SAN ANTONIO – After a nearly five-year battle, the Federal Highway Administration finally ended the San Antonio City Council’s efforts to add an eastbound entrance ramp onto Highway 90 from South Presa Street.
The ramp was part of the city’s 2012-2017 bond, leaving the city with nearly $3 million in bond money. On Thursday, the City Council approved a plan to spend the bond money on other improvements in the South Presa area, focusing on three Highway 90 underpasses.
“We're looking still to meet the goals of what the Presa ramps wanted to do and that was to provide connectivity, to provide pedestrian,” District 3 Councilwoman Rebecca Viagran said. “Underneath the expressway, it's dark and we need to just enhance that, so we're going to have a World Heritage mural project under there, but we also need it to be a gathering place where people can go and walk and you feel invited to come under through there.
In addition to beautifying the underpasses and making them more accessible, Viagran spoke of plans to improve sidewalks and curbs along a 4-mile stretch of South Presa from Highway 90 to Southeast Military Drive. The plan could also add bike lanes.
“We are going to make it more inviting to really have Presa become more of a gateway,” she said. “We’re working with local organizations to really try to capture the authenticity and the character of the neighborhoods.”
The council must still bring the plan before the Alamo Area Metropolitan Planning Organization to receive matching funds. An additional $3 million in bond money was also moved to a project on South Zarzamora Street along the Union Pacific rail lines in District 5.
