An unusually rainy fall, relocation of municipal water and sewer lines and a few minor mistakes have put the widening of Interstate 35 between Hewitt and Robinson six to eight months behind schedule, according to the Texas Department of Transportation, which is overseeing the work.

The 3.4-mile, $88 million project will make I-35 six lanes from Sun Valley Boulevard in Hewitt to the U.S. Highway 6 interchange and include converting the frontage roads along the highway from one-way to two-way and building two flyover bridges. One of the bridges will cross the interstate at the Waco Memorial Cemetery entrance.

The other flyover, which is partially constructed, eventually will allow northbound I-35 drivers to get directly onto U.S. Highway 6 heading west. Though currently unfinished, Texas Department of Transportation engineer Jacob Bell said, the bridge is the last piece of the widening, and the contractor, Houston-based W.W. Webber, is actually ahead of schedule on it.

“It appears it’s dragging on, but actually they jumped out early on it,” Bell said.

He said the project is scheduled to be complete by the summer of 2012. The work is part of a 94-mile, $1.5 billion expansion of I-35 between the Bell/Williamson County line and Hillsboro.

Rain has slowed the widening, and the contractor also had to move Waco Metropolitan Area Regional Sewer System sewer and water lines, which Bell said was not factored into the original time-table.

But with almost no rain so far this month and a sunny week ahead according to projections, Bell said the pace of the project, which is moving ahead in three phases, has been brisk of late.

The first phase — redoing the frontage roads — will take between six months and a year, depending on weather conditions. Construction of I-35’s southbound lanes is expected to take a year.

Rebuilding the northbound lanes is also set to take a year. In the meantime, construction workers have worked on the Highway 6 flyover when time has allowed.

mshapiro@wacotrib.com

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