San Antonio’s South Alamo construction project, pictured above, wrapped up Wednesday morning. Credit: Michael Karlis

City officials and at least one downtown business owner are calling San Antonio’s South Alamo Street construction debacle a learning experience after the project wrapped up Wednesday … 18 months behind schedule.

“There were a lot of lessons learned,” Michael Shannon, director of the City of San Antonio’s Capital Delivery Department, told the Current.

City officials are now more aware of the challenges in dealing with aging downtown infrastructure and will be better prepared for them in future projects, Shannon added.

The South Alamo construction, completed just in time for Fiesta, includes major upgrades to the area around Hemisfair, including numerous pedestrian crosswalks, more trees and an oversized bike lane.

However, the costs were high — for both taxpayers and area small businesses.

For one, the project ran $10 million over budget. That total includes nearly $1 million in city funds spent to temporarily pave over the road in preparation for the 2025 NCAA Men’s Final Four — only to rip up again.

Construction also hampered foot traffic and cut off access to restaurants and other businesses in the area. Künstler Brewing shuttered is Hemisfair satellite last fall because of construction snarls, and multiple business owners told the Current the lack of access bit into their sales.

“Sidewalks were closed for multiple years. Any traffic from hotels and conventions was never really able to get to us because it was an absolute obstacle course,” Blush Restaurant and Bakery owner Efren Moreno said. “The hope now, with everything wide open and the street looking the way it does, is that people are more enticed to come down.”

Shannon, a longtime city official who’s been in his current role for less than a year, told the Current that the delays largely stemmed from unforeseen utility work. He said South Alamo served as learning opportunity for the department in that regard.

“Downtown infrastructure is old, not just decades old, but sometimes a century old,” Shannon said. “So, there are things we need to do better. We need to do more investigative work to figure out what’s underground and make sure that’s accurate so we don’t have to redesign things.”

Better communication ahead?

Shannon also said the department and city leaders must do a better job of communicating with small-business owners about project timelines and be more meticulous about holding contractors accountable for delays.​

While much of the damage from the South Alamo delay is already done, District 1 Councilwoman Sukh Kaur said her office worked with small-business owners to mitigate the worst of the effects.

“What we did in the last six to seven months is exactly what we need to do moving forward, and that’s having good leadership in place that is holding our contractors accountable,” Kaur said.​

Even so, Kaur deflected when asked to clarify how her office plans to hold contractors responsible for future project delays.

Shannon said no major downtown construction projects are anticipated in the immediate future — that is, until infrastructure improvements get underway for the proposed minor-league baseball stadium development and Spurs basketball arena coming to the center city.

Those major projects could demonstrate just how much the city has learned from its experience with South Alamo.

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Michael Karlis is a multimedia journalist at the San Antonio Current, whose coverage in print and on social media focuses on local and state politics. He is a graduate of American University in Washington,...