SAN ANTONIO – After nearly a year-long closure, construction crews will finally begin the process of reopening the Brooklyn Avenue and McCullough Avenue exit on southbound Interstate 35 near downtown.
A TxDOT spokesperson said that crews will demolish the ramp starting Monday and begin to reconstruct the ramp to alleviate traffic in downtown San Antonio.
“The demolition activities will start next week, Monday, June 3. It will take place during the day, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and the demolition is expected to last two weeks,” TxDOT spokesperson Jennifer Serold said. “After that demolition period, crews will begin the reconstruction of the ramp and that is going to take a few months. We anticipate the ramp opening back up by the end of the year, hopefully, sometime in the fall.”
The exit closed after it was damaged by a fire in June 2023. The fire damaged the structure and integrity of the ramp, and TxDOT officials deemed it unsafe for drivers.
The demolition of the ramp will not require explosives. Crews will use saws to cut through the structure and columns holding up the ramp. Serold said that TxDOT does not anticipate any major closures while the initial work is being done.
“There are no major closures anticipated for the demolition. The only thing that will be closed is the frontage road area around the ramp,” Serold said. “It’s about 2-3 blocks on that frontage road of southbound I-35. But there will be no main lane closures. The demolition will take place outside of the main lanes.”
Serold added TxDOT did mitigation and studies on the remaining ramps around downtown to prevent a similar type of incident from happening again. That included enclosures around downtown ramps. This ramp will have those measures in place.
“We are excited to get this ramp built again, and safe for the public to use,” Serold said.
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