Shavano Park City Council met June 26 to get a briefing on an ongoing project affecting Northwest Military Highway and planned improvements to De Zavala Road.

Representatives for the Texas Department of Transportation’s improvement effort on Northwest Military between Loop 1604 and Huebner Road said that project is 78% complete and on schedule.

According to TxDOT’s project representatives, recent work that had been focused on the southern half of Northwest Military will soon shift to the northern half.

Project representatives said, if all goes well, work crews on Northwest Military will enter a fourth and final phase of activity around the start of 2024 and put finishing touches to improvements along the corridor in February 2024.

City Manager Bill Hill said the effort to add a center-turn lane, sidewalks, bicycle lanes and other upgrades to Shavano Park’s stretch of Northwest Military has been years in the making.

“We’re looking to wrap it up,” Hill said.

Council also got an update on Shavano Park’s plan to improve its portion of De Zavala where the city is using its voter-approved 2022 bond to leverage about $4 million in federal money to support those upgrades.

Chris Otto, an executive with the local office of Colliers Engineering & Design, the city’s consulting engineering firm, said AT&T recently uncovered an existing utility duct bank along De Zavala as part of preplanning work for that corridor.

According to Otto, AT&T utility representatives said the utility duct bank will not have to be rerouted as part of a planned initiative to slightly lower a segment of De Zavala in order to resolve motorists’ sight distance issues.

Hill said it will take time for the city to address requirements tied to the federal funds. Otto said it is likely the De Zavala project will not start until after construction contractors have finished their work with the Northwest Military project or the city’s newly launched bond-funded improvements.