A flyover ramp in Austin that was partially destroyed for being too steep has a new flaw: a small dip in the ramp 50 feet above ground where vehicles travel from I-35 northbound to U.S. 183 northbound.
"It feels a little bit out of place being that far up in the air and then bouncing down on the road like that," said John Powers, who uses the flyover along with thousands of other drivers on a typical weekday.
"It's safe. There's no structural issue whatsoever," Texas Department of Transportation spokesperson Bradley Wheelis said "If you're traveling at a proper speed ... there's no danger to your vehicle."
Speed limit signs haven't been posted on the flyover yet, but the prior speed limit was 45 miles per hour.
TxDOT engineers haven’t figured out the cause of the imperfection in the roadway, although they plan to investigate some theories early next year. They are considering a range of fixes, including filling the dip with asphalt. Another idea involves raising parts of the structure to eliminate the dip.
The underlying challenge, TxDOT says, is that reconstructing just part of a flyover — as opposed to starting over from scratch — leaves almost no room for error when aligning large concrete beams and pillars that weigh thousands of pounds.
"We chose this method because we knew we could get it done in a matter of a few months as opposed to a year or longer," Wheelis said. The flyover was closed from April to September, and the detour to Rundberg Lane and back was 3 miles.
TxDOT said it needed to reconstruct the ramp because the old one was too steep and slowed large trucks, causing traffic to back up onto the freeway.
A large portion of the ramp was destroyed in a pair of dramatic implosions over two weekends in May. KUT caught the first blast on video.
The flyover reconstruction is part of a $124.2 million TxDOT project along I-35 from Rundberg Lane to 290 East. Contractor J.D. Abrams added three new flyovers, reconstructed the St. John's Avenue Bridge and made other changes, some of which are still being worked on.
The project is scheduled to be completed next year.
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