On June 3, San Marcos City Council directed staff to pursue a construction timeline at the intersection of North LBJ Drive and Sessom Drive that could force the closure of part of Sessom for one month. The city is currently in the process of reconstructing North LBJ from Sessom Drive to Holland Street. The $6.5 million project includes adding shared bicycle lanes, improving sidewalks, constructing new mains for sewage, water and wastewater and constructing new crosswalks at the intersection of Sessom Drive and North LBJ. On June 3 City Council was faced with the option of completing the intersection improvements in four phases, as originally planned, or in two phases. Under the four-phase plan, the project would be completed in late spring 2015 and traffic would be shifted to whichever side of the road is not undergoing construction. Under the two-phase option, which would require closing a portion of Sessom Drive, the intersection work would be completed by Aug. 15. Shaun Condor, the city engineer in charge of the project, said if the northeast corner of the intersection, which is currently under construction, is completed by mid-July, city staff recommends the two-phase project. "If [the northeast corner of North LBJ and Sessom Drive] is not completed by mid-July, we would recommend proceeding with the four-phase [project] because we do not want that [section of Sessom Drive] shut down when school starts back," Condor said. Condor said proceeding with the two-phase plan would allow the city to take advantage of the lower student population in an area that is largely populated with Texas State students. "Whenever we're doing any type of road construction, especially when it's near the university, the comment of 'why can't this be done when there are fewer students in town?,' that always seems to come up," Mayor Daniel Guerrero said. If the two-phase timeline is enacted, drivers heading west on Sessom Drive would be diverted onto North LBJ, where they could turn onto Holland Street then onto Academy Drive, where they could re-enter the west side of Sessom Drive. Drivers coming from areas west of the closure, such as Comanche Street, looking to go east on Sessom Drive would be diverted through downtown to CM Allen Parkway and on to the portion of Sessom Drive east of the closure. Condor said the city's detour signs will try to direct traffic away from residential areas. Condor said council can also expect a change order in the future to adjust the budget of the project by $250,000 to account for additional costs from sanitary sewers and colored stamped crosswalks that were added after the project was initially approved.