Car dealers operating along Waco’s “Motor Mile” may have suffered recurring nightmares about the “mall-to-mall” highway construction along West Loop 340 that began November 2021.
Waco Hyundai general manager Matt Murrey remembers when a fully loaded cement truck overturned in the dealership’s driveway.
“It’s been a mess,” Murrey said, adding that he also has seen diverted traffic breezing past his dealership, going too fast to navigate turns into his parking lot. Two or three fender-benders have occurred, fortunately without injuries, just frayed nerves.
But soon awaits the day Murrey, his car-selling colleagues and other businesses can exhale. The Texas Department of Transportation on Thursday said April 20 remains the target date for completing the $54 million upgrade along State Highway 6/West Loop 340. The work zone lies between Richland Mall and Central Texas Marketplace, thus the mall-to-mall nickname.
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Crews have added frontage roads where none existed, improved or modified those needing attention, placed bridges over roadways and railways, and tweaked entrances and exits. The goal was creating smoother traffic flow in a thriving area where industrial and commercial land uses merge.
Eastbound and westbound main lanes are now open, and frontage roads in each direction are getting close to completion, said TxDOT spokesman Jake Smith in a news release and email responses to questions.
“Mall-to-Mall is close to substantial completion,” Smith stated. “Currently, all main lanes, ramps and frontage road lanes are in their final configuration. There are some punch list items outstanding, such as U-turn work, overhead signage installation, and landscaping. All the work described is scheduled to to complete by the end of April, weather permitting.”
New frontage road overpasses span the railroad tracks at Loop 340.
Smith said TxDOT has not scheduled a ceremony marking completion.
TxDOT Waco Area Engineer Clayton Zacha presented a mall-to-mall update to the Metropolitan Planning Organization policy board on Thursday. He said during an interview most work remaining involves “minor tie-ins on frontage roads and U-turns.” He described the undertaking as right on schedule.
Zacha said TxDOT began the project knowing it would produce stress for car dealerships and other businesses operating along Loop 340/Highway 6, between Bagby Avenue and U.S. Highway 84. He said the TxDOT mobility coordinator informed interested parties of progress and traffic switches.
“This has involved a lot of knocking on doors,” said Zacha.
A benefit of the finished product, he said, is traffic can travel between I-35 and Highway 84 without using State Highway 6’s main lanes. Frontage roads, once sporadic, now will carry motorists all the way.
Zacha said traffic merging onto westbound State Highway 6 from Bagby Avenue no longer will face speeding, weaving traffic while quickly exiting Highway 6 bound for Highway 84.
Waco TxDOT District Engineer Stan Swiatek praised Zacha and his Waco team for meeting schedules despite obstacles.
“The biggest challenge involved the (Union Pacific) railroad,” said Swiatek. “We need its permission to use right-of-way, and it granted us the necessary permit. But a fiber-optic company that also secured right-of-way began work that crept into our right-of-way. We would be drilling right through it. We discovered the problem after the construction contract was signed.
“The railroad said the fiber-optic company was not encroaching on our right-of-way, and we had to show them that indeed it was. We had two to three weeks of intense negotiations,” said Swiatek in an interview.
“It could have slowed us down, but it didn’t,” he added.
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