With more than 100,000 visitors soon expected in downtown San Antonio for the 2025 NCAA Men’s Final Four tournament, the City of San Antonio is hitting pause on the South Alamo construction project but will resume overhauling the road following the mega sports event.
To “keep downtown safe and accessible for visitors and residents during the event, South Alamo will remain open for a single southbound lane,” the city said in an emailed statement this week. “The city is working to temporarily widen sidewalks along the corridor to ensure pedestrian safety and access at an estimated cost of about $800,000.”
The temporary paving will later be demolished to complete the project, confirmed Nick Olivier, spokesman for the city’s public works department. Olivier said less than half of the corridor was paved because of the Final Four, adding that the rest of the temporary paving was done previously to accommodate the single lane of car traffic that’s been in place since March 2024.
“This type of temporary asphalt paving is commonly done to provide vehicular access to businesses,” he told the San Antonio Report in an email. “When underground work is complete and the South Alamo project is closer to completion, the entire corridor will be repaved with concrete and brick pavers.”
Initiated as part of the 2017 bond program, the South Alamo project aims to overhaul a stretch of Alamo Street from Market Street to Cesar E. Chavez Boulevard. The revitalization includes improvements to sidewalks and drainage, along with significant upgrades to utility lines.
To date, the project has already cost about $48 million , but it has been plagued by delays.
A significant point of contention rose last year between the City of San Antonio and the San Antonio Water System regarding responsibilities for old water and sewer mains. These mains, which have been in place for over 100 years, were slated for replacement as part of this reconstruction effort, but the city and SAWS found themselves in a deadlock last year over which entity would bear the financial burden of replacing them.
Due to the hard deadline to clean up the streets before the Final Four, however, it was decided that the project would be completed only partially. The original plan to replace both the water and sewer mains was abandoned in favor of patching the sewer line while leaving the aging water main intact.
SAWS Vice President of Communications and External Affairs Gavino Ramos confirmed the public utility and the city are considering replacing the mains when the temporary roads are torn up before the final pavement goes in, stating “those are some of the options we are looking into with the city.”
In August, SAWS chief operating officer Andrea Beymer noted this example was part of a larger problem, acknowledging that there probably should be clearer guidelines for all parties on joint construction work moving forward.
“As we look at certain projects, particularly in the downtown area, identifying those that we need to do more subsurface investigation work,” will be important, she said at the time.
In response to these ongoing issues, Councilwoman Sukh Kaur (D1) filed a council consideration request for a review of the city’s construction processes. The request included a proposal to revise the way responsibility for identifying underground infrastructure is assigned before a project begins.
In an effort to streamline future projects and avoid similar problems, the city and SAWS signed a new agreement in January that will govern how the agencies work together on joint construction efforts going forward.
This agreement, which covers projects funded by the city’s $1.2 billion 2022-2027 bond, outlines a framework for cooperation between the city and SAWS, requiring the city to notify SAWS “promptly” in writing when underground utility location and identification work is needed, with SAWS assuming responsibility for the associated costs.
Additionally, the agreement specifies that each party will cover the costs of redesigning their respective infrastructure when required before construction, and they will not be held responsible for costs that could have been avoided through better coordination before the design phase reached 40% completion.
It also introduces specific guidelines for handling “high-risk” projects, such as those located in sensitive business districts like St. Mary’s Street or Broadway, or those that could disrupt major events like the Hemisfair redevelopment or the NCAA Final Four. In these cases, a designated “project director” from both the city and SAWS will be responsible for making informed decisions and ensuring better collaboration between the parties.
In recent years, the city has allocated nearly $60 million in aid to support small businesses affected by the pandemic and construction projects tied to bond funding. With additional resources in this year’s budget to address these ongoing challenges, the city’s Economic Development Department has crafted a plan to distribute $1.4 million in support throughout and following the construction process.
