ALAMO RANCH – The traffic headache for people living in Alamo Ranch seems to only be getting worse.
“It’s pretty frustrating,” said Mark Ramirez, who has lived in the neighborhood for the past decade.
When it’s rush hour, frustration pulsates through Alamo Ranch.
“What I don’t like about it is, it’s just it’s becoming increasingly, increasingly difficult,” said Ramirez. “It gets crazier and crazier every after 4 o’clock or 5 o’clock.”
Ramirez says around pickup and drop-off, Taft High School becomes a sore spot.
“That is really, really unreal,” he said. “That’s crazy. It’s like that every morning.”
But a big problem runs through the vein of the neighborhood — Alamo Ranch Parkway.
“You need more space, going to have more space for vehicles to run through,” said Ramirez.
It’s a circuit with an abrupt end, but there’s room to grow.
“Are there any plans to extend Alamo Ridge Parkway to connect with Tally Road?” asked KSAT reporter Daniela Ibarra.
“Yes,” answered Tony Vasquez, the division chief of operations for Bexar County Public Works. “But that’s all developer-driven. So as development occurs, the developers have to create that section of the Alamo Ranch Parkway.”
He said extending Alamo Ranch Parkway will help alleviate congestion.
The county is looking for other solutions with a traffic study launched in May.
Vasquez said the study is 80% completed.
“They’re going to be analyzing it to determine what the best solution would be and what they’re going to provide us with short-term solutions, mid-range solutions and long-term solutions,” he said.
Just down the road from Alamo Ranch Parkway is another web of problems.
“There’s not an easy way to get from 151 onto 1604,” said Gabby Mosqueda, the Director at Large of the Alamo Ranch Community Association.
“What I was told is that the reason we don’t have an under like, a way to get under here is because there’s an endangered spider,” added Jordan Wagner, the president of the Alamo Ranch Community Association.
In 2012, TXDOT said the discovery of the Bracken Bat Cave meshweaver halted work on an underpass project.
TXDOT had to switch its plans to build an overpass, which tripled the project’s price tag to $44 million.
That spider has since been removed from the endangered species list after it was misidentified, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services.
“They built that one bridge there and it just went one way,” said Ramirez.
“So now, we’re just inconvenienced with having to drive all the way down here, then turn around,” said Mosqueda.
KSAT asked TXDOT if there are any plans to put an interchange at 151 and 1604.
A spokesperson said there is not.
While Alamo Ranch’s traffic headache won’t go away anytime soon, drivers say it’s a pain they’ve learned to manage.
“It’s a growing subdivision,” said driver John Jackson. “So this is something I have to deal with.”
