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By James McCandless - Reporter, San Antonio Business Journal
A project that seeks to redesign a section of a major thoroughfare in Alamo Heights is moving forward.
The upscale enclave's city council voted Monday to hire Florida-based WGI as the civil engineering firm for a public infrastructure improvement on Broadway. Last year, the city announced it would upgrade the Broadway and Ogden Lane intersection and hired landscape architecture firm TBG Partners to oversee the design. A similar effort is eyed for the Alamo Heights Pool area, but WGI's hiring does not appear to apply to that portion of the initiative.
The city estimates the Broadway portion of the project to cost between $1.37 million and $1.54 million. Upgrades to landscaping, traffic signage, pedestrian and biking infrastructure, and lighting are planned. Alamo Heights is sending the construction contract out for bids in August or September, though a start date hasn't been defined yet.
City Manager Buddy Kuhn said in a 2024 interview that the Broadway and Ogden Lane corridor creates safety issues for the shopping centers and elementary school patrons in the area. "It's kind of a funky-shaped intersection there with a right turn and some stuff that creates a lot of confusion," he said. "And there's really not a crosswalk in that area that's safe."
Samantha Whitney, TBG principal, and co-director of the firm's urban design and planning, said last year that green space and walkability will be a priority. "There's no downtown square for Alamo Heights, but there are specifically, along the Broadway corridor, several nodes and this is a big one," she said. "It's really about creating that sense of place and making it for the pedestrian. I would say it's that planting palette, it's the additional trees, it's the safer crossings."
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