vargas, general manager of Rodriguez Point S Tire & Auto, said he has noticed a drop in business since the road work began.
“There’s other shops in the area they can go to in lieu of, you know, having to go through a maze,” he said. “We’ve been fortunate to stay afloat, but it has impacted business.”
Vargas said loyal customers have helped the car shop keep going. However, he said another business across the street, which is owned by the same family, has been hit much harder.
At one point, Vargas said, construction crews closed off both of the main driveways to La Coronela restaurant, blocking potential customers from driving in for a bite to eat.
“Only their repeat customers that knew (there was another entrance), knew how to get in,” Vargas said. “But other than that, it was a ghost town.”
The road work is scheduled to end early next year.
“I hope they finish soon because this is maddening,” said Hullaby.
Although the goal of the project may be a better future, Hullaby can’t wait to put it all in the past.
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