Major Construction Begins in Northwest LBK
By: Julie Musgrave
Updated: September 30, 2009
Travel through Northwest Lubbock is going to get tricky as crews get ready to shut down parts of the Loop and 4th Street.
TxDot officials began shutting down a portion of the Northwest Loop near the 4th Street exit around 10 o'clock Wednesday night. It's expected to remain shutdown for the next 15 months.
If you're heading either direction on the Loop starting Thursday morning, there will be a temporary off-ramp onto the frontage road.
TxDot tells us they've tried to make it so you won't have to stop, and should ease traffic. This is all part of a project that's intended to open up congestion in this Northwest area. It will also widen the loop a few lanes.
TxDot says if they hadn't closed down the 4th Street exit it would've taken longer to finish. They say this is where there's a lot of new housing going up, new businesses, so they're hoping to get it done quickly and efficiently. But they do realize, it's going to take some getting used to by Lubbock drivers.
Bryan Wilson, Texas Department of Transportation: "I just ask the traveling public to be a little patient here, we're not trying to do this to inconvenience anybody, but I think in the long run, we're going to have a lot more capacity on 4th Street, the Loop, and also you'll have another way to get outside the loop."
Again, this project is estimated to take about 15 months, but there is an incentive for the contractor of $8,000 dollars a day to finish early, so we could see this area finished before then.
