HOUSTON – The Texas Department of Transportation shut down a highly used entrance ramp for inbound traffic in League City earlier this year. This long-term closure is not expected to open until March of next year.
According to TxDOT, this closure was put in place to help crews speed up their roadwork. All the construction work is between League City down to Galveston Island.
“We have six projects along the Gulf Freeway Corridor that go all the way down to the Galveston causeway,” Danny Perez with TxDOT said. “It’s a major undertake to have that many projects going at one time but we want to continue that progress.”
The first project covers the lanes between NASA Road 1 to FM-518. Once the work is done, the highway will expand to 10 lanes total.
Right now, drivers cannot use the entrance ramp to the inbound main lanes of the Gulf Freeway at FM-518.
“The distance between FM-518 and NASA Road 1 is very short, and TxDOT needed to squeeze in an entrance and exit ramp and work over Clear Creek, which is the reason why this new entrance ramp will be so tall, and eventually the exit ramp will travel underneath, which allows for both actions alleviating traffic jams in a short distance,” Perez explained.
TxDOT suggests that drivers remain on the Frontage Road until you reach the ramp near SH-96 to enter the inbound main lanes.
This section of work should wrap up by early 2022.
The entire work on the Gulf Freeway in Galveston County is expected to wrap up by 2025.