The San Antonio City Council is estimating up to $250 million in infrastructure upgrades to support a new sports district in downtown—Project Marvel.
Project Marvel—a multi billion project to transform the downtown streetscape with a new Spurs arena, improvements to the Alamodome, a renovated event center and a convention center hotel–would require extensive infrastructure modifications to accommodate new developments.
The up-to-$250 million investment would cover 20 infrastructure projects, focusing on roadway transportation. To finance these initiatives, the City Council would have to ask voters to sign off on an infrastructure bond in November. The city must call a bond election by Aug. 18. A housing bond and a neighborhood improvements bond are also potential elections to be called.
Major system improvements funded through the investment would include transportation updates to the Cesar Chavez corridor. These improvements would provide dedicated infrastructure to protect and accommodate pedestrians, cyclists and transit users without reducing vehicular capacity. The city also plans to create a Single-point urban interchange (SPUI) to better control traffic and pedestrian mobility, accelerating traffic flow by 60%.
Interstate Highway 37 is slated for multiple improvements, including the construction of a pedestrian bridge across the roadway. A 2,500-space parking garage will also be built nearby with a direct connection to the interstate. Additional related improvements will include building an onramp, lane modification to increase capacity and implementing intersection improvements with turn lanes, signal timing, signal installation and signal removal.
The city plans to make a series of improvements to multiple nearby streets. These include reconfiguring Hoefgen Avenue into a frontage road, realigning ramps with the Hoefgen, implementing noise mitigation measures along Cherry, Montana and Houston streets and building 3,500 parking spaces near the Alamodome.
Parking and accessibility are key components that may be included in the bond election. To better accommodate local accessibility and mobility, underutilized parking areas near the Alamo and La Villita will be better leveraged to promote walkability within 10 to 15 minutes of the center. Other pitched concepts include creating accessible rideshare lots and buying a marshaling yard for truck parking and queuing around the Convention Center and Alamodome.
Rendering Courtesy the San Antonio Sport and Entertainment District