After two months of weekend closures, work on Hwy. 290 mainlane widening between West Little York Road and FM 529—including at the Beltway 8 interchange—is nearing completion. This segment of the highway expansion project is otherwise known as Project G. The entire Hwy. 290 expansion project is being funded and carried out by the Texas Department of Transportation. “I know there have been a lot of headaches and frustrations dealing with weekend closures [at Beltway 8], but they did finish the work on their mainlane widening,” said Karen Othon, TxDOT’s public information officer with the Hwy. 290 project. “Project G should be done by end of the year.” Drivers saw some relief when TxDOT officials opened new collector-distributor lanes and reopened the outbound exit ramp to Senate Road this summer. The collector-distributors are intended to help traffic access and exit Hwy. 290 mainlanes by eliminating the need to merge, Othon said. Work on Project G is roughly 85 percent complete, officials said. The remaining work mainly involves noise abatement. Over the next few months, crews will install a quiet pavement texture using a grinding and grooving process, Othon said. “We did the same thing at the [Loop] 610 and [Hwy.] 290 interchange, and it’s already been completed there,” she said. “What they do is they grind the surface and place longitudinal lines to decrease tire and pavement noise.” TxDOT officials hope to start work on the noise abatement element next week when nightly closures are expected to begin. The nightly closures will last roughly 2.5 months, Othon said. “Once they get that done, that will be pretty much it with Project G,” she said. Othon noted that, even though the widened mainlanes will be completed, TxDOT cannot open them to drivers yet. Having drivers go from the new widened segment back to a segment that has not been widened yet would cause bottlenecks, she said. Although some portions of Hwy. 290 are expected to be finished in 2017, the entire Hwy. 290 widening project is expected to be completed in 2018, Othon said. TxDOT is working with contractors to determine specific timelines for each piece. Learn more about Hwy. 290 at www.my290.com.