One of the largest highway projects in Texas is entering the stretch that consumes the most material. TxDOT’s I-35 Northeast Expansion Central project in San Antonio, a $1.5 billion design-build covering 9.5 miles, is roughly a year from completion. For civil and paving contractors working that corridor, the last year of a project like this is not a wind-down. It is when base, subgrade, shoulders and paving come fastest, on a schedule tied to published lane openings. That concentrates material demand in a defined area over a defined window, and it is worth positioning for now.
The first year of a highway job is structures. The last year is rock.
Alamo NEX Construction, a joint venture of Ferrovial Construction and Webber, is about a year from completing TxDOT’s I-35 Northeast Expansion Central project (Source: Construction Equipment Guide, August 18, 2026). The $1.5 billion design-build, part of the Texas Clear Lanes initiative, runs 9.5 miles from I-410 North to FM 3009 through northeast San Antonio, Live Oak, Selma and Schertz, and includes elevated managed lanes, eight bridges, and reconstruction and widening of Loop 1604 general-purpose lanes.
Understanding the sequence tells you when the material moves. Early corridor work is excavation, drainage and structures. The closing phase is subgrade preparation, flexible base, shoulders and paving, plus the frontage and tie-in work that follows. That is the phase where truckloads arrive fastest and the schedule is least forgiving, because lane openings are committed dates rather than targets.
TxDOT’s $1.5 billion I-35 Northeast Expansion Central project, covering 9.5 miles through northeast San Antonio, is roughly a year from completion.
Source: Construction Equipment Guide, August 18, 2026
There is a second-order effect worth noting. A corridor job of this size pulls local base and haul capacity toward it. Contractors working unrelated jobs nearby can find their usual sources busier and their usual trucks committed, which is a scheduling problem even if you never bid the corridor itself.
If you work the northeast San Antonio corridor or the Loop 1604 tie-ins, map which pits can serve it and what the delivered cost is from each. With diesel at a record, haul distance on a corridor job is not a detail, it is the number. Confirm delivered pricing before you are bidding against a paving date.
Central Texas corridor work is not slowing, and the finish-out of one large project tends to overlap the ramp-up of the next. Knowing your sourcing options in a corridor before the schedule tightens is what separates the contractors who hold their dates from the ones who chase them. Here is how flexible base is specified on Texas roadwork.
The last year of a highway job is when the rock shows up all at once.
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